Abraham, Recknagel Power Wolverines Over Illinois

Sunday, May 7

Champaign, Ill.

2:05 PM CT

Michigan

29-17, 16-8

Illinois

26-21, 12-12

Michigan

Illinois

5/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Freshman DH Adam Abraham (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Grosse Pointe South HS) hit a grand slam and sophomore 1B Nate Recknagel (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) homered twice as the University of Michigan baseball team defeated Illinois 9-5 in the series finale Sunday afternoon (May 7) at Illinois Field.

With the win Michigan gained a slit in the series for the second straight year at Illinois, and the Wolverines retain a share of first place with two weeks -- a trip to Penn State next weekend (May 12-14) and a home series with Iowa (May 19-21) -- remaining on the schedule.

Fifth-year senior LHP Drew Taylor (Toronto, Ontario/Upper Canada College) worked 4.1 innings out of the bullpen to record his fourth win of the season, and sophomore/freshman Ben Jenzen (Grosse Pointe, Mich./South HS) retired the final two batters for his seond save of the year.

Abraham's grand slam homer came in the fifth inning and gave the Wolverines a 6-3 lead, and U-M never trailed after.

The Wolverines collected back-to-back singles by junior shortstop Leif Mahler (Columbus, Ohio/St.Charles Prep) and fifth-year senior catcher Jeff Kunkel (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest) with one out in the first, but Illinois starter Brian Blomquist, an All-Big Ten first team pitcher in 2005, got a flyout and tapper to the mound to get out of the innings.

Junior RHP Andrew Hess (Kalamazoo, Mich./Central HS) faced three batters in the bottom of the first, allowing a single to shortstop Shawn Roof, his sixth hit of the series, but Kunkel cut him down attempting to steal second with Mahler making the tag. Hess had one strikeout in the first.

Illinois put two on with one out in the second inning as 2B Ryan Hastings was hit by a pitch and freshman DH Dominic Altobelli singled to right. RF Trevor Huisinga hit a liner off the glove of 3B A.J. Scheidt (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lahser). The ball deflected to Mahler at short and his attempt to force Hastings at third was dropped for an error by Scheidt. Illinois scored when 3B Joe Bonadonna hit a slow roller to Mahler and he beat the relay throw to first on an attempted double play. Hess picked Bonadonna off first for the final out of the inning.

Michigan junior CF Eric Rose (Blissfield, Mich./Blissfield) singled to lead off the top of the third inning and moved to second on a Mahler groundout. Kunkel drew a walk, and with two outs sophomore RF Derek VanBuskirk (St. Clair, Mich./St. Clair) singled up the middle to score Rose with the tying run.

Illinois CF Kyle Hudson singled to open the bottom of the third inning, and after Hess fanned Snowden, Roof singled to right, putting runners on first and second for Rohde, who doubled to left-center for a 2-1 lead. Catcher Lars Davis hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-1.

Abraham was hit by a pitch to lead off fourth inning, and with one out senior LF Mike Schmidt (Saginaw, Mich./Heritage) fouled off a pair of bunt attempts and then lined a double down the leftfield line. Rose grounded to short to drive in Abraham, making the score 3-2.

Hess worked a four-batter fourth and made a nice play on CF Kyle Hudson's two-out bunt for a 1-3 putout.

The Wolverines chased Blomquist as Kunkel and Recknagel had back-to-back singles to start the top of the fifth. Jake Stewart came to the mound to face VanBuskirk and he singled to load the bases.

U-M 2B Doug Pickens (West Bloomfield,Mich./Brother Rice) hit a grounder to third and Bonadonna forced Kunkel at the plate. Abraham then launched his fifth homer of the year and Michigan's first grand slam of the season to make the score 6-3.

It took Illinois seven pitches to load the bases off Hess in the bottom of the fifth on singles by Snowden, Roof and Rohde, and fifth-year senior Taylor entered the game with no outs and the tying runs on base.

Taylor retied Davis on a short fly to left and Hastings singled in one run and kept the bases loaded. DH Altobelli grounded to third and Scheidt stepped on the bag and fired the ball to Recknagel, who dug the ball out of the dirt at first for an inning-ending double play.

Mahler was hit by a pitch to start the sixth inning and he rode home on a long two-run homer by Recknagel, his third round-tripper of the year, and it marked his team-leading 20th multiple-hit game of the year.

Illinois started up again with one out in the bottom of the sixth as Bonadonna beat out a bunt for a hit and Hudson sliced a single to left. Taylor got the next two batters to end the inning with VanBuskirk in right making a fine running catch on Roof's two-out bid for his fourth hit of the game.

Illinois scored an unearned run in the seventh inning as Rohde reached second as Schmidt dropped his liner. Altobelli drove him in with a two-out single.

Recknagel's second long homer of the game made it 9-5 in the eighth. Taylor allowed a single in the eighth and came out for the ninth and retired Rohde, but catcher Davis hit a solo homer. After Hastings hit a single, Jenzen replaced Taylor and fanned Altobelli and got pinch hitter Chase Kliment to fly to Rose in center to record his second save of the year.

Recknagel had three of Michigan's 13 hits on Sunday and he had eight hits for the weekend.

The Wolverines host Eastern Michigan in a non-conference game Wednesday evening (May 10, 6:35 p.m.) with sophomore/freshman RHP Michael Powers (St. Clair Shores, Mich./South Lake) a potential starter for U-M with his 2-0 record and 4.34 ERA.

N O T E S

In other Big Ten action Sunday, Northwestern hung on for a 9-8 home victory over Minnesota to stay in a first-place tie with Michigan, while Ohio State fell out of first place with a 5-2 loss at Michigan State. Indiana doubled up Iowa 10-5 in Bloomington, Ind., while Penn State and Purdue split a pair, with host PSU winning the first game 4-0 and the Boilermakers taking the second game 6-2 in the series that runs through Monday (May 8).

Big Ten Standings (Through 5/7/06)

 1. MICHIGAN 16-8 .667 Northwestern 16-8 .667 3. Ohio State 15-9 .625 4. Illinois 12-12 .500 5. Purdue 11-12 .478 6. Minnesota 11-13 .458 7. Penn State 10-13 .435 8. Iowa 10-14 .417 Michigan State 10-14 .417 10. Indiana 8-16 .333

Legendary Illinois baseball coach Richard "Itch" Jones was at Sunday's contest, his first game of the year, in the home finale for the Fighting Illini. Illinois finishes at Indiana and Michigan State with a non-conference neutral-site game vs. Missouri.

Lenny Brickens, the crew chief of the weekend series, missed Sunday's contest due to food poisoning and was replaced by John Johnston. Don Umland worked the plate and Johnston worked first base.

The grand slam by freshman DH Adam Abraham was the first slam for the Wolverines since Kyle Bohm hit one against New York Tech in a game in Beaumont, Texas, March 11, 2005. It was the first U-M Big Ten slam since Jake Fox hit one at Purdue on May 17, 2003.

Sophomore 1B Nate Recknagel extended his hitting streak to a team-season high 12 games with his fifth-inning single.

Michigan's leading hitters after 46 games are: 1B/C/DH Nate Recknagel (57-for-153, .373), CF Eric Rose (52-for-144, .361), C Jeff Kunkel (58-for-161, .360), SS Leif Mahler (52-for-148, 351), 2B/OF Doug Pickens (49-for-167, .293) and DH/OF Adam Abraham (34-for-116, .293)

Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423