Apologies for the lack of posting today, as I’m on the road. In the meantime, take a look at this uncharacteristically heartfelt (though characteristically well-written) basketball post by Dex at WLA, and Dylan’s Minnesota preview at UMhoops. My preview will probably be coming later this afternoon, so roll back around later tonight.

Posted under Blog News

I haven’t had a chance to re-watch and score the data for these three games, but that shouldn’t prevent me from posting the (admittedly late) differential data. When I get a chance to grade the shooting, I’ll post those up as well.

Iowa

Half 1

1st Half
Lineup	Time	Score	Differential
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	7:47	8-12	-4
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Gibson	1:10	0-2	-2
Lee, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Gibson	:13	0-0	0
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Gibson	:29	0-3	-3
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	2:05	6-3	+3
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Shepherd, Sims	1:42	2-0	+2
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	3:07	10-5	+5
Lee, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	2:27	3-3	0
Totals	20:00	29-28	+1

Half 2

2nd Half
Lineup	Time	Score	Differential
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	6:45	5-9	-4
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Gibson	1:23	6-4	+2
Merritt, Douglass, Lee, Novak, Sims	2:21	3-3	0
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Shepherd, Sims	1:17	3-2	+1
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	1:05	2-0	+2
Lee, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	1:47	2-2	0
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	5:22	6-8	-2
Totals	20:00	21-22	-1

OT

Overtime
Lineup	Time	Score	Differential
Merritt, Douglass, Lee, Novak, Sims	2:12	0-7	-7
Douglass, Lucas-Perry, Lee, Novak, Sims	2:48	4-7	-3
Totals	5:00	4-14	-10

Purdue

Half 1

1st Half
Lineup	Time	Score	Differential
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	3:58	5-7	-2
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Shepherd, Sims	1:52	3-0	+3
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Shepherd, Gibson	:38	1-0	+1
Merritt, Douglass, Novak, Shepherd, Gibson	:46	0-0	0
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Novak, Shepherd, Gibson	2:17	5-8	-3
Grady, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Gibson	:50	1-1	0
Grady, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	1:55	4-3	+1
Grady, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	2:39	5-3	+2
Grady, Douglass, Harris, Shepherd, Sims	:24	0-0	0
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Shepherd, Sims	1:27	4-3	+1
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	3:14	9-9	0
Totals	20:00	37-34	+3

Half 2

2nd Half
Lineup	Time	Score	Differential
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	3:08	9-5	+4
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	1:16	3-0	+3
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	2:49	9-7	+2
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Shepherd, Gibson	:14	0-3	-3
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Shepherd, Gibson	1:49	0-4	-4
Grady, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	1:28	6-0	+6
Grady, Douglass, Lee, Novak, Sims	1:18	2-0	+2
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	5:10	13-11	+2
Grady, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	1:53	3-7	-4
Grady, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Gibson	:10	0-2	-2
Grady, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	:18	3-3	0
Grady, Lee, Harris, Novak, Sims	:27	2-0	+2
Totals	20:00	50-44	+6

Wisconsin

Half 1

1st Half
Lineup	Time	Score	Differential
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	6:54	9-16	-7
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Gibson	1:47	5-2	+3
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Gibson, Sims	2:12	1-4	-3
Grady, Lucas-Perry, Lee, Novak, Sims	1:24	0-2	-2
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	4:59	13-2	+11
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Wright, Sims	2:44	6-6	0
Totals	20:00	34-32	+2

Half 2

2nd Half
Lineup	Time	Score	Differential
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	4:26	2-7	-5
Merritt, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	4:06	0-6	-6
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	1:20	0-0	0
Lee, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Gibson	1:25	5-0	+5
Merritt, Lucas-Perry, Lee, Wright, Gibson	:44	0-3	-3
Lee, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Wright, Sims	:42	2-0	+2
Lee, Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims	3:07	5-4	+1
Lee, Douglass, Harris, Novak, Sims	4:10	7-8	-1
Totals	20:00	21-28	-7

Individual differentials will be posted when I get the shooting data up; for now you can add them up yourself if you’re so inclined.

Posted under Analysis, Basketball

A series exploring the commitments (and subsequent decommitments) of Michigan’s lost members of the class of 2009.

