M baseball takes 2 of 3 from Minnesota, now alone in first in Big Ten.
The Michigan baseball team overcame a setback on Friday afternoon to win Saturday and Sunday, taking 2 of 3 from Minnesota.
On Friday, Michigan started off with a disappointing result, with #1 starter Tommy Henry giving up 6 runs in 6 innings in a 6-4 loss. Michigan came back from a 4-run deficit to get the tying run on base in the 9th inning, but the rally was too late and fell short.
Saturday went better, with the alliterative pitching duo of Karl Kauffmann and Willie Weiss combining to strike out 10 Minnesota batters in a 5-3 win.
Sunday was even better; Michigan took advantage of the wind blowing out to right field to hit 3 home runs in an 8-0 victory to take over first place in the conference.
Michigan's top performances of the weekend:
* Sophomore Center Fielder Jesse Franklin from Seattle was 4-for-9 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs on the weekend.
* Sophomore leadoff batter DH Jordan Nwogu (Ann Arbor Pioneer) quietly had a great series. At first glance, he was only 2-for-7, which wouldn't be anything worth commenting about, but he did exactly what you need your leadoff hitter to do, getting 7 walks and a HBP to end up on base 10 of his 15 at bats.
* Sophomore #3 starting pitcher Jeff Criswell (Portage Central) pitched 6.2 innings, only giving up 3 singles and 4 walks in the shutout on Sunday.
The current Big Ten standings, after 2 or 3 of the 8 series for each team:
1. Michigan (4-1)
2t. Indiana (7-2)
2t. Nebraska (7-2)
4t. Minnesota (6-3)
4t. Northwestern (4-2)
6. Iowa (5-4)
7t. Purdue (4-4)
7t. Maryland (3-3)
9t. Rutgers (2-4)
9t. Ohio State (2-4)
11. Illinois (1-5)
12. Penn State (1-7)
13. Michigan State (0-5)
Michigan will play at Ohio State next weekend. Michigan hosts Indiana State on Tuesday & Wednesday this week (they are a top-40 team in the RPI, so these will be big games). Looking ahead, the Northwestern series on April 19-21 and the Indiana series on May 10-12 will both be big home series for Michigan. Michigan travels to Nebraska on May 16-18, which if all goes well should end up deciding the conference championship.
Big Win today.
Go Blue
We’re a cheerleading and baseball school now. Maybe softball as well
I had a friend that works for MSU athletics tell me today that one of their players was so hungover from last night he threw up in the dugout during today's game.
That might explain why they're 0-5.
For those unaware of B1G Baseball scheduling, it's even more unbalanced than B1G Football scheduling.
Michigan doesn't face any of the following teams: Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, and Penn State (Wisconsin, BTW, doesn't have a baseball program). We're scheduled to face Staee 4 times, including one that doesn't count as a conference game, so that we can play them 2x at home and twice on the road.
We have four 3-game home series: Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana, and Rutgers, and three 3-game road series: @Maryland, @OSU, and @Nebraska (besides the two scheduled road games @MSU.
All told, we had 24 scheduled conference games; 13 of them at home and the other 11 on the road, plus that one vs MSU that is considered a non conference tilt.
In some ways, baseball scheduling is much more fair than the football scheduling is, though.
In baseball, over a 3-year period (say 2018-2020), every team is scheduled for exactly 6 games against every other team. Michigan knows that in every segment, they will get Minnesota for one 3-game home series, one 3-game road series, and that they will skip Minnesota in one of the 3 years.
In football, some teams are intentionally given more difficult schedules than other teams, it is never intended to balance out, and you can go 6 years without seeing a particular opponent. In baseball, at least it's just the luck of the draw and if you skip a team one year you will definitely play them the next.
So for example...
In 2018, Michigan hosted 3 games against Illinois, Maryland and Penn State plus 2 against MSU.
In 2019, Michigan hosts 3 games against Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern and Rutgers plus 1 against MSU.
Therefore, in 2020, Michigan will host 3 each against the other 4 teams: Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio State and Purdue.
The road schedule works the same way. That's not completely fair, but really that's about as fair as you can make it.given the fact that you can only squeeze in so many weekend series in the Midwest before the season ends in mid-May.
is softball scheduled in the same way? We're back east, so the Rutger's games have been a treat this year and 2 years ago.
No, softball uses the football divisions to schedule (but not when actually showing the standings).
Michigan plays each of the other Big Ten East teams 3 times a year--except MSU, who they play 2 times a year. Then they play 2 of the 7 teams in the West division, so they can go 3 years without playing a given West team.
So...that's 3 games each against Rutgers, PSU, OSU, Maryland and Indiana, plus 2 against MSU for a total of 17. On top of that there are 3 home games and 3 away games against rotating West division teams, giving a grand total of 23 conference games. I honestly have no idea why softball decided to make the schedule regional but baseball completely ignores region, but I assume the fact that there are an odd number of baseball teams has something to do with it.
The good news if you live near Rutgers is that Michigan softball will continue to go out there once every other year.
Alton, we are in your debt sir - you are a gentleman and a scholar!
Will this be as good as it gets? Or can Michigan become relevant on the national stage? In other words can they become perennial CWS contenders?
Legit question.
On one hand...Michigan softball managed to spend about 20 years relevant on the national stage, just ending a couple of years ago or so. Baseball isn't that different from softball, right?
On the other hand, if it were still possible for a mid-major baseball team (as the Big Ten is) to be relevant for multiple consecutive seasons, it would have happened at some point in the last 30 years, right? Yes, Rice and Long Beach State are both mid-majors, but what about teams outside of Texas and California?
I think Michigan's ceiling isn't "perennial CWS contenders" but instead "perennial regional contenders and occasional CWS contenders." Unlike softball, baseball depends on getting a team of 12 or more super-talented players, including 4-5 pitchers, and having them all healthy and producing at the top level come tournament time. Michigan will never have the depth of a top SEC team, even if they do match the top-level talent. That's going to make their success cyclical.
Look at the Big Ten in recent years--they can produce regional contenders (Indiana actually made the CWS not long ago), but the teams find it hard to achieve a level of success year after year. Michigan has made a good first step: finding and keeping top-level coaching talent.
If those are the records, Michigan is not in 1st, but tied for 3rd with Minnesota.
The way baseball standings work is 7-2 is 1 game better than 4-1 or 6-3.
No, the way baseball standings work is on winning percentage.
4-1 is a winning percentage of .800
7-2 is a winning percentage of .778
https://bigten.org/confstandings.aspx/2018-19/base?path=baseball
If they worked the way you said, Michigan (11-2) would have been awarded the 1966 Big Ten baseball championship instead of Ohio State (6-0). They were not.
GO BLUE!
22-8
Not ranked.
LOL @ MSU