Normally these will be a bit shorter as I won’t have to go through as many different teams in a weekend and we will also only have 3 games instead of four.

I wanted to start with a little complaint about Friday’s multimedia. I had quite a bit of fun just trying to see anything about the game yesterday. I loaded up the CSTV Gametracker (stats) well before the game started. I renewed my long running battle with MGoBlue’s multimedia player well before game time to ensure it would be working. The media player doesn’t work with firefox (huge downer), and I am generally only 50-50 to get it working in IE. I even checked out WBCN’s sport stream to make sure I had every avenue covered.

One o’clock passed with no luck. The media player’s got nothing for the baseball game, just loads then stops. Gametracker is stuck in pregame. I go to try to refresh it by opening the link from MGoBlue, and they replaced the link by directing me to an old stat tracker (a USF vs Notre Dame game last season) at the USF site. The sports stream even let me down as they were playing the Duke vs UM basketball game in syndication. Well this is a huge suckfest.

So 38 minutes after the first pitch, MGoBlue finally gets a hold of the radio feed. It’s in the 2nd inning. I go and check the stat link at MGoBlue, its still not CSTV, but they did link to a CiL live blog on USF’s website. It started out fairly quiet, but about an hour into the game, a large contingent of Wolverine fans took over the board. It was good to see the fan showing on another site. The moderators from USF were pretty good about letting Michigan fans say their piece, but there were some posts not approved from myself that probably could/should have been. That happens in the CiL’s though.

So while the technology wasn’t all it could be, things ended out alright. We had only missed a one run USF first, and Michigan going down silently in the first two.

Notes from the Challenge

Over 50 scouts in the north and midwest regions were in attendance this weekend, as this offered them a great chance to check out prospects with limited travel.

Saturday saw what is thought to be the first game ever to be umpired by a woman in D1 baseball, much less two women at the same time (yes, I specifically linked those words as a single phrase).  As an umpire myself, those lady’s got some balls to go out their on the field with men.

The Big10 went 5-3 on Friday, on 4-4 Saturday, and 6-2 on Sunday to take the Challenge by a total margin of 15-9.  Great showing by the Big10 as a whole.  The first two days of the Challenge, most Big10 teams either just squeaked out a victory or were totally blasted out of the ball park.  Sunday wasn’t quite as close on the victories, but there were some pretty bad losses still.  Michigan came out the best looking.  Ohio State was the only other Big10 team to emerge undefeated.  Indiana went 2-1, losing only (read: badly) to St. John’s.  Purdue went 1-2 losing to both USF and Notre Dame.  Those aren’t bad losses for the Boilermakers.  Notre Dame was another extra inning game for them, their second in as many days.

USF Recap

Michigan 6, USF 5
Box Score
Win – Burgoon (1-0) Loss – Salgueiro (0-1)

Images from mgoblue.com

This game started out rough for Fetter and the Wolverines. USF jumped out to a quick lead with 1 run in the first inning from 3 singles. Fetter managed to get out of the inning by inducing a ground out and then striking out a batter, his first of 6 Ks.

The second inning also hosted a pair of USF singles, but the problems began with an error by third basemen John Lorenz. Lorenz threw wide of the bag allowing the runners an extra base. A run scored on that play, and the following single. Fetter locked down after this inning, allowing only one hit in the next 3 frames.

Michigan was fairly quiet on offense as well. McLouth did knock his first homer of the year in his first career at bat in the second inning. In the fourth, Toth walked, advanced to third on a LaMarre single, then scored on a Dufek ground out. Fontanez really had our number at the plate. He was economical with his pitch count and managed to pick off two of our runners.

Matt Gerbe relieved Fetter in the 6th, pitching 2 good innings, and being beaten up in his third inning of work. He ended up giving up 2 runs on 2 singles, a double, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. This inning looked to put the nail in the coffin for Michigan; on the CiL, I figured Coach Prado would bring in Salguiero and close out the game. At the time, I thought we were done.

Then Coach Prado made the decision to bring in his middle reliever Teddy Kaufman. Kaufman immediately loaded the bases when Crank crank’d (I’ve been waiting all off season to use that) a double, Fellows walked, and Cislo was hit by the pitch. Salguiero entered the game here.

I liked our odds with LaMarre at the plate. He is a good singles hitter and doesn’t strike out much. He didn’t disappoint, looping a single into right field plating 2 runs. We got lucky to tie the game as LaMarre should have been picked off in a first and third situation, but on a throw went wild allowing Cislo to score the tying run.

