Michigan Baseball Fall Recap
11/8/2018 2:13:00 PM | Baseball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The fall season has come to a close for the University of Michigan baseball team, which won both exhibition games of its 2018 non-championship season and participated in numerous community events during the fall months.
The first of the two exhibition matches featured a 22-10 victory over Lansing Community College in a scheduled 14-inning game on Oct. 7 at the Wilpon Complex, home of Ray Fisher Stadium. Michigan totaled 20 hits on the day, paced by Sophomore Joe Donovan, who led the team with five RBI, and freshmen Keaton Carratini and Riley Bertram, who each collected three RBI. The pitching staff allowed five earned runs on 11 hits. Freshman Willie Weiss pitched two perfect innings to lead the way for the Wolverines.
The second game, also scheduled for 14 innings, saw Michigan take down Kentucky, 8-3, on the road in Lexington on Oct. 14. The Wolverines jumped on the scoreboard first with a sacrifice fly from Donovan in the top of the first inning; he later added his seventh RBI of the fall with a single in the sixth. After Kentucky battled back to tie the game at 2 in the seventh, the teams traded runs in the ninth to bring the score to a tie at 3. The Wolverines started to pull away in the 11th inning, with an RBI single from sophomore Jesse Franklin and an RBI groundout courtesy of senior Jimmy Kerr, to give Michigan a 5-3 advantage. The Wolverines would add to their lead in the 14th, posting three runs on three hits, including RBI from senior Blake Nelson and freshman Riley Bertram.
The story of the game, however, was Michigan's pitching staff. Weiss started for the Wolverines and tossed three scoreless innings and allowed just one hit, while redshirt junior Benjamin Keizer pitched two perfect innings. As a whole, Michigan hurlers allowed seven hits and two earned runs over 14 innings.
The Wolverines also had an active fall away from the diamond, as they spent an afternoon with the University of Michigan Exercise and Sport Science Initiative (ESSI) on Oct. 17, and hosted its annual Halloween Batting Practice event for kids, ages 6-12, on Oct. 31. The team also held two sets of intrasquad scrimmages with the Ann Arbor Regional (Oct. 21-22) and the Ann Arbor Super Regional (Oct. 27-28).
The Wolverines participated in the annual ChadTough Run, which seeks to fund research and raise awareness for pediatric brain cancer with an emphasis on Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), on Sept. 29. Michigan recently joined East Carolina University for the Hot Pepper Challenge in the hopes of raising awareness for ALS. To watch the video of the challenge, click here. Finally, the Wolverines routinely visited C.S. Mott Children's Hospital through a partnership with the Michigan From the Heart foundation and the Michigan Athletics Let's Go Do Program.
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