Recap: Michigan Baseball evens series with UConn via offensive explosion on Saturday

The Michigan Wolverines (4-2 ) defeated the Connecticut Huskies (2-3) by a lopsided score of 14-2 on Saturday afternoon in Port St. Lucie, Florida to even this weekend’s three-game series between the two teams. All nine Wolverine hitters reached base in the contest in the offensive outburst after the team scored seven runs in the 8-7 loss on Friday.

All of Michigan’s runs came through five innings. They scored four runs in the first, two in the third, seven in the fourth and one in the fifth inning. UConn scored one run in the first inning and one in the second inning and finished with 10 hits on the game.

Redshirt freshman Steve Hajjar picked up his second win in as many starts for the Wolverines, finishing with five innings pitched and giving up two runs on six hits with three strikeouts and two walks. True freshman Jacob Denner pitched the final four innings and closed out the game to earn his first-career save.

The offense pounded out 14 hits on Saturday afternoon and chased UConn starter Colby Dunlop after three innings and six runs allowed. Senior outfielder Dominic Clementi continues to rake for Michigan, putting together a 3-for-4 day at the plate with two doubles and three RBI. Redshirt sophomore infielder Danny Zimmerman was 2-for-2 with a double, walk and two RBI. Freshman infielder Ted Burton was another first-year player to notch a milestone after smacking his first-career home run, which was a three-run blast to left field.

Junior outfielder Jordan Nwogu was 2-for-5 with a double in the game, which put his batting average for the season at .423. Sophomore infielder Riley Bertram had two hits for two RBI and scored three runs.

Rounding out the “freshman milestones” day was outfielder (and member of the football team) Joey Velazquez, who had his first-career hit in the eighth inning as the Wolverines started to sub guys in.

Win: Steve Hajjar (2-0): 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 3 SO

Loss: Colby Dunlop (0-1): 3 IP, 6 H, 6 R (6 ER), 1 BB, 2 SO

Save: Jacob Denner (1): 4 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 SO

Michigan and Connecticut will close things out Sunday at 11 a.m. ET in the rubber match of the series. The game will not be streamed or televised, so we will keep you updated here, as well as our social media accounts.

Full box scores can be found on MGoBlue.com.