Michigan
Toledo
U-M to Make Short Trip to Toledo for Midweek Contest
4/15/2024 11:28:00 AM | Baseball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team (17-20) will head to Toledo (19-17) to wrap up a home-and-home against the Rockets on Tuesday (April 16) with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. at Fifth Third Field, home of the Toledo Mud Hens.
Notes
• The Wolverines won their fourth weekend series in a row after taking the first and last games against Minnesota. Kurt Barr threw a complete game in game one of the series and allowed just one run over nine innings. The offense helped out with eight runs on three home runs and three sacrifice hits. U-M fell in game two before rebounding to take the series. Cole Caruso hit a grand slam and Mitch Voit and Jacob Denner were able to limit the Gophers to just three runs in an 8-3 win.
• Voit continued his strong sophomore season with a .722 slugging percentage for the week. Voit had two home runs including a pinch-hit, go-ahead home run against Wisconsin Milwaukee and added six more RBIs and two more runs over five games. On the season, he leads the team in RBIs (34), doubles (16), innings pitched (57) and strikeouts (38). Voit is first in the conference and 10th nationally with 16 doubles on the season. He is also third in the conference with 87 total bases.
• Denner pitched the final 2.2 innings of the series finale against Minnesota for his 79th career appearance, which ranks fourth all-time. He also moved up to 12th all-time in career innings pitched with 246.1 passing Rich Stoll. Denner now trails Peter Helt by .1 for 11th and is 2.1 away from tying Brian Steinbach for 10th all-time. He also tallied two strikeouts for 233 career strikeouts -- moving him closer to passing Jim Brauer for seventh all-time at 237.
• AJ Garcia earned his first career start in the conference opener against Penn State and has started the next 15 games joining Dylan Stanton, Stephen Hrustich and Kyle Dernedde as the only players to start the last 16 contests. Garcia is second on the team over that stretch hitting .327 with a .493 on-base percentage. He hit his first career home run against Minnesota and has added five doubles over his 16 starts.
• Michigan is second in the nation in double plays with 41 on the season trailing only Purdue who has 42 on the season. The Wolverines turned four over the weekend with three in the series opener against Minnesota. Mack Timbrook and Kyle Dernedde have both been involved in 28 double plays this season. Michigan has a double play in 25 of the 37 games this season and averages 1.11 double plays per game which is third in the nation. U-M turned 39 last season and had 40 in 2022. U-M's season record since 2000 is 74 set in 2001.
• Over the past 10 games, Timbrook leads the team in batting average hitting .548 with 17 hits and a .600 on-base percentage. He has scored 10 runs and brought home nine with four doubles and one home run. Timbrook has also been perfect in the field with 30 putouts and 26 assists with no errors. Over the past 10 games, he has raised his average more than 100 points and now is second on the team hitting .309 on the season.
• Thirty-five of the 38 players on the roster have seen game action this season with 22 players recording a plate appearance and 18 players seeing action on the mound. Joonsung Park was the most recent to do so and was hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance. Five players have done both this season with Voit leading the way among those with eight starts on the mound and 133 plate appearances.
• Toledo is 19-17 on the season and was on a four-game win streak before dropping the series finale against Kent State in extra innings. The two teams met earlier this season when Michigan won 7-6 in 12 innings behind a Caruso RBI single. All-time, Michigan is 40-14-1 against the Rockets and 11-5 in Toledo with the last away matchup taking place in 2000.
