Michigan
16-3
Eastern Michigan
6-16
Kunkel, Butler and Niemiec Lead Wolverines Over EMU
3/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
YPSILANTI, Mich. -- The temperatures were in the 60s and the offenses exploded as the University of Michigan scored six runs in the last two innings to beat Eastern Michigan 18-12 in collegiate baseball action Wednesday afternoon (March 30) at Oestrike Stadium. The Wolverines (16-3) collected their 10th consecutive win in the comeback contest that found U-M trailing the Eagles (6-16) by a 9-4 margin after four innings and tied 12-12 after six innings.
Junior RHP Jeff Niemiec (Livonia, Mich./Catholic Central HS), the sixth of seven Wolverine pitchers and the only one with a 1-2-3 inning in the game, earned his second win of the season as he retired six of the seven batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings. Niemiec, who leads the team and shares the Big Ten lead with nine appearances, lowered his earned run average to 0.84, tops on the team among pitchers with more than one outing.
Wolverine head coach Rich Maloney created excitement early with the lineup card as sophomore CF Eric Rose (Blissfield, Mich./Blissfield HS) made his season debut and junior A.J. Scheidt (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lahser HS) made his return to 3B after being the DH in his previous 15 starts. Scheidt started all 60 games at 3B in 2004, the only Wolverine to start each game last year. Rose doubled in his first at-bat, was 2-for-5 (.400) in his first game back and made two fine defensive plays, while Scheidt was 3-for-5 and scored four runs for the Wolverines.
The Wolverines scored in seven of the nine innings -- getting blanked only in the third and the seventh -- but collected three runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth for the win, the 13th U-M win in the last 14 games.
Senior/junior catcher Jeff Kunkel (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest HS) extended his hit streak to five games as he came off the bench defensively in the second inning and went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles. Kunkel scored twice, knocked in three runs and collected his first career intentional walk.
Senior RF Matt Butler (Lombard, Ill./Driscoll Catholic), the Big Ten Player of the Week when he had 11 hits in four games against Oakland last weekend (March 25-27), singled and scored in the first inning, doubled in two runs in the second and knocked in the winning run in the eighth. Butler pushed his team-leading batting average to .440 and moved his RBI total to 24.
Senior/junior LHP Paul Hammond (Mason, Ohio/Mason HS), the third Wolverine pitcher of the game, stopped the bleeding as he entered the game in the fourth inning and worked 1.1 shutout innings to keep EMU at nine runs and allow the Michigan offense to get back in the game.
The U-M offense responded with four runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth to take a brief 12-9 lead. Junior Chris Getz (Grosse Pointe, Mich./South HS), a preseason All-America 2B, made his second Michigan SS start and he used his speed to start the comeback as he singled, reached second on a wild pitch and scored easily as he read the flight of a single by senior 1B Kyle Bohm (Stevens Point, Wis./Area HS). Bohm leads the team with 28 RBI. Later in the fifth Kunkel hit a two-ruin double and the score was 9-8 for EMU going to the sixth.
Michigan scored four again in the sixth inning as sophomore LF Brad Roblin (Wayland, Mass./Rivers School) singled up the middle and picked up his eighth steal of the season. After an intentional walk to Bohm, it was Scheidt who delivered a run with a single to tie the game at 9-9. After junior DH Mike Schmidt (Saginaw, Mich./Heritage HS) drew a walk, it was Kunkel with a run-scoring single to snap the tie and sophomore 2B Leif Mahler (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Prep) scored two with a single.
EMU scored three runs in the sixth to tie the game. EMU LF Isaiah Gainforth paced the Eagles in the game, going 3-for-5 with five RBI including a three-run homer in the third inning, and catcher Brad Hrovat tied the game at 12-12 with a single off sophomore/freshman LHP Clayton Richard (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon HS). That hit scored Gainforth with the 12th run, the first allowed by Richard this season.
The Wolverines scored three times on one hit in the eighth inning to take a 15-12 lead as Butler batted with the bases loaded and two outs after a hit batter (Scheidt) and two walks. Butler's grounder to the right side was credited as a hit and scored Scheidt with the 13th run when first base was left uncovered, and Kunkel, who had drawn a walk, scored from second on an error.