Burgoon came in for his first pressure situation of the season, tied in the 9th. He responded with a quick 1-2-3 inning right through the heart of the order. The bottom of the ninth started nicely with a Nick Urban double off the left center wall. Instead of bunting the runner to third, Maloney gambled on Chris Berset and Tim Kalczynski. Neither could move the runner over, leaving the inning in the hands of Kenny Fellows. Fellows hit a quick ground ball back up the middle, but Sam Mende, the USF shortstop could only knock it down as the speedy Urban came around to score. Victory. As I said in the preview, Salguiero can be high risk-high reward, we caught him on the high-risk appearance.

Timely hitting was the key here. USF out-hit us 11-10, but they stranded an extra 4 men on base.

Notable Stats

• Nick Urban – 3/4 2 2b, R
• Ryan LaMarre – 2/4 2 RBI, SB
• Kenny Fellows – 3/3 R, RBI, BB, 1 CS
• Jason McLouth – 1/4 Solo HR
• Tyler Burgoon – 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, W

Purdue Recap

Michigan 4, Purdue 3 (10 innings)
Box Score
Win – Burgoon (2-0) Loss – Wurdack (0-1)

To start day two of the season, Michigan came out looking a little sluggish early. The Wolverines registered a hit in each of the first 5 innings, but they just couldn’t get any runs on the board.

Purdue on the other hand go on the board in the second inning in the midst of a four hit inning. Backup catcher Coley Crank also had an error in the inning while attempting to pick off a runner at first base, leading to one unearned run. Purdue would score again in the top of the 6th when Purdue outfielder Jon Moore reached on a Tim Kalczynski error at third base. Moore eventually would score after a pair of Purdue hits.

Post Game Celebrating, Image from mgoblue.com

Michigan responded in the bottom half of the 6th managed 4 hits in the inning to tie the game at 3-3. The next few innings went by quickly. Purdue started to form a rally in the 7th, but Tyler Burgoon entered the game with 2 runners on and no outs. He induced a pop out to himself on an attempted bunt, struck out a batter, and Chris Berset threw out Purdue DH Jonathan Lilly attempting to steal third.

Burgoon gave up a hit in the 9th and two in the 10th, all singles, but the Boilermakers couldn’t muster up any runs out of it. In the bottom of the 10th, Michigan got started with a Toth walk. Toth stole second on strike three of the LaMarre at-bat, forcing Purdue to face Dufek with a runner on second. Purdue elected to intentionally walk Dufek and set up a potential inning ending double play. Urban then flew out to shallow right field, Toth tagged up and just made it into third base before the ball reached the base. McLouth finished the game with a single up the middle, scoring Toth. Victory.

This victory is extremely encouraging as Purdue is the team picked as the team capable of usurping Michigan in the Big10 this year. And while we don’t play them in the season, this game will go a long way to give our guys confidence come tournament time.

Not enough praise can be directed to our pitching staff after this game. They only gave up one earned run early in the game. Kolby Wood gave us a good start, he just wasn’t helped out by the defense. Sinnery got us out of trouble when we needed him and Tyler Burgoon is on fire right now. Tyler was by and large the player of the game. I have to imagine he’s done for the weekend, and probably at least until the Wisconsin-Milwaukee game next Friday. He’s already pitched 5 innings this weekend. That’s a lot to start the season.

Notable Stats

• Tyler Burgoon – 4 IP, 3 H, 0Rs, 4Ks, W
• Mike Dufek – 2/3 RBI, R, 2 BBs
• Jason McLouth – 3/5 2 RBIs
• Anthony Toth – 0/2 3BBs, 2 Rs, 1 SBs, 1 CS
• Nick Urban – 2/5

Cincinnati Recap

Michigan 6, Cincinnati 1
Box Score
W – Travis Smith (1-0) L – Tyler Smith (0-1)

Mike Dufek’s Homerun, Image from mgoblue.com

This game Michigan came out swinging it hot. The Wolverines plated 3 in the 1st inning with a pair of walks sandwiching a single, followed by a RBI sacrifice fly by Jason McLouth and a 2 RBI single by Nick Urban. The three lead was all the M pitching staff would need to finish off the BearCats. Travis Smith gave up 7 hits and one run in 5 innings of work while reliever Matt Miller shut down the Cincinnati offense over the last 4 innings. Smith ended the night striking out 9 batters, being named Aaron Fitt’s Best Escape Artist. Not to be outdone, Miller struck out 7 while walking none and giving up 2 hits. That is outstanding.

