Michigan baseball drops weekend series against Iowa

The Michigan Wolverines baseball team lost two of three to the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend to bring their Big Ten record to 3-3.

The first game of the series that was scheduled for Friday ended up being postponed, so the teams played two on Saturday and finished with a rubber match on Sunday after splitting the first two games.

Here’s what went down in the three game set:

Game 1

Michigan had some trouble getting the bats going in this one and it resulted in a big day for the Hawkeyes. Iowa starting pitcher Dylan Nedved was dominant in this one as the Wolverines weren’t able to get a run across the plate until the 8th inning. At that point, the game was already well out of reach.

Michigan hung around for awhile as it was only down 1-0 going into the 4th, but Iowa put up a total of 6 runs in the 4th and 5th to pull away and bury the Wolverines.

Clark Elliott continued to impress at the plate despite the loss as he went 2-4 on the day.

Iowa took game 1 of the series 8-2.

Game 2

It was Michigan’s pitching that was dominant in game two. Connor O’Halloran got the start for the Wolverines and he did not disappoint. O’Halloran threw 7 innings, gave up no runs and struck out 8. The Michigan bats didn’t have a huge day, but that didn’t matter with the way O’Halloran pitched.

The Wolverines struck first in the 2nd inning with 1 run and added an insurance run in the 8th when Brandon Lawrence hit his first home run of the season.

Chase Allen closed things out to earn his 3rd save of the season, and the series was even at 1 after the 2-0 Michigan victory.

Game 3

With the series all tied up, everything came down to Sunday’s game, and the Hawkeyes were ready to play.

Iowa took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning and never looked back from there. Michigan could never really get their bats going during this series and it plagued them again in this one.

By the time the Wolverines scored their first run, they were already down 10-0 and the game was essentially over.

Clark Elliott again had a nice day at the plate with two hits and so did Joe Stewart, but the rest of the team struggled, combining for just three hits.

Iowa won the rubber match 10-3 and went home with a series victory.

Michigan is back in action on Wednesday to host Purdue Fort Wayne.