Michigan Baseball drops first game of 2020 in MLB4 Collegiate Tournament finale

College baseball season is a long and winding road with plenty of ups and downs and the Michigan Wolverines felt their first taste of defeat on Sunday afternoon. The team lost to Connecticut by a score of 7-1 in the finale of the MLB4 Collegiate Tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Isaiah Page got the start for the Wolverines and went 4.2 innings with 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk and five strikeouts. Jacob Denner, Keaton Carattini and Ben Keizer combined for 3.1 innings, 5 hits allowed, 5 earned runs, 3 walks and four strikeouts in a day that saw a rough outing for the bullpen. Joe Pace worked the final inning of play with a 1-2-3 outing and one strikeout.

Michigan was held to six hits on the afternoon and the only run on the day came from left fielder Danny Zimmerman (1-for-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 SO) on single that he was able to stretch to second base on a UConn error, which allowed center fielder Jordan Nwogu (2-for-4, 1 SO) to score.

The Huskies and Wolverines were tied 1-1 after four innings before UConn had a home run in the fifth, a 2-RBI single in the sixth and a 3-RBI double in the eighth inning.

Despite the loss, this was an overwhelmingly positive weekend to kickoff the year for the Wolverines on the baseball field after wins over Vanderbilt, Cal Poly and Arizona State in the first two days of the season. Michigan gets a quick crack at revenge against UConn when they travel to Port St. Lucie, Florida next weekend for a three-game series against the Huskies. First pitch for both Friday and Saturday’s games are set for 2 p.m. ET and Sunday’s finale will be at 11 a.m. ET.

Full box scores can be found via MGoBlue.com.