Northwestern Takes Two from Michigan in Final At-Bats

Monday, May 13

Evanston, Ill.

2:00 PM CT

Michigan

17-29, 11-15

Northwestern

20-25, 11-13

Michigan

Northwestern

Northwestern Takes Two from Michigan in Final At-Bats

5/13/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Site: Evanston, Ill. (Rocky Miller Park at Harry Wells Field)
Scores: Northwestern 2, Michigan 1; Northwestern 5, Michigan 4 (12 innings)
Records: U-M (17-30, 11-16 Big Ten), Northwestern (21-25, 12-13 Big Ten)
Next U-M Game: Tuesday, May 14 -- at Central Michigan (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.), 2 p.m.

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern used a pair of last at-bat rallies to sweep Monday's makeup baseball doubleheader with Michigan by scores of 2-1 and 5-4 (12 innings) at Rocky Miller Park. The two losses drop Michigan (17-30, 11-16 Big Ten) back into a tie for ninth place with Penn State. After Friday's win at NU the Wolverines had risen as high as a two-way tie for sixth during the rainy weekend by not playing.

The Wildcats (21-25, 12-13 Big Ten) won the opener by scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh winning on a bases-loaded walk and then won the second game in the 12th on a first-pitch home run by catcher Ken Padgett. Sophomore RHP Jim Brauer (Carmel, Ind./Carmel HS), the third Wolverine pitcher, took the loss.

The Wolverines grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second game on a long home run by sophomore LF Brandon Roberts (Arlington, Texas/Martin HS), his seventh of the season. The Wildcats touched second-game starter senior LHP Jeff Trzos (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington HS) for a run in the bottom of the third to tie the game on a double by DH Pat McMahon and a run-scoring single by first-game hero LF Dan Pohlman.

Michigan regained the lead in the fourth as SS Brock Koman (Pueblo, Colo./South HS) was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a single by catcher Jake Fox (Greenfield, Ind./Indianapolis Cathedral HS). Northwestern bounced back in the bottom of the inning with a fly ball that fell for a "sun double" by 1B Travis Tharp, his third double of the series, but Trzos fanned two to end the inning.

The Wolverines scored twice to take a 4-1 lead in the fifth as 3B Brandon Jominy (Coral Springs, Fla./Westminster Academy) doubled to left and scored on a single by junior 2B Jordan Cantalamessa (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS). Koman knocked in Cantalamessa with an infield grounder to make the score 4-1.

However, Northwestern scored three to chase Trzos in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score at 4-4. RF Brandon Ackley knocked in two with his second double of the game and scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Freshman RHP Matt Collins (Bloomfield Village, Mich./Country Day), who allowed the tying run to score on the wild pitch, worked 4.2 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in a no-decision.

Northwestern missed out on a chance to win in the 11th when Cantalamessa turned a 4-3 double play with the bases loaded and one out.

Junior LHP Rich Hill (Milton, Mass./Milton HS) pitched his seventh consecutive complete game in the opener but suffered his sixth loss of the season, allowing the Wildcats two runs on one hit in the bottom of the seventh. NU LHP Ryan Bos won the battle of the Big Ten co-Pitchers of the Week although it took a last-inning rally for him to collect his fourth win of the year.

Hill fanned eight in the contest but it was the three walks (one intentional) and a hit batter in the bottom of the seventh that cost him the game. Hill moved his single-season strikeout total to 98, tied for fifth best in U-M history, and he needs just two more to become the third Wolverine to strike out 100 batters in a year.

The defense came through with a 5-6 force play at third base with 3B Jominy making the throw to SS Koman covering the bag. LF Dan Pohlman's bloop double fell fair by inches to tie the game at 1-1 and after an intentional walk to load the bases Hill issued an unintentional walk to ninth hitter Steve Haake for the win.

Michigan's first-game offense was a homer run by junior 2B Cantalamessa, his third of the year. The Wolverines had two other chances to score but failed to get a bunt down in the third inning after hits by senior/junior DH Mike Sokol (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle HS) and Jominy in an inning that ended with a 6-4-3 double play.

In the fourth inning Fox put down a beauty of a bunt to move runners to second and third, but an intentional pass set up another 6-4-3 DP to end the frame.

Michigan will play a single non-conference game at Central Michigan at 2 p.m. Tuesday (May 14) before closing out the regular season with a four-game home series against Purdue this weekend (May 17-19).

N O T E S

Michigan's extra-inning loss was the second of the year in two games with the other 3-2 at Texas-San Antonio in 10 innings (March 9).

When Brock Koman was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning it was the 11th time this year and it was the 29th HBP of his career to add to his U-M record that he set at Northwestern on Friday (May 10).

With hits in each game of Monday's doubleheader at Northwestern, Koman has hits in 41 of the 47 games played this season and in 83 of his 99 Wolverine games the last two seasons.

Michigan's Baseball Banquet hosted by the DugOut Club will be in the Schembechler Hall Commons on Monday, May 21.

Autograph Day will be held following the Michigan-Purdue doubleheader on Saturday, May 18. The twinbill starts at 1 p.m. with the autograph session after the second game.

Michigan's hitting leaders after 47 games (35 at-bat minimum) include: junior 3B/SS Brock Koman (.386, 66-for-171), senior/junior DH Mike Sokol (.326, 45-for-138), sophomore C Jake Fox (.311, 38-for-122), sophomore LF Brandon Roberts (.299, 47-for-157) and junior OF Gino Lollio (Cape Coral, Fla./Mariner HS) at .292 (42-for-144).

Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423