The Commitment
DeWayne Peace first burst onto the scene for Michigan fans when he attended the Rich Rodriguez Skills Camp in Ann Arbor over the summer of 2008. At the time, he had performed well at Kansas’s summer camp as well, and the Jayhawks were thought to be his heavy favorite. However, within a few weeks of visiting Michigan, Peace offered his verbal commitment to the Wolverines on June 25th. Peace was told that he would have an opportunity to prove himself as a wide receiver at Michigan, but that there was also a chance he would end up at defensive back. It was in the secondary that he had distinguished himself at camp, and where the coaching staff eventually saw him ending up.

The Decommitment
After more than 6 months of being committed to Michigan, and weeks of rumors, Peace withdrew his verbal commitment to Michigan on January 8th. Though Peace’s father reportedly insisted that DeWayne remain true to his word, in the end, he did not see himself playing for Michigan. The main reason behind this change of heart was a matter of position: the coaching staff wanted Peace to play corner, while he wanted be a wideout. It would follow logically (though it is unconfirmed, of course), that Peace was told he would play corner for Michigan or he would not play for Michigan at all.

The Impact
Obviously, the coaching staff realized that they weren’t as high on Peace as they had thought all along. If he was a highly-valued recruit, they wouldn’t have given him such an ultimatum, and he may have still ended up in Ann Arbor down the road. However, the coaching staff didn’t see much harm in shedding him from the class, and gave him the ultimatum. As Rodriguez himself said at his Signing Day Press Conference: “Sometimes a kid does you a favor when he decommits,” and Peace was likely one of these players. He ended up committing to the Wildcats of Arizona as a wide receiver.

Senior Year Stats

DeWayne Peace 2008
Game	Rec	Yds	Yds/Rec	TD	Rush	Yds	Yds/Rush	TD
Berkner	6	76	12.67	0	1	-7	-7.00	0
Martin	5	80	16.00	3	1	10	10.00	0
Summit	6	170	28.33	2	3	14	4.67	0
Northwest	5	66	13.20	2	2	63	31.50	1
Nimitz	5	65	13.00	0	5	40	8.00	2
Cedar Hill	6	49	8.17	0	4	21	5.25	0
Irving	5	36	7.20	1	6	9	1.50	0
Duncanville	6	27	4.50	0	10	45	4.50	0
MacArthur	1	21	21.00	0	0	0	0	0
Grand Prairie	5	70	14.00	1	0	0	0	0
Allen	2	27	13.5	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	52	687	13.21	9	32	195	6.09	3

Video

Posted under Football, Recruiting

In this Blogcast, Tim gives you an overview of all the new Wolverines. If you have any ideas for future blogcasts, let us know in the comments.

Posted under Blogcast, Personnel

Polls are in. Somehow Michigan stills shows up in three of them. Your guess is as good as mine on how we didn’t even drop in the Collegiate Baseball poll. The Coaches’ Poll (USA Today/ESPN) last week was technically the preseason, so our initial start is why we went up. Also, we faced two of the coaches voting in that poll, in Jacksonville’s Alexander Terry (who we beat 21-3 and lost 10-2) and St. John’s Ed Blankenmeyer (a team we shut down despite their being an offensive juggernaut). Another note, while pointless right now, I included the Ping! Poll in the chart. May we one day be in it.

Poll	Current	LW
RPI	TBA	TBA
NCBWA	28	25
Collegiate Baseball	28	28
BaseballAmerica	NR	NR
Ping!Baseball	NR	NR
Rivals	NR	NR
USA Today/ESPN	32*	37*

*In others receiving votes section

BigTenHardball details their all weekend team. I can’t argue with any omissions like I did last week with collegebaseball360. BTH’s Brian does some quality work. Dufek might have warranted a honorable mention for his work in the bullpen, but it wasn’t that much of an oversight. Michigan showed up as follows.

• 2B – Kevin Cislo
• OF – Ryan LaMarre
• BN – Anthony Toth
• BN – Jake McLouth
• 4th SP – Chris Fetter

Something else stands out in the list, and the rankings for that matter: Ohio State has come out of near nowhere to start the season and is playing some high quality ball. I figured them to be a candidate to vie with Indiana for third in the conference, but now… watch out.

Pythagorean Theorem. Happy Valley Hardball put out their first look at the Pythagorean Theorem for team winning percentages. The idea is that expected winning percentage is a function of runs scored and runs allowed. Currently Michigan shows up as third best in the conference, in a power poll sort of way. The emphasis on Penn State is obviously his.

