B1G Baseball tourney
Michigan is playing now against Iowa game 1 of the BTT. 1-1 bottom 5th. Unfortunately U-M left the bases loaded at the top of the 5th. Just turned it on so can't say I know how we got to 1-1 or the prior 4 innings. On BTN or Fox Sports App/online
Go Blue!
Go Blue
meanwhile clemson is the sixth overall seed as of today.
he made a good baseball choice.
But maybe just maybe they'll FIRE BAKICH
Clemson's made almost every tournament since the mid 1970s. It was a brilliant move for him.
Clemson is coming off back-to-back seasons of missing the NCAA tournament, which is why they were looking for a new coach last June. They turned that around pretty quickly, though.
Warde Manuel destroyed the baseball and softball programs
Warde Manuel caused inflation. He's destroying our economy.
Please get some pitching for next year. Please.
Although today the offense disappeared also.
The announcers are quoting from WD's tweets
I guess there's nothing else to do when we're down 12-3 in the bottom of the eighth.
13-3
We just got mercied
I wonder if the real loss was not Bakich, but Chris Fetter. When he was around, UM had not only one of the best pitching staffs in the B1G, but in the country.
Fully agree.
Chris Fetter has done wonders piecing together a bullpen out of a bunch of cast-offs to make the Tigers relief pitching staff a real strength over the last couple seasons.
Unfortunately, though, the starters have all proven to be injury-prone and the hitting has been atrociously awful, problems that are beyond the control and scope of Fetter's job description.
Answer: yep.
Also, the collective talent just isn't there. Tommy Henry and Karl Kaufmann for the CWS team have each now pitched in the majors and Jeff Criswell is in AAA. No one on the current roster (O'Hallaran included) is getting a sniff at the majors.
Perhaps Fetter being gone affected pitching recruiting, as well.
Baseball and Softball are a HOT MESS there is NO excuse for not being able to field 2op 25 programs...Baseball was a fiasco and softball is on a downward trajectory
it's very difficult for big ten teams to field top 25 in baseball. warm weather schools have a huge advantage.
Well, I will say it’s good to see you so confidently not know what the hell you’re talking about…
Yeah; let's not worry about top 25 but it absolutely should be a goal in both sports to finish in the top 3 in the Big Ten (let's say top 4 after USC & UCLA join). That should get you at least onto the NCAA bubble in baseball and comfortably in the tournament in softball.
Baseball gets a break from me for the new guy having zero time to assemble a recruiting class, but in 2 years it would be reasonable to expect both sports to be showing an upward trajectory toward the top of the conference.
Softball should have the same break you’re giving baseball. Hutch retired really late and we lost Storako, who would have been our ace pitcher, and Widra (another valuable pitching arm that also has a competent bat) in the transfer portal. Once you factor in Beaubien running out of eligibility, this team lost 334 2/3 innings of the team’s 380 innings pitched this season.
Storako is 17-0 at Oklahoma with a 0.93 ERA this year. The ability to pair her with Derkowski and then Widra to clean up the rest of the innings would have been huge for this year’s team.
Offense was a struggle for this year’s softball team but it has been a struggle the last few years under Hutch as well. A Storako/Derkowski/Widra pitching staff and they likely make it to regionals though.
Mercifully, this season will end on Wednesday. Time for Tracy to regroup and see if we can't get some talent in here.
Considering the improvement made by Michigan's lacrosse teams, will it just become easier now for Michigan to recruit for lacrosse than for baseball and softball? Michigan's baseball and softball teams have to spend most of the first month of the season away from home.
Where I live (metropolitan NYC area), many kids and several of the better athletes have switched to lacrosse from baseball as their preferred spring sport. Some kids who might've been playing baseball in the spring for their high school teams are focusing more on playing for their AAU basketball teams and club soccer teams.
There's a song that asks whether baseball that not so long ago was known as America's Pastime is past its prime.