Michigan to Host Illinois; Friday Series Opener Moved Up to 3 p.m.

Schedule Note: Friday's game (May 11) was changed to 3 p.m. due to forecasted weather in the area. The game was originally scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

THIS WEEK
Friday, May 11 -- vs. Illinois (Wilpon Complex), 3 p.m.
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Saturday, May 12 -- vs. Illinois (Wilpon Complex), 2 p.m.
Live Stats | 1290 WLBY | BTN Plus
Sunday, May 13 -- vs. Illinois (Wilpon Complex), Noon
Live Stats | 1290 WLBY | TV: Big Ten Network

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team (31-14, 14-3 B1G) will return home this weekend (May 11-13) for its final home games of the 2018 season when it plays host to Illinois (28-16, 11-7 B1G) at the Wilpon Complex, home of Ray Fisher Stadium.

The series will begin Friday (May 11) with a game at 3 p.m. and continues Saturday (May 12) with a contest at 2 p.m. The series finale is scheduled for Sunday (May 13) at noon, and fans can watch the weekend finale live on the Big Ten Network.

• Michigan is coming off a five-game road swing in which the Wolverines went 4-1 with wins at Rutgers, Central Michigan and Michigan State. A series win at Rutgers marked the Wolverines' fifth in Big Ten Conference play this season.

• Following the weekend series against Illinois, the Wolverines will wrap the regular season with three games at Purdue before heading to Omaha, Nebraska, for the Big Ten Conference Tournament, May 23-27.

• The Wolverines dropped two spots this week to sit at No. 15 in the latest Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll. Michigan earned its first ranking of the season prior to the Maryland series as the Wolverines appeared at No. 16 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll on April 9, and were ranked as high as No. 7 (April 23). Michigan was ranked 13 of the 15 weeks of the 2017 regular season.

• Michigan sits tied with Minnesota atop the Big Ten Conference standings with a 14-3 record. While the Wolverines' remaining Big Ten schedule includes series against Illinois and at Purdue, Minnesota will host Michigan State before traveling to Rutgers for the final games of the regular season.

• The Maize and Blue ranks third in the Big Ten with a 3.36 earned run average and boasts a conference-low .229 opposing batting average. All three members of Michigan's weekend starting rotation are also ranked in the top 12 in the conference for earned run average.

• The Wolverines are led at the plate by freshman Jordan Nwogu, whose .394 batting average includes five homers through 37 games played. Freshman Jesse Franklin leads Michigan with nine home runs and a .615 slugging percentage, which ranks sixth in the conference and leads all Big Ten freshmen.

• Michigan finished the 2018 regular season with a 10-1 record against in-state competition and a four-game season sweep of Big Ten foe Michigan State. The Wolverines and Spartans played a non-conference game on Wednesday (May 9), with Michigan taking the game by a 10-2 score to improve to 31-14 on the season.

• A loss at Iowa in the series opener (April 27) snapped a 20-game win streak for the Wolverines, who had not lost a game since dropping their home opener to Lawrence Tech on March 14. The win streak marked a new record under head coach Erik Bakich and stands tied as the third-longest in program history.

• Prior to its 20-game win streak, Michigan was 4-11 on the season with a .219 team batting average and a 4.66 team ERA. Since a win against Bowling Green on March 16, the Wolverines have won 27 of their last 30 games, including 20-straight wins before dropping the series at Iowa.

• Illinois will come into the weekend with a 27-16 overall record and an 11-7 record in Big Ten play, which ranks fifth in the conference standings. The Fighting Illini are coming off a series loss at home against Ohio State last weekend and will be looking to with their first Big Ten series since a sweep of Rutgers in mid-April. Illinois is led by junior Bren Spillane, who leads the Big Ten in multiple statistical categories, including batting average, slugging percentage, home runs, RBI and on-base percentage.

• U-M has squared off against Illinois 245 times in the all-time series and maintains a 139-103-2 edge over the Fighting Illini since the first meeting in 1892. Since the turn of the century, the series nearly has been evenly matched, with Michigan coming up victorious in 30 of the 57 matchups. Additionally, 11 of the last 13 contests have been separated by three runs or fewer.

• After losing 15 players at the end of the 2017 season, including a program-record 11 in the Major League Baseball Draft, the Maize and Blue added 14 players to its roster in the offseason. The roster additions included 12 freshmen and two junior college transfers that hail from seven different states, and the Wolverine recruiting class was ranked No. 10 by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, marking the highest ranking for a Big Ten recruiting class.