The next few innings passed without much. The BearCats had at least one hit in each of the first four innings, but like Michigan against Purdue, they just weren’t getting runners across the plate. In the 5th, they managed to get on the board when Travis Smith began to lose his touch. After giving up a lead off double and the runner advancing to third on a fly out, Smith walked a batter and hit the next two, forcing in a run. Smith managed to get a ground ball on the following batter, ending the inning with a 4-6-3 double play. Cincinnati would never threaten to score again.

Michigan scored again in the 7th. Anthony Toth singled and Ryan LaMarre was hit by a pitch, setting up this:

This missile cleared the berm behind the right-field fence and bounced halfway up the chain-link fence that shields U.S. 19. And it got there in a hurry. I haven’t seen a ball hit that hard since Dominguez hit two massive homers for Louisville in the 2007 College World Series.

As we used to say in high school, he hit that one to the sequoias. And while Aaron Fitt might have screwed up the name on that description (he incorrectly attributes the home run to Cincinnati’s Mike Spina), I’m sure Mike Dufek appreciates the compliment. In the end, mark it down another victory for Michigan, putting them at 3-0 to start the season.

Notable Stats

• Mike Dufek – 1/3 3 RBIs, 2Rs, 2 BBs
• Nick Urban – 3/5 2b, 3b (that’s a HR from a cycle)
• Ryan LaMarre – 2/3 2Rs
• Anthony Toth – 2/4 R, 2BBs
• Travis Smith – 5 IP, 7 Hs, 1 R, 2 BBs, 9 Ks
• Matt Miller – 4 IP, 2 Hs, 0 Rs, 0 BBs, 7 Ks

St. John’s Recap

Michigan 4, St. John’s 2
Box Score
W – Eric Katzman (1-0)  L- Nick Luisi (0-1)

Katzman vs St. John’s, Image from mgoblue.com

Michigan jumped out with the lead in the top of the 1st inning when St. John’s starter Nick Luisi came out a little rusty.  He walked Cislo and Toth on a combined 9 pitches.  After being settled down by his pitching coach, he came back sharp to get LaMarre and Dufek, but a Jason McLouth infield single to third ruffled the starter’s feathers just enough for him to hand a fastball on the outside part of the plate to Nick Urban, who drove the pitch right back up the middle.  Cislo and Toth scored to put Michigan up 2-0.

Eric Katzman started for Michigan and was he ever on.  Eric only worked himself into trouble once in the third where he gave up a single, double, then sacrifice fly to give up a run,.  This was the best career start for Katzman, not to mention his longest at 7 innings.  He only allowed 7 hits, 1 run, and 4 walks while striking out four batters.  His breaking ball and side arm fastballs were leaving batters guessing and flailing wildly.

Michigan manufactured a run in the 6th inning. Chris Berset walked and was sacrificed over by Lorenz.  Fellows then lined a single to left, and Berset just beat the tag at the plate.

With Burgoon unavailable, Dufek came in for the 2 inning save opportunity.  In the 8th, Dufek breezed right through the line up.  Michigan came into the top of the 9th and was handed a run on a silver platter.  The St. John’s relievers Aremento and Cole walked the first four batters of the inning to give up a run.  Valcarcel came in and stopped the bleeding, but Michigan had a crucial insurance run to extend the lead to 3 runs.

Dufek came out to close the game down in the 9th, but faced some trouble.  After giving up a lead off walk, Dufek eventually gave up a double off the wall, giving up a run.  That would be the last base runner of the game though, as the next batter grounded out to end the game.  Victory.

Katzman was the hero of this game.  He held a team that had averaged 16.5 runs per game this weekend and held them to just one in 7 innings.  I’d include Mike Dufek as a “team pitching” effort, but Dufek’s offense was so bad today, he doesn’t deserve the credit on defense.  Mike managed to go 0/4 with 4 Ks.  Yes my friends, that’s a Golden Sombrero.  He narrowly avoided the Texas-5-gallon hat in the 9th.  He successfully fouled off 7 pitches in a gritty walk that brought in an RBI.  Very Eckstein-ish.

Notable Stats

• Eric Katzman – 7 IP, 7 Hs, 1 R, 4 K, 2 BBs, W
• Mike Dufek – 0/4 BB, 4 Ks (Golden Sombrero), RBI, 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 3 Ks
• Kevin Cislo – o/2 3 BBs, 2 Rs
• Jake McLouth – 3/4
• Nick Urban – 1/5 2 RBIs
• Chris Berset – 1/2 2 BBs, R
• Kenny Fellows – 2/4 RBI

I’ll check out the teams overall stats in my next post.  This one seemed long enough.

