Michigan baseball aims to keep title hopes alive against Northwestern

The Michigan baseball team is still in the hunt for the Big Ten regular season championship, and this weekend's series against Northwestern is a must-win situation, and maybe even a must-sweep.

Northwestern is not having a great year. It started with a portion of its coaching staff departing after they started the season 0-12 and lost most games by a lot of runs. Now, Northwestern is 8-35 (3-15) and sits in last place in the conference.

Michigan on the other hand is currently tied for 5th in the conference with a 23-22 (10-8) record, sitting three games out of first place. With how poorly Northwestern has been this year, it feels like anything short of a sweep would be a disappointment this weekend.

The common opponents shared between the two teams are Illinois, Nebraska, Michigan State and Rutgers. Northwestern actually won its series against Illinois, but the Cats did get swept by the other three.

Nebraska took two of three from Michigan and so did Rutgers, but the Wolverines won two of three against both Michigan State and Illinois.

On the offensive side, Northwestern is hitting .248 as a team and has one player hitting over .300, Stephen Hustrich, who’s hitting .307 and leads the team with 27 RBIs.

Northwestern’s pitching is where the struggles occur most. The team has an overall ERA of 8.50, and the Cats only have two solidified starters. Both are having underwhelming seasons.

The Wolverines will most likely see Matt McLure (6.38 ERA) and Michael Farrinelli (8.55 ERA) on the rubber this weekend, but it is less clear who the third starter will be.

Game one of the series is Friday at 1:00 ET, game two is Saturday at 2:00 ET and game three, which is also Senior Day and the final home game of the season, will be Sunday at 3:00 ET.