Michigan prepares for four-game battle with Purdue in South Carolina

»Michigan and Purdue will play four games, Friday through Sunday.
»Schools have not been in the diamond since the 2018 B1G Tournament.
»The Wolverines won three of the four games they played against Iowa in the season’s opening series last weekend.

THIS WEEK
Fri-Sun, March 12 – vs. Purdue (Greenville, SC)

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The University of Michigan baseball team had a brief turnaround before returning to play this weekend, going to Greenville, SC, for a series of four games against Purdue at Fluor Field, home of Greenville Drive (Boston Red affiliate) Sox High-A)

• Michigan enters the season in a familiar place as the best ranked team in both the Midwest region and the Big Ten Conference, as the Wolverines are ranked 22nd nationally by Baseball America and 19th by Collegiate Baseball Magazine. In last season’s shortened campaign, Michigan achieved the best team status in the country, according to Baseball America. UM, which started the season ranked 8th by BA, won 1st place by defeating former No. 1 Vanderbilt (4-3; February 14, 2020) and former No. 3 in the State of Arizona (5th 0; February. 15, 2020). The Maize and Blue became the first Big Ten school to win Baseball America’s No. 1 ranking.

• Michigan and Purdue will play a single match on Friday (March 12), a double match on Saturday (March 13) and a single match on Sunday (March 14). According to the guidelines of the Big Ten Conference, no fans may enter the stadium. All four games will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network Plus.

• The Wolverines defeated Iowa on Monday (March 8) and returned to campus early Tuesday morning (March 9). A “day off” on Tuesday will be followed by his only team training of the week in Ann Arbor before traveling to South Carolina to compete against the Boilermakers.

• Michigan leads the all-time series with Purdue, which dates back to 1893, by a count of 146-63. The teams haven’t faced each other since 2018, and Purdue is in a four-game winning streak after UM had seven consecutive games between 2014-17.

About UM

• Michigan demonstrated dexterity in pitching, defending and attacking last weekend, winning three out of four games against a talented Iowa team in games played in Round Rock, Texas. Michigan pitchers limited the Hawkeyes to a team hitting average of 0.198, while accumulating a better ratio than two for a walkout strikeout.

• Redshirt second year Steven Hajjar, an All-American consensus from the preseason, eliminated eight hitters in 6.2 innings from the opening game, but this was not the most notable opening act of the weekend. That honor went to the second year Jacob Denner, who eliminated seven Hawkeyes against just two hits in 5.0 goalless entries to win the third game of the series.

• The Wolverines must maintain the rotation of the previous weekend from Hajjar, right-handed pitcher Cameron Weston, Denner and Righty Blake Beers.

• Michigan’s bullpen was impressive against Iowa. Closer Willie Weiss returned to the mound for the first time since 2019, and his wipeout slider helped the powerful hitting five hitters over 2.1 working innings to gain victory in the opening game. Michgan also received stellar relief presentations from 2018 Leftist Freshman All-American and All-Big Ten Ben Dragani (1-0, 3.1 IP, 0 H, 2 K), freshman Connor O’Halloran (2.0 IP, 1 H, 2 K), graduate student Will Proctor (1.1 IP, 0 H, 1 K) and junior Jack White (2.0 IP, 0 H, 3 K).

• Offensively, Jake Marti delivered a double of two runs on his first stroke in a UM uniform and was a nuisance for Iowa during the four games with a base percentage of 0.556, a batting average of 0.385 and three stolen bases. He was accompanied by Tito Flores (Batting average of 0.357, three doubles), Christian Molfetta (.357, double, triple) and Griffin Mazur as players to get to the base more than half the time against the Hawkeyes. Mazur had an impressive weekend, driving a grand slam as his first hit in a UM uniform and followed the next day with an explosion of three races and a single sharp RBI to the left. His first home run reached over 410 feet and the second went to the upper deck at Dell Diamond.

• The Big Ten Conference announced a schedule of 44 games just for conferences in 2021, with each school juggling a varied schedule consisting of three and four game series and a series of weekends with multiple teams playing games against two schools .

Exploring the opposition

• Purdue won the opening game against Nebraska, but fought the attack for the rest of the weekend, setting a record of 1-3 against the Cornhuskers.

• On Sunday (February 28), the Boilermaker’s pitchers combined 16 eliminations against Nebraska, but the attack failed to sustain him, as Purdue left the bases with two eliminations and ended two entries with double game balls.

• Sunday holder Jett Jackson provided 10 of the 16 eliminations in just 4.1 entries, but allowed six base runners and two races in that period.

• Trent Johnson’s launch at the opening of Friday’s season gained some notoriety as he shot four times in a row at the season’s opening. He allowed four runs in 10 strokes against seven eliminations in five undecided work entries.

• Purdue’s pitchers hit 46 hits on 32.0 work starts against the Huskers, but also allowed a hitting average of 0.302, 0.422 on the base percentage and compiled a deserved run average of 5.62.

• Offensively, Miles Simington (0.455 batting average) and Even Albrecht (0.375) led, while Brad Nisel (0.333) made two triples and Zac Fascia (0.333) made two doubles over the weekend.

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