Posted under Baseball

Game 1

This season is going to give me a heart attack. Michigan wins its second in a row to open the season on a walk off single, this time in the 10th inning. Tyler Burgoon gets the win again, he’s now on pace to win 55 games this season, shattering the previous record by over 30. He pitched 4 innings of shut out relief, keeping Michigan close.  He was definitely the player of the game.  Maloney didn’t even warm anyone else up the down the stretch of the game.  That’s the kind of confidence Rich has in Tyler.

McLouth was a hero again this time with the walk off single. He went 3-5 in the game with 2 RBIs. That puts him at .444 for the season with 7 total bases.  Toth also did a great job working the count.  He earned three walks in the game, including one to set up the winning run.

The one area that looked ugly though was baserunning.  We were caught three times today.  We’re slightly more aggressive this year, but it has yet to pay off.  It’ll be interesting to see if we keep up this level of intensity on the base paths or if Maloney will change up his plan of attack.

As said previously, I’ll have the full recap up for the weekend sometime on Monday. We have a quick turn around as Michigan faces Cincinnati in about an hour and a half.

Game 2

Michigan finally decided to get ahead and stay ahead in this game.  We gave Travis Smith a 3 run lead before he even took the mound, and that was all we needed.  Smith and Matt Miller combined to give up only one run while striking out 16.  Mike Dufek added a 3 run homer, his first of the year, as insurance late, but even that wasn’t needed.

Aaron Fitt at Baseball America described the Dufek bomb thusly:

[Mike Dufek] hit a Chris Dominguez-like bomb in the top of the seventh, a three-run shot that gave the Wolverines a 6-1 lead. This missile cleared the berm behind the right-field fence and bounced halfway up the chain-link fence that shields U.S. 19. And it got there in a hurry. I haven’t seen a ball hit that hard since Dominguez hit two massive homers for Louisville in the 2007 College World Series.

Of course Aaron screwed up the name of the player, citing Mike Spina (of Cincinnati) instead, but the description of the homerun was spot on with Dufek’s blast.  In other hitting standouts, Nick Urban also had quite a day, just a home run shy of the cycle.

We’re off for the rest of the night.  Tomorrow is St. John’s, who scored 12 on Iowa in the first inning in route to a 18-3 shellacking, yikes.

Posted under Baseball

Image from GoBearCats.com

Cincinnati
February 21, 2009
4pm
Brighthouse Field
Clearwater, Fla.
Media:  Audio and  Stats
Home Team: Cincinnati
Probable Pitchers: Travis Smith (0-0) vs Tyler Smith (0-0)
Michigan Record vs Opponent: 4-6
Last Series/Game: Michigan 5 – Cincinnati 2, May 1930

Overview
In the second game for Michigan in the Big10/BigEast Challenge is with the University of Cincinnati BearCats. Despite ending the season one win away from winning the BigEast tournament (39-20 overall record, 19-8 BigEast record), Cincinnati will be the weakest team Michigan will face in the challenge; the BearCats are a team picked by the BigEast coaches to finish in 5th place. As you see above, we haven’t played Cincinnati in recent history. All 10 games were played while Ray Fisher (whom the stadium is named after) was coach, between 1922 and 1930. Records don’t even indicate where the games were played, just the score.

Stars

Mike Spina, Image from GoBearCats.com

Cincinnati returns two key players on offense, both preseason BigEast team members, in senior third basemen Mike Spina and senior right fielder Cameron Satterwhite. Spina is the team’s top returning hitter from a year ago with an average of .377, team leading 79 RBIs, BigEast leading homerun total of 21, and BigEast leading .731 SLUG%. This 45th round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins was a monster. He holds the Cincinnati school record for those home run and RBI totals. A key will be to keep him in the ballpark. Last year, more than half of Spina’s homeruns came in multi-homerun games (he had six games with two home runs). He will most likely batting third in the lineup for the BearCats this season.

Following behind him in the cleanup spot will be Cameron Satterwhite, a name that may ring a bell for some Big10 baseball fans. Satterwhite was originally a commit to Indiana, where he played 21 games in 2006. Michigan didn’t face Indiana that year, but he did bat .371 in 26 games for the Hoosiers. Satterwhite batted .364 last season with 61 RBIs, 14 homeruns, and 21 doubles. Satterwhite may be the most valuable player for the BearCats because he forces teams to pitch to Spina. Hopefully being the second game of the season, we may catch both of these players before they really get their bats going.

Other Starters

Outside of these two, the BearCats also return junior left fielder Jamel Scott. Scott batted .311 last season in the two hole. Most impressively, he was able to swipe 35 stolen bases. He will be a threat every time he reaches base.

