Michigan baseball falls twice over the weekend against Oklahoma State

The Michigan Wolverines baseball team hosted No. 24 Oklahoma State this week in what was supposed to be a three-game series, but the rain shortened it to two. Both games were pretty close, but the Cowboys won both.

After the series, Michigan sits at 21-20 (9-6 B1G) and is in a three-way tie for third place in the conference. It is now looking like the Wolverines will have to win the Big Ten Tournament in order to make the NCAA Tournament, even if Michigan wins the Big Ten regular season.

Here are how things went down this weekend against Oklahoma State.

Game 1: 5-3 L

The first game was close all the way throughout. Every time Oklahoma State scored to take the lead, the Wolverines responded instantly. Until they didn’t.

Oklahoma State scored first in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead, and Tito Flores immediately tied things up in the bottom half of the inning with a solo shot.

The tie didn’t last long as the Cowboys brought another run in the next inning, but the Wolverines once again responded in the bottom of the frame to even the score. This time, it was Ted Burton delivering with an RBI single, and the score was 2-2.

Burton came up big once again in the fifth with Michigan trailing 3-2, as he blasted a solo shot to tie the game again.

Michigan responded time and time again, but after the Cowboys went up 5-3 late, the Wolverines couldn’t fight back, and Oklahoma State took the game.

Connor O’Halloran took the loss despite pitching very well, and Isaac Stebens got the win for the Cowboys.

Game 2: 8-5 L

Michigan found itself playing from behind for most of this game, which hasn’t been a great recipe for success so far this season. The Wolverines ended up playing pretty well, but the Cowboys had already built an 8-1 lead at that point.

The fifth and sixth innings were big for the Wolverines and gave Michigan some hope after trailing big. Casey Buckley smacked a pinch-hit homer to make it 8-2 in the fifth, and then hit a two-RBI single in the next inning to make it 8-4. All of a sudden, Michigan had some life.

An RBI-groundout in the eighth scored one more to make it 8-5, but the comeback ended there and the Cowboys closed things out to finish 2-0 on the weekend.

Noah Rennard suffered the loss for Michigan and Ben Abram got the win for Oklahoma State.

Michigan returns to action at home on Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Kent State before hitting the road to play Minnesota over the weekend, a crucial series for the Wolverines’ Big Ten title hopes.