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Last June, in the best of three in the College World Series finals, Michigan baseball took the series opener, but dropped the last two, losing the national championship to Vanderbilt, 2-1.
As the 2020 college baseball season started in earnest on Monday, the two finalists from a year ago squared off once again in Scottsdale, Ariz. as part of the MLB4 Collegiate Tournament, with defending champion Vanderbilt ranked No. 2 and Michigan at No. 13 in the D1baseball.com preseason Top 25.
And it looked like it was going to be more of the same as June on Friday evening, with the Commodores getting out to an early lead, first 1-0 in the first inning, then 3-2 in the seventh.
But Matt Schmidt and the Wolverines had other ideas, with the redshirt senior putting the Wolverines ahead for good in the top of the ninth.
See ya! @umichbaseball takes a 4-3 lead on a two-run shot off the bat of Matt Schmidt in the top of the 9th!#GoBlue | #MLB4 pic.twitter.com/ZcUXqIMxil
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) February 15, 2020
The game wasn’t without controversy, of course.
Freshman Jimmy Obertop was tossed from the game after he lightly dug his bat into the dirt, following a called strike.
this kid really got tossed in the 9th inning for …uh, swiping the dirt with his bat after a called strike? pic.twitter.com/n1wRlPp2zt
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) February 15, 2020
Why he was tossed for that? We couldn’t tell you, but it’s quite reminiscent of Michigan football’s Tarik Black flexing after a big gain, which saw the football Wolverines penalized 15 yards.
Michigan baseball plays two on Saturday, first against Cal Poly at 3PM EST on MLB TV, then at 8PM EST against No. 9 Arizona State on Facebook Live. The Wolverines finish out the MLB4 Tournament on Sunday against UConn, before traveling to Florida to take on UConn again for a three-game series.