Coming off a strong pitching performance in a 2-0 victory over Michigan State on Wednesday, the Michigan baseball team welcomed fans to Ray Fisher Stadium for its first home weekend series of the year, playing host to the Nebraska Cornhuskers for three games. Here’s a rundown of all the action from the diamond this weekend.
Game 1 – Friday
Michigan’s Friday starter Kurt Barr toed the slab in the series opener and pitched one of his best games of the young season despite getting touched up in the first inning. Nebraska
grabbed a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice bunt, while Barr was able to work out of a jam shortly thereafter to limit the damage to just one run.
In the bottom of the second, Michigan would get some run support for its pitcher with Drew Culbertson ripping a two-out single up the middle to score Greg Pace from second base, making it a 1-1 game. In the bottom of the third, Michigan would grab a 2-1 lead with Evan Haegar dropping in a two-out single that scored Carson Luna from third base.
From there, Michigan’s offense was quiet, registering no hits after the third inning. It wouldn’t matter though, as Barr and the bullpen were dominant. Barr managed seven innings of one-run ball while striking out 10 Nebraska hitters. Max Debiec was brought in in the eight inning, going the rest of the way and preserving the 2-1 lead for a win to open the series.
Game 2 – Saturday
On Saturday afternoon, Michigan had the chance to secure a series victory, but unfortunately the bats still hadn’t quite defrosted from Friday night. Nebraska on the other hand, came out red hot, scoring two runs in the first inning off Michigan’s David Lally.
Lally would be replaced by Grant Bradley in the third inning after allowing back-to-back singles to open the frame, but the Cornhuskers were able to him as well, striking for three runs in the inning on a sacrifice fly, a fielder’s choice, and a throwing error from Noah Miller, making it a 5-0 game early.
If the outcome weren’t already in question, Nebraska drummed up four more runs in the top of the fourth to go up 9-0 before scoring an additional run in the top of the fifth. Michigan’s offense was able to get runners on base throughout the afternoon, generating eight hits and three walks against Nebraska’s pitching staff. However, the Wolverines were unable to scratch anything across the plate and ended up losing the game by mercy rule in the seventh inning by a 10-0 score.
Game 3 – Sunday
For the rubber match, Michigan sent Tate Carey to the mound, and he was able to keep the Cornhuskers off the scoreboard with two shutout innings to open the ballgame. Meanwhile, the Michigan offense got on the board with an RBI single from Brayden Jefferis that scored Matthew Ossenfort.
Michigan’s bullpen would preserve the lead until the top of the sixth, when Nebraska would break the shutout with a solo homer from Rhett Stokes to lead off the inning. Michigan would strike back though in the bottom of the inning courtesy of back-to-back bases loaded hit by pitches for Noah Miller and Brayden Jefferis to make it a 3-2 game.
Nebraska wasn’t going away quietly though, scoring three more runs in the top of the seventh, including a leadoff homer from Dylan Carey. Michigan bounced back with another run of its own in the bottom of the frame with a solo homer from Brenden Stressler, making it a 4-4 game.
However, Nebraska’s bats came up huge in the top of the ninth, with Max Buettenback driving a solo homer to right to take a 5-4 lead. The deathblow would come not long after, with Nebraska loading the bases and Jett Buck hitting a grand slam over the left field wall to make it 9-4. Michigan scored once more in the bottom of the ninth, but it was much too little too late, as the Wolverines fell 9-5, losing the series in the process.
Michigan is now 11-11 on the year and will have the chance to get back over .500 this week with games in Ann Arbor against Oakland and Toledo on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