	Team	Runs Scored	Runs Allowed	Pyth %	Delta
1	Ohio State	67	42	0.718	-0.282
2	Illinois	47	31	0.697	-0.136
3	Michigan.	73	58	0.613	-0.165
4	Indiana	38	31	0.600	0.000
5	Minnesota	40	35	0.566	-0.148
6	Purdue	42	45	0.466	0.132
7	Michigan St	23	37	0.279	0.112
8	Penn State	25	42	0.262	-0.024
9	Northwestern	29	52	0.237	-0.013
10	Iowa	22	58	0.126	-0.041

Loss to Jacksonville Looks Better.  I didn’t say good, but Jacksonville beat #6 Florida State in the midweek matchup.  As stated previously, midweek games can really hurt teams.  Another case this week was Indiana losing to Indiana State.  Just beating some of these teams will lower our RPI later in the season, losing will really hurt.  I still think we’ll lose one or two of these games later in the season, including one against Notre Dame.

Baseball Programming Update. I’ve got another pretty busy weekend planned this time around. I plan to have the Siena update out late Thursday night. I’m not sure what I’m going to do for the Mets. If anything comes out in the weekly release, I’ll be sure to let you know. It should be out today or tomorrow.

Posted under Baseball

TX RB Chris Parr, who I’d previously noted has something of a reputation of being a troublemaker, has landed himself in hot water again, this time beating up a 14-year old. I don’t want anything to do with the kid, and I’d assume the staff feels the same way. As far as character risks go, I don’t think this staff would take a kid like Parr, and certainly not while they have many other attractive options on their radar (and after the grief they’ve taken about Chris Henry and Pacman Jones since the move to Michigan). He’s been removed from the board, though I will admit he takes a good mugshot.

Florida has offered FL OL Leon Orr, and it sounds like that’s the place he really wants to end up. He hasn’t committed yet, but he gets an imaginary frowny face icon.

PA DE/LB Dakota Royer is starting to get his recruiting process squared away, and he has numerous offers as well as a list of favorites:

“It was very good … They are up there right now,” said Royer, who has offers from Maryland, Penn State, Colorado, Notre Dame, Illinois, Stanford, UConn, Michigan State, Kentucky and Rutgers.

“Maryland, Pitt, Penn State, Michigan State, Notre Dame — those are my top [schools],” he said.

No Michigan mention, in terms of interest from either side. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if he popped up on the Wolverine radar soon – if only to show Little Brother who’s boss.

KS DE/LB Geneo Grissom (already on the board) is indeed getting interest from Michigan. The linked article regards his attendance at the Jayhawks’ junior day.

Are you interested in the latest news on TX LB Caleb LaVey? Then CalebLavey.com is the website for you! His “Recruiting” page indicates he is receiving interest from Michigan (but he does not mention an offer), so he has been added to the board. I assume the site won’t be the most enlightening in terms of details about his recruitment (a la qbforce.com), but thus far it seems to be updated enough to be relevant, so hopefully his dad (who is listed as the contact, and I assume is the one operating the site) will update it frequently.

Michigan leads for PA CB Cullen Christian. They are far ahead of most of the competition, and he visits campus the weekend of March 19th. He has plans to set up visits with several other schools on his list, as well. Christian also thinks he won’t make a final decision until his senior season, giving those schools a chance to play catch-up.

It looks like I should be ready to remove SC DB DeAndre Hopkins from the board. It appears as though he’s highly likely to make a commitment to Clemson at their junior day this weekend. He’ll stay on the board for now in the event that the commitment doesn’t come to fruition.

Lastly, I want to mention (since I’ve been forgetting to do so since the news broke about 3 weeks ago) that FL WR Commit Ricardo Miller is planning to transfer out of Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, and up to Ann Arbor Huron for his senior season. This, obviously, would unite him with fellow WR Commit Jeremy Jackson. That would be a pretty good tandem in the world of SE Michigan high school football. Speaking of Jackson, I found this interview of him on a random blog, whose credibility I can’t vouch for. Take it for what it’s worth.

Big Back Huntin’
With Brandon Minor graduating after the 2009 season, Michigan will likely be in search of another big, powerful back in his mold. Currently, Mike Cox is the only player on the roster who even comes close to being the style of running back that Minor is. Though all the rumblings out of last year’s team indicated that Cox was performing well with the scout team, Only having one bruiser on the roster might not be the most successful gameplan.

