Michigan baseball’s NCAA Tournament appearance was a brief one as it lost consecutive games in the South Bend Regional. It opened up on Friday with a 1-6 loss to Connecticut as the team was held to just two hits.
The offense remained absent in their elimination game against Central Michigan on Saturday. Michigan accounted for nine hits but left seven on base as they put up only two runs in a 8-2 loss.
Left fielder Tito Flores opened up the scoring early with a solo shot in the top of the first to give the Wolverines the lead, but Central Michigan responded with eight unanswered runs. Things really started to look ugly in the fifth inning when starter Cameron Weston allowed back-to-back singles with two outs. Then, reliever Logan Wood stepped in and balked a runner in from third. Wood walked the bases loaded before being replaced by Joe Pace. Pace hit the first batter he faced making it 5-1 before getting a strikeout to end the inning.
Michigan had a shot of getting back into it in the seventh inning when it loaded the bases with no outs, but a strikeout and a double-play ended threat without a runner even crossing the plate.
The Chippewas had all of the momentum from their first at-bat in the game. Whether it was massive celebrations after home runs, wearing Halo masks in the dugout, or keeping Michigan runners stranded on base, Central Michigan was the much better team on Saturday.
Jordan Patty, the Chip’s starting pitcher, went 7.2 innings and struck out six allowing only one run in his outing. Central Michigan rode the coattails of his impressive start to a win keeping them in contention in the NCAA Tournament. They’ll move on to face UConn who lost BIG to No. 10 Notre Dame on Friday, 26-3.
Michigan’s season ends with a 27-19 record with losses in five of their final six games.
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