Tag: Michigan Baseball

Notre Dame Baseball beats Michigan, keeps winning streak alive

The winning streak is just short to two handfuls

For the most part, midweek home games shouldn’t be much of a challenge, they’re set up to get the younger players and pitchers some playing time. That’s not always the case, especially when you are hosting a team that went to the College World Series finale just two seasons ago.

For the Irish baseball team, over the last two seasons, they have emerged as the Midwest baseball power, overtaking Michigan for that honor. Those two teams faced off against each other on Tuesday night at Frank Eck Stadium, and Irish slugged their way to a 14-5 victory, extending their winning streak to 9 games.

The Irish bats stayed hot all game, Spencer Myers hit a homer and drive on four runs, Brooks Coetzee had two hits and 3 RBI, while Zack Prajzner had just one hit but also drove in three.

The Irish used five pitchers on the day, with Jack Findlay, Aidan Tyrell and Radek Birkholz each having clean outings. Jackson Dennies and Liam Simon struggled but the Irish hitters picked them up.

The Irish have yet to lose in the month of April, racking up nine straight wins to run their record to an impressive 21-5. The winning streak goes on the road this weekend as Link Jarrett’s team heads to Durham, North Carolina to face Duke this weekend in ACC conference play.

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LOOK: Michigan football LB hits first career HR to give baseball team lead

Doing it on the gridiron as well as diamond! #GoBlue

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Usually during the recruiting process, we hear a lot about dual-sport athletes, but it doesn’t necessarily happen often. But, when you’re committed to a rival school for baseball before flipping to football, chances are, you really are a player who can do both.

Such is the case for Wolverines linebacker Joey Velazquez, who also plays for the baseball team. While he might not be a mainstay for the defense nor the batting order, we’ve seen him make big plays on both the gridiron, and now the diamond as well.

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Velazquez was responsible for forcing a pivotal fumble on special teams at Wisconsin in Week 5 last year, and now he’s helped aid the maize and blue in baseball. In the top of the eighth against Maryland, the game tied at four-all, Velazquez came in as a pinch hitter, and hit a three-run shot to give Michigan baseball the lead.

As a result of Velazquez’s dinger, the Wolverines won the game by the aforementioned 7-4 score.

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Notre Dame baseball projected to get ousted in South Bend regional

Will it be a short stay in the NCAA’s for the Irish?

The Irish are fresh off a regular season which saw them atop the ACC only to fall in the pool finale against Virginia. They got great news earlier today, being named as the 10th overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

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Now the bad news, as 247Sports Robbie Weinstein has predicted the outcomes of each regional, and things don’t look great for the Irish ACC according to him.

This is the easiest upset pick in the bracket thanks to Michigan’s track record, particularly as it relates to the postseason. The Wolverines are used to pulling upsets in the postseason under coach Erik Bakich, and Notre Dame did not face a much better level of competition this season in a down year for the ACC.

As a former member of a college baseball team, literally anything can happen  in the NCAA tournament. It’s extremely similar to the basketball tournament, throw out the records and just play the game.

Although Michigan has the experience, the Irish will have something all weekend that the Wolverines, Connecticut and Central Michigan won’t have, playing in front of their home crowd.

I feel like that will be the factor that puts the Irish over the edge and the win their regional and advance to the super-regionals, one step closer to the college World Series.

Baseball drops decisive game of three-game series with Michigan

The Ohio State baseball team had an opportunity to stay on pace with Michigan in the Big Ten, but fell in a blowout in Ann Arbor.

The Ohio State baseball team has been on a tear recently, but it has a bit of a speed bump against Michigan over the last two contests. After taking Friday’s three-game weekend series opener, OSU lost Saturday’s foray into its rival’s home field 7-0, then came back today and lost by a score of 16-7.

The offense was unstoppable for the Wolverines. They raced out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back. The Buckeyes tried to claw their way back into the game by cutting the score to 7-3 after the top of the eighth inning, but then Michigan exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the inning. The Wolverines finished the game with sixteen hits.

With the loss, Ohio State drops to 13-9 to fall two games behind Michigan and 2.5 behind first-place Nebraska. Despite the series loss, the Buckeyes have found some momentum and put themselves in position to make a run for a Big Ten title at the halfway point of the season.

Next up is a three-game weekend series at Maryland beginning on Friday.

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Ohio State baseball drops game two of series vs. rival Michigan

After winning on Friday, Ohio State dropped the second of a three-game weekend series with rival Michigan Saturday.

The Ohio State baseball team got a big 7-4 win against No. 25 Michigan, but couldn’t replicate the same success Saturday, losing in Ann Arbor 7-0.

The Buckeyes were befuddled and bedazzled by starting Wolverines’ pitcher Cameron Weston. He went 6.2 innings, scattering five hits and striking out five to get the win and improve to 4-1. He hurled just 101 pitches and outdueled OSU ace, lefty Seth Lonsway.