On that note, Michigan recently offered GA RB Mack Brown (Scout header confirms), as well as SC RB Marcus Lattimore. Both fit in the “big back” mold of Brandon Minor, though Lattimore is the more highly-regarded prospect at this time, and may be more of a complete all-around player. Speaking of Lattimore, until recently he had planned to announce his decision at the Army All-American game. Now, he has changed his mind and will wait the extra month or so until Signing Day. From the tenor of that article, it would appear that South Carolina is a heavy favorite.

There is also mutual interest between The Wolverines and CA RB Dietrich Riley (info in header). I’ve added him to the board, and he also fits the bill of “big back.” And last in the big back parade is TX RB Stephen Hopkins. The Wolverines are showing him interest (info in header). I wonder if they want an inside runner in this class. Hmm…

Posted under Football, Recruiting

WTKA has the audio of my appearance on the Ann Arbor Big Show with John U. Bacon from yesterday posted on their podcasts page. If you missed the show yesterday, be sure to go check it out.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time to actually talk about Michigan, so I got to discuss things like the Pistons and Synchronized Youth Figure Skating (seriously). It was still a lot of fun though, and hopefully I’ll have an opprtunity to do it again sometime.

Recruiting Update coming later this afternoon.

Posted under Blog News

In this edition of Stat Watch, we continue are look into the baseball teams offensive attack, but we start experimenting with pitching as well. I’ve also been playing with a new data/graphing system throughout the day, so graphs may show up and disappear as Paul and I work in the upgrade.

Hitting

The hitting stats are becoming more refined as batters are starting to accumulate at-bats. Our current at-bat leader (40 ABs) is Jake McLouth, who newly moved into the clean up position, has still yet to draw a walk this season. Cislo and Fellows pull up the rear with 31 ABs. I left Berset and Lorenz out of those numbers as they are replaced fairly consistently and have about 2/3 less the number of plate appearances as Cislo and Fellows.

The batting average didn’t quite make the jump you’d expect after winning a game 21-3 with 19 hits. Last week we ended with a .288 batting average; this week we end with a .291 average. Not much improvement right there.

As you can see, on-base-percentage also didn’t make a jump either. We actually lost .003 points down to .406 this week. This kind of comes off a little bit weird. I would have thought the Jacksonville 19-hit affair would have raised the percentage, but as they say, one game doesn’t make the season.

The rest of our games have been pretty abysmal in terms of hitting, and it shows in the following graph. What we have here is average hits (H/9), runs (R/9), walks (plus hit by pitch, BB/9), and strike outs (K/9) per 9 innings of hitting.

It’s encouraging to see our runs per nine innings going so high. It would be pretty high even if you took our 21 run game and made it 8, our current average, it would still have us scoring about 6.67 runs per game. That’s should be enough to compete well in any league… at least if our pitching keeps up their side of the deal.

I’d also like to point out the strike out’s per nine innings. That number has continued to grow as we’ve gone along, which is a definite problem. We’re currently averaging over a strike out per inning (9.11/9-innings). It’s killing several of our innings.

Lineup Changes

As mentioned in the weekend recap, we had a few lineup changes this weekend. Let’s take a little bit at a look why, just so you out there get a better idea of what’s going on. First, let’s look at McLouth vs Dufek.

On the left, we can see McLouth is hitting leaps and bounds above Dufek. Dufek is .182 points behind in average alone. In the slugging category, McLouth is averaging .279 more bases per at bat. In more basic terms, McLouth averages an extra single every 4 at bats he takes. That’s a very sizable gap.

This move places a better hitter behind our best player, Ryan LaMarre. By doing this, pitchers cannot pitch around and walk LaMarre without fear of giving up more runs. With Dufek struggling behind LaMarre, we may lose a few runs each game that his struggles continue.

The second move by Coach Maloney was to switch Anthony Toth and Kenny Fellows. Toth mainly batting in the 2-hole, as we can see in the graph below, was getting on consistently, but he was not able to put the ball in play and move the runners on base around or gather many RBIs.

Looking at the two players’ production, the on base numbers are currently very consistent, and both are rather good. The difference is the hitting, which Fellows has done better and more consistently better. Fellows is currently hitting .387, as compared to .250 for Toth.