There is a chance that Scott may start at second base, he played a few games there last year, and last year’s team leader Josh Harrison graduated, leaving a vacancy. That being said, it does sound like true freshman T.J. Jones will be the starting second basemen. Jones is a small (5’8″) local product, so there is no telling how good he may be.

Also returning is sophomore shortstop Chris Peters. Peters was good enough to start at shortstop from day one on campus, but he did play like a freshman. Peters only bat .241 on the season and committed 12 errors. The final returning starter is the lone left handed bat returning, first baseman Kevin Johnson. Johnson and Peters were consistently the 8 and 9 hole hitters on the team and appear to offer little threat at the plate.  Johnson has good power, knocking 7 homeruns last year, but his average is a measly .250.  He is much better as a fielder though, owning a .991 fielding percentage.  Don’t expect too many balls to get past him.

As of this point, we don’t really know what to expect behind the plate with first year starter and JUCO transfer Jim Jacquot trying to earn and keep his spot. He is described as big enough to handle the job, but he has yet to compete at the D-1 level.

The final outfield slot will be filled by JUCO transfer Lance Durham.  Little is know about him other than hitting .338 last year for Kaskaskia College.  Junior college numbers tend to be a poor way to judge a players ability.  Pitchers in JUCO are either immensely awesome (but they can’t qualify for college or have behavior problems to keep them out of the pros) or immensely awful.  Kaskaskiais a fairly successful program and Durham appears to be one of their top products of late as most others players have just advanced to the D2 level.  Durham was a 6th round draft pick of the Tigers, but forewent signing to finish his degree.

Sophomore Justin Riddell will start the year at designated hitter.  He made 23 starts at DH last year with meh results.  His batting average was only .272 over the 40 games he made appearances in.  Riddell was very streaky last year, recording 10 multi-hit games in 35 starts.  Those games accounted for well over half his hits.

Pitchers

Michael Hill, Image from GoBearCats.com

The BearCats also return three of their top four starters on the mound in senior RHP Michael Hill, junior LHP Brian Garman, and junior RHP Tyler Smith. Michael Hill is the team’s definite ace. Hill went 6-4 last year with a team best 3.46 ERA in 15 appearances (12 starts). He posted 7.25 K/9-innings while maintaining a 16:65 walks to strikeout ratio which is pretty good for a college pitcher. Hill’s average start last season was about 6 1/3 innings, which meant the bullpen can be brought out early. If Hill gets used in their opener against Purdue, they may be breaking out the bullpen early in the classic. This generally leads to great results for opposing offenses.

If Hill is used agaisnt Purdue, my bet is we see Brian Garman. Garman has made some large strides this offseason after having a fairly rough ending to last year. Garman ended the year with a respectable 5-3 record spanning 15 appearances (9 starts). Garman’s problem was his 6.24 ERA and .301 opponent batting average. Garman may be a solid choice to start against the Wolverines due to the high number of left handers in the Michigan lineup (for you non-baseball people out there, statistics suggest that it is harder to hit a person who is the same dominate hand as the batter, such as left handed pitcher to left handed batter).

If it is not Garman, it may be right hander Tyler Smith. Smith was 3-3 in 13 appearances (12 starts) with a 4.27 ERA. Smith is more of a strikeout pitcher with 8.55 K/9-inning, but he also tends to issue more walks (23:50 walk to strikeout ratio).

Update:  Although this was posted today, I received word about an hour ago that Tyler Smith is indeed the starter for our game.  I wish I had more information on him, but alas, I work the hand I’m dealt.

Relief

In relief, Cincinnati returns its top closer and setup man. Senior RHP Jake Geglein, the 2009 team captain, returns with his 3-0 record and 9 saves. His 2.30 ERA, .267 opponent batting average, and 36 Ks in 43 innings are impressive. Geglein is currently 4th all-time at Cincinnati with 11 saves (they aren’t as common in the college game). Setting up Geglein will be Senior RHP Billy Welsh. Welsh only made it into 17 innings in 13 appearances last season, but posted a 1-0 record with 3 saves. His 2.08 ERA and .190 opponent batting averages were a team best.

Links of Various Relevancy

UC Preview Part 1: Overview and Catchers (GoBearCats.com)
UC Preview Part 2: Middle Infielders (GoBearCats.com)
UC Preview Part 3: Corner Infielders (GoBearCats.com)
UC Preview Part 4: Outfielders (GoBearCats.com)
UC Preview Part 5: Pitchers (GoBearcats.com, to be released Friday)
Weekend Preview (GoBearCats.com)

Posted under Baseball