While the Buckeyes couldn’t muster much offense, the Wolverines were able to produce seven runs on nine hits, scoring one run in the 2nd inning, three in the 4th, two in the 6th, and one more in the 7th.

“We weren’t able to control their run game today,” Ohio State coach Greg Beals said. “There were a couple of situations where we had them and yet we didn’t execute. I give Michigan credit as they had a game plan against Seth and executed it. They were able to capitalize when they had guys on base and we weren’t able to.”

With the loss, Michigan regains sole possession of second place in the Big Ten, just one game ahead of Ohio State and 1/2 game behind first-place Nebraska. The two rivals will do battle again on Sunday at Noon with the game being streamed live on ESPNU.

Ohio State 2021 baseball schedule

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Ohio State baseball team takes first of three vs. Michigan

The Ohio State baseball team took the first game of a three-game weekend set vs. Michigan for its fifth win in a row Friday night.

Our past few months and weeks have been consumed with Ohio State and college basketball, and rightly so. The Buckeyes got hot, then got cold, then got hot again, just in time to lose their first-round game in the NCAA Tournament.

You may have followed that at least a little, but because of all the drama, we can’t blame you if you haven’t kept up with what the Ohio State baseball team is doing. To be fair the scarlet and gray boys of summer got off to a bit of an inconsistent start, but they are now starting to find a groove.

OSU swept a very good Indiana Hoosier squad last weekend in a four-game set to jump all the way up to third place in the league, and on tap this weekend is an important three-game series on the road against one of the teams ahead of it, rival Michigan.

Game one was Friday night, and Ohio State kept on rolling, winning its fifth in a row, this time by a score of 7-4. It wasn’t easy though. The Bucks had to play comeback after Michigan jumped out to a 2-0 lead through four innings.

Ohio State started the comeback in the top of the fifth inning when Scottie Seymour lined a triple just over the outfielder’s head and scored on a groundout to cut the lead to 2-1, followed by an RBI single by Kade Kern to tie things up at 2-2 after five innings.

Michigan would score two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to seemingly take control of the game 4-2, but the Buckeyes would come right back in the seventh inning with three more runs to take a 5-4 lead and never look back. With the win, Ohio State pulls into a tie with Michigan for second place in the league.

Ohio State would add on two more runs and win game one 7-4. The teams will be back at it again on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

Former OSU baseball commit, Michigan football freshman, gets first career hit

Once an Ohio State baseball commit, the Wolverines football defensive back got his first hit on the baseball diamond for the maize and blue.

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When Michigan reeled in Columbus native Joey Velazquez into the 2019 class, it was a matter of time before he’d be productive for the Wolverines.

It just turned out that his first stats have come on the baseball diamond before the gridiron.

Velazquez redshirted for the football team in 2019, where he’s a potential utility man on the defensive side of the ball. He was recruited as a VIPER, but also has shown penchant to play safety. But his versatility doesn’t stop there, as the former Ohio State baseball commit got his first career hit for the maize and blue, in the Wolverines rout of UConn on Saturday.

Pinch hitting in the eighth inning, then playing right field, Velazquez is now 1-for-1 in his collegiate baseball career, batting 1.000 in the early season.

Now, naturally, while he has an entire spring to work on his slugging ability, fans will hope his natural talent will translate to the same success on the football field this fall.

Michigan baseball ranked No. 1 in country after impressive start

The Wolverines climbed to the top spot for the first time ever in the polls.

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Sit down Vanderbilt. That’s what Michigan said in the season opener, taking down the reigning College World Series champion baseball squad, who came into the 2020 season with Baseball America’s No. 1 ranked team.

Sit down Arizona State, Michigan also said, taking down the No. 3 ranked team in the third game of the season.

The Wolverines started 2020 ranked by Baseball America as the No. 8 team in the country, but got out to a hot start, getting revenge against the Commodores, beating Cal Poly on Saturday afternoon, taking down the Sun Devils Saturday evening, before suffering their first loss of the season against UConn.

Regardless of the loss, the voters took notice, and for the first time in the history of the Baseball America poll, not only is Michigan No. 1, but it’s the first time a Big Ten team has also had that distinction.

Even with something of a new look, it seems that Michigan baseball is proving that its advancement to the College World Series finals a year ago, under head coach Erik Bakich, is not a fluke.

The Wolverines will have a chance to get back at UConn starting Friday, as the two teams begin a three-game series in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Michigan baseball enacts revenge for College World Series loss in season opener

The Wolverines exacted revenge over the Commodores, beating the No. 2 team in the nation in the 2020 season opener.

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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.

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.

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.

More on yesterday’s game from MGoBlue.com.