By switching the two batters, Maloney is hoping that Toth will still continue his pace with walks, setting the table for the top of the order. The hope for Fellows is that he continues to hit and get on base, driving in more runs, moving the runners a head of him into scoring position, and still get on base to score for the heart of the order behind him.

The ideal inning would start with a Toth walk, a Cislo single on a hit and run putting runners at first and third, a Cislo steal right before a Fellows RBI single. LaMarre either walks or hits a double, followed by a McLouth double, and then either struggle through Dufek and Berset to try to eek out a last run before Lorenz comes up, as he’s statistically an out. That kind of inning is 5-7 runs, which are the kind of innings that win college baseball games.

Leader Board – Offense

Average		On Base%		Slugging%
Player	AVG	Player	OB%	Player	SLG%
Ryan LaMarre	.421	Kenny Fellows	.500	Ryan LaMarre	.711
Kenny Fellows	.387	T-Ryan LaMarre	.488	Jake McLouth	.650
Jake McLouth	.350	T-Kevin Cislo	.488	Nick Urban	.486
Runs Batted In		Runs		Walks + HBP
Player	RBI	Player	R	Player	BB/HBP
Ryan LaMarre	17	Kevin Cislo	13	T-Kevin Cislo	12
Jake McLouth	10	Anthony Toth	11	T-Anthony Toth	12
T-Toth/Fellows	7	Ryan LaMarre	9	Mike Dufek	8
Steals		Doubles		Home Runs
Player	SB	Player	2B	Player	HR
Kevin Cislo	5	Nick Urban	4	Jake McLouth	4
Ryan LaMarre	3	T-Kevin Cislo	3	Ryan LaMarre	3
Anthony Toth	2	T-John Lorenz	3	Mike Dufek	2

Pitching

And here’s where things get fun. Instead of showing trends, which don’t help much over 2 appearances or less than 15 innings, I think I’m going to look through some of the team statistics. This process may be adjusted to individual pitchers by the time the conference season rolls around.

Here we see the opponent batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. The opponent batting average is currently .306, the on base percentage is .343, and the slugging percentage is .442 for the season. The on base numbers aren’t too bad, which surprises the heck out of me. Its amazing how such a bad weekend can make you forget how great a weekend the BigEast/Big10 Challenge really was on the mound. Opponents are out hitting us and out slugging us this season, which is never a good sign. We should be looking to get that opponent average down into the .290s or less. On base percentages need to drop to the .310s at the highest, and slugging… well it has a lot of room for improvement.

In this chart we have the “per 9 innings” stats of our opponents accumulated through the season. This just breaks down the previous chart into reasons why we are getting out hit. Opponents average an extra .5 hits per game, which isn’t much, but we average about 1.5 more walks per game. We also strike out about one more time per game than our opponents. I would put ideal numbers to be at to be H/9 ~ 8, K/9 ~ 9, BB/9 ~ 2, and ERA around 4.00. Right now the ERA is pretty close to what we would want in a season, but we should never just settle. We should always strive to improve the numbers.

Leader Board – Pitching

Starter ERA		Innings		Starter Ks
Player	ERA	Player	INN	Player	Ks
Chris Fetter	1.64	Eric Katzman	11.2	Chris Fetter	13
Eric Katzman	3.09	Chris Fetter	11	Travis Smith	10
Travis Smith	4.70	Kolby Wood	10.2	All 3 others	6
Relief ERA		Relief App		Relief Ks
Player	ERA	Player	APP	Player	Ks
Mike Dufek	1.80	Tyler Burgoon	4	Matt Miller	11
Tyler Burgoon	3.12	T-Matt Miller	3	Mike Dufek	6
Matt Miller	3.86	T-Matt Gerbe	3	Tyler Burgoon	5
Oppon BA		Walks+HBP/9IP		Saves
Player	BA	Player	BB/HBP	Player	Sv
Mike Dufek	.125	Chris Fetter	2.45	T-Mike Dufek	1
Matt Miller	.185	T-Mike Dufek	3.6	T-Tyler Burgoon	1
Chris Fetter	.233	T-Brandon Sinnery	3.6*	T-Matt Miller	1

*This is the only stat Sinnery can claim he’s doing well in right now.

Next week I’ll look at some of these same stats and hopefully have some better news on the pitching front.  I plan on working into some more advance statistics as the season moves along, I’ve just been bogged down with other things.

