Michigan split a pair of mid week games at Notre Dame last night. It was one of those nights where Maloney was out to throw as many pitchers as possible just to get them work. Even with that mindset, some pitchers still couldn’t make it through just an inning of work (Travis Smith, I’m looking at you). Overall though, most of the pitchers did fairly well from what I heard on MGoBlue and the comments yesterday.
Katzman looked shaky in his one inning of work, walking the lead off batter and then hitting Golden Tate with a pitch to start the game. After a strikeout and another walk, he managed to escape the inning without a run.
Kolby Wood threw the long relief; he was originally scheduled to start. Over his 4 innings, he only gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 2 Ks. He worked into a bases loaded jam in the 2nd and induced a double play, then again, in the 5th, he got a critical double play to preserve the lead. After giving up a single and double to open 6th, Wood was pulled for…
Tyler Burgoon. Burgoon managed to get a fly ball on the first batter, but it was deep enough to score a run. Groundout, RBI single, double, groundout and we were out of the inning, but Wood lost the chance for the win. Burgoon did pick up the win in the top of the 7th. He’d close out the game with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout for the finish. So while his first inning was a bit rough, he looked really good to finish. Hopefully that shoulder isn’t affecting his pitching too much.
Game two started with Mike Wilson… and he wasn’t half bad. He went 4 innings giving up 4 hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. His toughest inning was the second; he started by giving up back to back singles and a walk. He worked his way out with a pair of strikeouts and a ground ball. That’s the type of situtation Wilson hasn’t performed in well lately. It was a real promising start. After giving up only a hit in each of the 3rd and 4th inning, Wilson started to lose command to start the 5th. He walked both batters he faced, opening the door to the bullpen.
Travis Smith came in and wouldn’t record an out. The defense set the tone for his outing, with a John Lorenz error on the first batter Smith would face. The next batter would single in two runs. A hit by pitch and walk later, Notre Dame would score again.
Matt Miller would take over from here (still 0 outs in the 5th). The first batter he faced flew out to Alan Oaks in left, plating a run on the sac fly. Miller then struck out 4 of the next 5 batters to finish the game. Miller was damn impressive.
Offensively, Coach had a chance to move some people around. Ryan LaMarre was given the night off to rest; this was his first set of games to sit out. Cislo also sat out most of the second game, coming in to pinch run in the last inning (and get caught stealing).
Despite the shakeup, Michigan was back to its favorite past time in game one – strikeouts. The Wolverines struckout 10 times, lead by the hat trick of Kenny Fellows. The left on base stat was also a little high, but about average for Michigan at 8. Lorenz owned half of those, but I will point out that at least he didn’t strikeout this game.
The good came from Coley Crank. Coley went 3/5 on the day with a double and a solo homerun. Anthony Toth also went 3/6 with an RBI.
Defensively we had 2 errors on the game. Berset had a throwing error that didn’t lead to a run, but should be at least noted. Lorenz had the error (previously mentioned during the Travis Smith escapade) that lead to a run. His defense has been suspect lately, but he did earn some props from Kolby Wood in game one:
“I came in and tried to aim the ball when I was first throwing and got into a jam[…] There were a couple of tough plays, and then John Lorenz, our third baseman, made a really nice play and picked me up. That gave me a lot of confidence.”
So at least he’s got that going for him. The kid is still a freshman and will struggle.
In the long run, this doubleheader doesn’t mean much of anything. It was good to see Michigan keep its composure in game one. I was also glad to see we hit a pair of lefties around a little bit. We’re facing two really good lefties this weekend from Indiana. So hopefully this was good practice leading up to that.
First game Friday is at 6:35pm at the Fish.
Posted under Baseball
Tags: eric katzman, john lorenz, kenny fellows, kolby wood, matt miller, mike wilson, notre dame hate, travis smith, tyler burgoon
Yo, fuck Golden Tate.
Keep it classy.