Michigan to Visit Rutgers in B1G Road Action

THIS WEEK
Friday, May 4 -- at Rutgers (Piscataway, N.J.), 2 p.m.
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Saturday, May 5 -- at Rutgers (Piscataway, N.J.), 1 p.m.
Live Stats | BTN Plus
Sunday, May 6 -- at Rutgers (Piscataway, N.J.), noon
Live Stats | BTN Plus

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Following a mid-week home-and-home sweep of Eastern Michigan to begin the week, the University of Michigan baseball team (27-13, 12-2 Big Ten) will get back into Big Ten Conference play this weekend (May 4-6) with a three-game series at Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey. The series will begin on Friday (May 4) with a game at 2 p.m. The second game of the weekend is scheduled for Saturday (May 5) at 1 p.m. before the series wraps up on Sunday (May 6) at noon. Fans can watch all three games streamed live on BTN Plus.

• After a 1-2 showing at Iowa last weekend, the Wolverines dropped six spots this week to sit at No. 13 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 last week (April 23). Michigan was ranked 13 out of the 15 weeks of the 2017 regular season.

• This weekend's series at Rutgers will mark the start of a five-game road swing for the Wolverines. Following the Big Ten series in Piscataway, New Jersey, Michigan will head to Central Michigan for a midweek game Tuesday (May 8) before making the trip to Michigan State for a non-conference midweek slate on Wednesday (May 9).

• Following the five-game road swing, the Maize and Blue will return home for its final home games of the 2018 regular season, May 11-13, when Michigan hosts Illinois. The Wolverines will then wrap the regular season with three games at Purdue before heading to Omaha, Nebraska, for the Big Ten Conference Tournament, May 23-27.

• A loss at Iowa on Friday (April 27) in the series-opener 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 earned run average. Since a win against Bowling Green on March 16, the Wolverines have won 23 of their last 25 games, including 20-straight wins before dropping the series at Iowa last weekend.

• With Michigan's lone Big Ten losses coming at Iowa last week, the Wolverines sit atop the Big Ten Conference standings with a 12-2 record. Minnesota is close behind in the No. 2 spot with an 11-3 record in conference action, but the Wolverines and Golden Gophers are not set to face each other this regular season.

• The Maize and Blue ranks second in the Big Ten with a 3.25 earned run average and boasts a conference-low .226 opposing batting average. All three members of Michigan's weekend rotation also are ranked in the top 10 in the conference for earned run average. As a team, Michigan's ERA ranks 19th-best among Division I programs.

• The Wolverines are led at the plate by junior Jonathan Engelmann, whose .373 batting average ranks seventh in the Big Ten. Freshman Jesse Franklin leads Michigan with nine home runs and a .609 slugging percentage, which ranks sixth in the conference and leads all Big Ten freshmen.

• Rutgers will go into the weekend with a 23-18 record and a 6-9 record in Big Ten action. Despite dropping all three games at Purdue last weekend, the Scarlet Knights rallied for a 15-4 win over Columbia on Tuesday (May 1). Rutgers ranks fourth in the Big Ten with a .478 team batting average and leads the conference in triples with 14. Individually, senior Kyle Walker leads the Scarlet Knights at the plate with a .319 batting average, while redshirt sophomore reliever Tommy Genuario boasts a 3-0 record with a 3.00 earned run average through 30 innings, including 28 strikeouts.

• Rutgers and Michigan have only faced off 10 times in history, with the Wolverines holding a 6-4 edge over the Scarlet Knights. The teams first met 1912, with Michigan taking the game by an 8-6 score, but did not meet again until 2011. Rutgers swept the 2011 series, but Michigan swept the next series -- a three-game set in 2016 during which Michigan scored at least 12 runs in all three games. The Scarlet Knights hosted the Wolverines during the 2017 season and took the first of three games, but Michigan won the second and third games of the weekend to win the series.

• 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 off-season. 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.