Posted under Baseball

In a way, the game against Wisconsin on Sunday showed how similar to the 2008 football team John Beilein’s squad really is: there were flashes of brilliance, and certainly lots of reason to be hopeful for the future. However, despite a few good players, the team simply doesn’t have enough quality depth to win many of the games in which they come close. Unlike the football team though, it was slow starts and not-strong-enough finishes that doomed the team against the Badgers.

There were also similarities to the Michigan basketball teams under Tommy Amaker, in which the offense was disjointed for too long, and several possessions ended with a hopeless three thrown up to beat the buzzer.That contrasted with many other possessions, to be fair, in which the crisp passes and cuts opened up enormous shooting lanes for open threes or layups.

The refereeing was inconsistent yet again (as it seemingly always is), though it wasn’t bad enough that I think it was a huge factor in Michigan’s losing the game, unlike the contest against Iowa.

The Wolverines are good, but they just aren’t good enough to win a game like this… yet. However, they are good enough to win a game on the road against Minnesota, and they’ll need to do just that on Saturday in order to keep the dreams of returning to the tournament alive.

Posted under Basketball

Reminder: Tim will appear on The Big Show with John U. Bacon on 1050 WTKA at 3:30 this afternoon.

This week saw a stark change on the mound for Michigan. The beautiful pitching performances of last week were replaced with some rough and tumble innings for nearly the entire pitching staff. On offense, things started to pick up in the power department, and things looked pretty solid. Still, we managed to go 2-2 in the weekend tournament, bringing forward some serious questions about making the NCAA tournament at the end of the season.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee Recap

Michigan 11, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 19
Box Score
W – Lucas Annen (1-0) L – Travis Smith (0-1)

Ryan LaMarre, Image from mgoblue

Wisconsin-Milwaukee came into this fresh off a horrible series in Arizona State where the top 10 Sun Devils destroyed the Panthers in nearly every aspect of the game. UW-M was hungry for a win, and fueled by some apparent bulletin board material, the Panthers came out swinging.

Michigan started in the bottom of the 1st with a 3 run frame that would set the high scoring pace for the rest of the game. After Cislo single and Toth walk, Ryan LaMarre hit a 3 run blast in the inning, the first of his two home runs. All was well so far.

Travis Smith ran into trouble in the third. Up 4-2, Mike Dufek started the inning with a fielding error. A few plays later, Toth let a ball get away from him for the second error of the inning. By the end of the inning, we would see Smith pulled after giving up 6 runs. One of the runs was scored while relief pitcher DeCarlo had entered the game, but was charged to Smith as it was his baserunner. DeCarlo was pretty horrid in that 1/3 inning of work in which he hit two batters, gave up the RBI single, and threw a wild pitch.

Well that hurt. Now down 8-4, Michigan began to chip away, eventually coming within a 9-7 margin from a pair of RBI singles by Toth and LaMarre and a McLouth solo home run.

Then came the dagger from the Panthers. After a fairly successful 5th inning by reliever Losorelli (his first career appearance), the wheels fell off in the 6th inning. Losorelli gave up 4 straight singles to open the inning and threw a wild pitch (which actually lead to an out at the plate). At this point, Miller came in to the game to stop continue the bleeding. After immediately throwing a wild pitch to give up a run, he induced a ground ball, gave up two walks in a row to force in a run, then back to back base clearing doubles. Seven runs scored that inning and Michigan was down 16-7.

Michigan tried to answer in the bottom half of the inning when after a pair of walks to Cislo and Toth, Ryan LaMarre knocked his second 3 run homer, giving him 7 RBIs on the day. Michigan wouldn’t get any more runs in the 6th, and would only plate one more in the 8th. UW-M would answer that run with three more of their own in the top of the 9th, making the final score UM-W 19, Michigan 11.

Bummer.

Notable Stars

• Ryan LaMarre – 4/5 7 RBI, 2 R, 2 HR
• Anthony Toth – 2/4 3 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB
• Kevin Cislo – 1/3 3 R, 2 BB, 2B

Notable Goats

• Toth and Dufek’s error in the 2nd giving up 4 unearned runs, putting us behind big early
• Cislo’s error giving up an unearned run.
• Every pitcher except Vangheluwe hit a batter – DeCarlo hit three, Smith/Miller/Losorelli each had one, four of those runners scored
• Wild pitches – each reliever had one
• The pitching staff gave up 15 earned runs.

