Big Ten Champs: Michigan baseball peaking at the right time again
Michigan coach Erik Bakich usually gets his team playing well at the right time. His squad is at it once again.
The Wolverines hammered Iowa 13-1, stopped after seven innings due to the run rule, and then crushed No. 2 Rutgers 10-4 in the Bit title game Sunday to win the Big Ten Tournament. The Wolverines punched their NCAA Tournament ticket as a result and will continue on in the postseason.
RELATED: Michigan baseball falls to Iowa, needs two wins Sunday for title
The bats carried Michigan throughout the tournament, as expected. The Wolverines scored 48 runs in their five games, combining small ball and the long ball to put together their most impressive run of the season.
It was all on display in the championship game Sunday night. With Michigan holding on to a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning, catcher Jimmy Obertop launched a three-run bomb to open it up. Bakich called for a suicide squeeze with two speedsters on second and third and scored two more in the ninth when No. 9 hitter Jack Van Remortel laid it down perfectly to score two runs.
Right fielder Clark Elliott earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament, driving in eight runs and stealing four bases. He went 1-for-5 with a run scored in the title game also drawing a walk. He told the Big Ten Network he’d share his award with the team.
“That’s amazing,” he said when he learned he’d won it. “My team here has been right behind me this entire journey … this is a team award. It’s not an individual award, at all.”
Obertop, shortstop Riley Bertram, third baseman Matt Frey, DH Tito Flores, and pitcher Cameron Weston all made the All-Tournament team.
Michigan opened the scoring with two runs in the first. Frey’s sacrifice fly and Flores’ right field single brought in two runs to give U-M the early 2-0 lead. Rutgers tied it with runs in the second and third, but the Wolverines scored one in the fourth, fifth and sixth to open it up. Frey notched another RBI single in the fifth as part of the rally.
A big moment came in the bottom of the sixth. Pitcher Jacob Denner, who picked up the win, notched a bases loaded strikeout to end a threat and keep Michigan comfortably ahead. He’d entered the game with a 7.1 ERA but struck out seven in 4.1 innings pitched and allowed only one run.
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He wasn’t alone in saving his best for the postseason.
“It was a gritty win,” Eliott said. “It’s tournament baseball, so anything can happen … everybody pulled their weight and pulled the rope in the right direction. It was awesome.
“… You’ve got to get hot at right time. You don’t want to back into the tournament … we can beat any team in the country right now.”
And they’ll have to if they want to continue to advance. But just like 2019, when Michigan made an improbable run to within a win of the national championship, Bakich’s Wolverines are peaking at the right time.
“I couldn’t befhabppier for these guys,” Bakich said. “They have fought, been knocked down but they always get back up …”
They had to beat Rutgers two out of three in the final series of the year just to make the Big Ten Tournament. Now, they’re on a roll.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt [this is like 2019],” Bakich said. “When you have an up and down [season] and get knocked down and get back up every time, it calluses you mind. It teaches you some resiliency.”
They’ll get their shot to show more in the days ahead.
