Baseball knocks off Purdue 7-6 in extra innings is up to 5th place in the big ten
The baseball team improved their record to 17-20-1 and 7-6 in the big ten with a dramatic 12th inning win in West Lafayette.
Snake oiling them again.
Carmen Benedetti had the game-winning hit in the 12th, a run-scoring double. He knocked in another run earlier in the game and went 3-for-6 overall. He's having a fine freshman year, now second on the team in batting with a .303 average.
Also noteworthy was the relief effort of another freshman, Brett Adcock, who got the win after going 4 innings, giving up just one hit and no runs, walking none, and striking out 6. He's now 5-2 on the season with a 2.67 ERA in 17 appearances. There's a good chance he'll be a starter for Michigan sometime down the road.
Jacob Cronenworth worked the 12th inning to pick up his Big Ten–leading 8th save of the season.
The full recap is here.
Michigan hosts Nebraska for a 3-game series next weekend (Friday 6:00, Saturday 2:00, Sunday 1:00). Michigan probably isn't quite at Nebraska's level right now, but in college baseball it's not unreasonable to hope to take a couple of games at home against a slightly better team.
1. Indiana (9-1)
2. Nebraska (7-3)
2. Illinois (7-3)
4. Penn State (5-4)
5. Michigan (7-6)
6. Michigan State (5-5)
7. Minnesota (6-7)
8. Iowa (5-8)
9. Ohio State (4-8)
10. Purdue (3-7)
11. Northwestern (3-9)
It's probably more important to get 2 more wins against Purdue this weekend, and to take care of business against Northwestern and Ohio State to finish out the season. With 8 of the last 11 games against the bottom 3, a top 4 finish is within reach for Michigan.
April 19th, 2014 at 10:05 AM ^
OSU is better than their Big Ten record indicates. Six of their eight losses were to the top two teams in the conference, and each of the losses to Nebraska was by one run. OSU's RPI is currently 80, compared to Michigan's 119 (source).
April 19th, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
Yes, I would agree that Ohio State is probably objectively better than Michigan right now. Massey's power ratings (which are probably the best objective ratings available for college baseball) have Ohio State at #68 in the nation & #3 in the B1G and Michigan at #90 in the nation and #6 in the B1G.
Michigan still gets Ohio State at home, and it's not unreasonable to hope for a series win against them, if Michigan can get the bats going a little better.
Really the Big Ten rankings are best described as: 1. Indiana [gap] 2. Nebraska [big gap] 3-6. Ohio State/Illinois/Iowa/Michigan [gap] 7-8. Michigan State/Minnesota [big gap] 9-10. Purdue/Penn State [gap] 11. Northwestern.
Between now and the end of the season, Penn State will come down in the standings, while Ohio State and Iowa will move up. Still, I think Michigan has a shot at a top 4 B1G finish if everything goes right, and they keep winning close games.
April 19th, 2014 at 10:28 AM ^
Nice win. This Coach is good.... We're going to one of the games against OSU. Watch the game, but also watch the Coach, he's good.
Recap for today's 6-2 loss to Purdue: Michigan Done In by Unearned Runs in Loss at Purdue