A lot of this loss falls on the shoulders of the pitching staff. The two errors in the 2nd though really killed momentum. I give credit to the Panthers, they came out swinging and never let up. This game was an absolute waste of Ryan LaMarre’s talent. To get 7 RBIs and still come up short of the win is horrible.

Jacksonville Game 1 Recap
Michigan 21, Jacksonville 3
Box Score
W – Chris Fetter (1-0) L –

Chris Fetter, Image from mgoblue

So obviously this game went quite a bit better from both the pitching and hitting standpoint. Chris Fetter reminded everyone that the Michigan team isn’t completely devoid of consistency on the mound by throwing 6 innings of shut out baseball while only allowing 4 hits while walking none and striking out 7. Great game by the captain.

Brandon Sinnery also had an alright performance, at least compared to his last two outings. In three innings, he gave up 3 runs, all in his first inning of work. He buckled down after a rough seventh, only allowing 2 base runners, one of which was erased by a game ending double play.

Rather than detail the 21 runs and how they were scored, I’ll let the notable stars do most of the talking for the batters as there were plenty of them. Its also worth noting that several of the backups got mop up duty during this game, including 2-3 that hadn’t seen playing time yet. Mike Kittle and Bryce Aspinwall really made the most of their opportunities, which is great for the two of them.

Notable Stars

• Ryan LaMarre – 2/4 4 RBI, 2 R, BB, 2 K, HR
• Jake McLouth – 2/4 R, RBI
• Mike Dufek – 3/5 2 R, RBI, HR, 2B
• Anthony Toth – 2/7 4 RBI, 2 R, 2B
• Kevin Cislo – 2/4 2 RBI, 3 R, 2B
• Kenny Fellows – 2/5 3 RBI, 2 R, 2B
• John Lorenz – 2/3 4 R, RBI, 2 2B (his first career hits)
• Chris Fetter – 6IP, 0 R, 7 K, 4 H, 1 HBP

Notable Goats

No real goats this game as we won 21-3. Solid game by the offense and on the mound. Toth had an error, but it didn’t affect the score.

Jacksonville Game 2 Recap
Michigan 10, Jacksonville 2
Box Score
W – Carson Andrew (2-0) L -Eric Katzman (1-1)

I have to give it to the Dolphins, despite being shellacked in game one, they didn’t let it bother them going into game two. The game started as a pitchers duel between Katzman and Andrew. The only run in the first four innings came on a Berset RBI double with Fellows on first.

Ryan LaMarre, Image from mgoblue

In the fifth, the Dolphins jumped on the board as Katzman started to lose his placement on his fastball and break on his off speed pitches. Katzman walked 3 batters and gave up a single giving up a run and loading the bases. Burgoon came in to try and get a stop, but the first batter he faced knocked a single right back up the middle scoring two, both charged to Katzman.

Burgoon would give up 3 runs in the 6th. Matt Gerbe would give up 3 in the 7th and one in the 9th. Michigan meanwhile couldn’t get the offense started against either Dolphin pitcher. Andrew and Loosen combined to go the full 9 only giving up 7 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs while striking out 13. The second run came from a lead off home run in the 9th inning by Jake McLouth.

So maybe we should have saved some of the offense in game 1 for game 2?

Notable Stars

• Jake McLouth – 2/4 R, RBI, HR
• Chris Berset – 1/3 RBI, 2B
• Eric Katzman’s first four innings – 0 R, 3 K, 2 H, 1 GDP, 1 HBP

Notable Goats

• Eric Katzman’s fourth inning – 3 R, 3 BBs, 1 H, 2 outs
• Mike Dufek – 0/4 2 left on base, 3 Ks (hat trick)
• Kenny Fellows – 0/3 2 left on base

The offense just sounded lethargic. We couldn’t get anything going and the two pitchers for Jacksonville looked like the best pitchers we’ll face all year. This loss really hurts (being the second of the weekend and following such a large route). With two losses to these types of teams (outside the top 100), Michigan is going to need to be impressive down the stretch of the OOC schedule, or immensely impressive in the Big10 season to make sure we at least secure an at large bid to the tournament. I’m not saying I expect us to lose in the Big10 Tourney just yet, but there will be much more competition this season.

Akron Recap
Michigan10, Akron 7
Box Score
W – Mike Dufek (1-0) L – Alex Loftin (0-1)

Kevin Cislo, Image from Churl flickr

Again with the comebacks. This time it happened in the 8th inning, the last inning that was played. Michigan’s travel plans cut the game short, which occasionally happens in college.

