Michigan baseball keeps season alive with win over Illinois

With their backs against the wall in an elimination game of the Big Ten Tournament, the Michigan Wolverines kept the season alive with a 6-3 win against Illinois. Michigan will play again on Friday against the loser of Iowa and Indiana, who play on Thursday.

The Wolverines did just about all the damage in the 3rd inning of this one, propelling them to the next round of the tournament. Ted Burton got the scoring going with a triple to make it 1-0. The Wolverines got a couple more runners on base, and Jack Van Remortel cleaned everything up with three-run blast to break things open. Cody Jeffris added one more after that off an RBI single, and just like that, Michigan led 5-0.

Illinois wasn’t done, however, and had a big inning as well, scoring three runs in the 6th. Three separate RBI singles from the Illini made it a 5-3 game heading into 7th.

Jeffris stepped up big again in the 8th inning with a huge homer off the foul pole to give Michigan some insurance. Jacob Denner finished things off for the Wolverines on the mound in the 9th and Michigan came out with the 6-3 win.

It’s been more than 30 years since a team lost its first game in the Big Ten Tournament and went on to win the whole thing, but Michigan is one step closer to pulling off the feat. The Wolverines will need to rattle off four more wins to make it happen.