Michigan started the game by taking a 1-0 lead on a Jake McLouth RBI ground out to the firstbase side of the pitcher. The lead wouldn’t last long, however, because starter Kolby Wood was giving up runs early and often. Wood gave up at least one run in each of his 5 innings of work, allowing Akron to jump out to a lead of 7-2. In his defense (or by lack of defense), 2 runs given up in the third were both unearned as Toth booted a potential inning ending ground ball.

In the top of the 6th, Michigan started chipping away at the Zips’ lead. Urban began the inning by being hit by the pitch. He would have to leave the game to have the left wrist looked at. I’ve yet to hear the extent of the injury, and imagine he should be back by next weekend. When they take players out it is generally just precautionary to check for broken bones. Hopefully that’s not the case.

Timmy Kalcyznski homered to follow the hit by pitch. To close out the scoring, Ryan LaMarre had an infield single on the hit-and-run to knock in Cislo. Michigan was then down 7-5.

Bats for both teams quieted down until the final inning. Toth started the rally by being hit by a pitch, followed by a Cislo walk. Fellows followed with an RBI double, and Ryan LaMarre cleared the bases with a 2 RBI single through the left side. After walking Dufek, the pitcher Loftin threw away a pick off throw to first, allowing Dufek to second and LaMarre to score. Aspinwall would knock in Dufek with a single, but would ultimately be caught stealing. Michigan lead 10-7, and Dufek would close out the bottom of the 8th for the win.

Lineup Changes

During the second Jacksonville game, I got to thinking about how long it would take for McLouth to be bumped into the cleanup spot and Dufek drop to the 5-hole. Dufek’s batting average has been hovering around the .210 line while McLouth, while not drawing many walks, has been batting well over .400 for the season. It made sense to me for these two to switch, offering Ryan LaMarre more protection, and getting Dufek more strikes to look at as McLouth will be on base, and the opposing teams can’t afford to pitch around him with runners on.

After some second guessing on my part, Coach Maloney did indeed make the switch in the Akron game. The move didn’t make any noticeable changes in the output of the game, but its a pretty small sample size. I’m interested to see if the switch stays permanent when we play Siena on Saturday.

The other switch included swapping Toth and Fellows in the 2 and 9 holes. I really liked this move too. Toth also has been struggling with the average, but is getting on base just as well as anyone else. By moving him into the 9-hole, he can get away with the low batting average as he won’t need to knock in runs, but his walks will allow him to act as a lead off man when the lineup rolls back over, allowing him to still score many runs.

This move worked excellently in the 8th inning, allowing Toth to work the walk and Fellows to collect the RBI double. On the other side of the swap, Fellows was able to move Cislo around on a hit while Toth struggled at the plate today. Really great move by Maloney.

Notable Stars

• Ryan LaMarre – 3/4 4 RBI, R, BB, K
• Kenny Fellows – 2/4 2 R, RBI
• Bryce Aspinwall – 1/2 R, RBI
• Timmy Kalczynski – 1/2 1 R, 2 RBI, HR (1st career)
• Kevin Cislo – 2/3 3 R
• Mike Dufek (pitching) – 3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 3 K
• Coach Maloney – his 500th career win (244th at Michigan)

Notable Goats

• Toth’s 2 run error
• Wood’s 5 earned runs in 5 innings

We’re not going to continue to win games at the last minute like this. Our pitching needs to keep us in the games a bit better, and we’ve got to stop giving up so many unearned runs. We gave up 7 of them in to two games on Friday and Sunday. While our infield is young and inexperienced (at least on the left side), we must play better on defense.

I’ll have the stat watch out later in the week this time as we don’t have a midweek game. Next game is Friday at 1pm vs. Siena. We’ll be playing in Port St. Lucie, the home of the Mets spring training. We also have our rematch scheduled with the Mets on Sunday.

For those of you who don’t me, I passionately hate the Mets.  The first game I ever went to was when I was 9 months old.  It was the Mets at Astros in the 1986 NLCS.  It was the decisive game 6 that went 16 innings.  I didn’t make it all the way through the game, but it was the first and only major league game I have ever cried at.   The Mets went on to win that game and beat the Red Sox on the Bill Buckner play. I’ve hated them ever since.  May we beat them by 30.

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