In the ninth Michigan cranked up the attack as Getz singled and scored from first on a two-out double by Scheidt and Schmidt followed with a long homer to left, his third round-tripper of the season.
The Wolverines collected 21 hits in the game, the most since they have had since 21 in a 16-5 win last season at Indiana (May 16), and it marked the most runs for the Wolverines since a 20-4 win at Iowa almost exactly two years ago, March 31, 2003.
The Wolverines head to Minneapolis to open Big Ten play against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Friday (April 1, 6:30 p.m. CST) in the H.H.H. Metrodome. Senior RHP Jim Brauer (Carmel, Ind./Carmel HS), a first team All-Big Ten performer a year ago, is 4-0 with a 1.97 ERA and is slated to pitched the opener for Michigan.
N O T E S
• Former Wolverines at Oestrike Stadium for the game Wednesday included 1990 U-M co-captain Phil Price (1987-90), who is tied for second in career home runs at Michigan with 33, and legendary player and coach Don Lund (lettered 1943-45, coached 1959-62), president of the Dugout Club. Lund, a former Major Leaguer, coached the 1962 Wolverine national championship baseball team.
• OF Matt Butler extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a first-inning single vs. EMU. He had reached base 11 times in his final 12 at-bats of the weekend and moved the string to 13 of 14 with a single and a double in his first two at-bats at EMU.
• Butler also extended his streak of multiple-hit games to eight and his streak of three-hit games to four and he collected his team-leading fourth game-winning RBI of the season, snapping the 12-12 tie in the eighth inning. He is the active career leader with 14 "gamers."
• Senior RHP Phil Tognetti's (Newhall, Calif./William S. Hart HS) appearance in the sixth inning at EMU was the 57th in his Wolverine career. Tognetti is tied with former Major League Wolverine Ross Powell (57 appearances, 1987-89) for 11th place on Michigan's all-time pitching appearance list.
• Sophomore CF Eric Rose made his first start of the season and his 50th start as a Wolverine after missing the first 18 games of 2005.
• Michigan's leading hitters after 19 games are OF Matt Butler (37-for-84, .440), 2B Chris Getz (31-for-73, .425), C Jeff Kunkel (17-for-41, .415),1B Kyle Bohm (29-for-75, .387), DH/3B A.J. Scheidt (22-for-62, .355) and OF Mike Schmidt (16-for-47, .340).
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Niemiec, Jeff (2-0)
L: Will Stewardson (0-3)
Batting:
2B: Butler, Matt 1 ; Scheidt, A.J. 1 ; Kunkel, Jeff 2 ; Rose, Eric 1
HR: Schmidt, Mike 1
RBI: Butler, Matt 3 ; Bohm, Kyle 1 ; Scheidt, A.J. 2 ; Schmidt, Mike 2 ; Kunkel, Jeff 3 ; Mahler, Leif 3 ; Rose, Eric 1
SH: Schmidt, Mike 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Butler, Matt 1 ; Roblin, Brad 1 ; Getz, Chris 2 ; Bohm, Kyle 2 ; Scheidt, A.J. 4 ; Schmidt, Mike 3 ; Kunkel, Jeff 2 ; Mahler, Leif 1 ; Pickens, Doug 1 ; Rose, Eric 1
SB: Butler, Matt 1 ; Roblin, Brad 1 ; Getz, Chris 1
CS: Butler, Matt 1 ; Rose, Eric 1
HBP: Scheidt, A.J. 1 ; Schmidt, Mike 1
PO: Butler, Matt 1 ; Roblin, Brad 1
Batting:
HR: Isaiah Gainforth 1
RBI: Jeff Hehr 3 ; Derek Lehrman 1 ; Isaiah Gainforth 5
Base Running:
RUNS: Jeff Davis 2 ; Ben Jones 1 ; Shane Davis 2 ; Jeff Hehr 2 ; Derek Lehrman 2 ; Isaiah Gainforth 2 ; Brett Witczak 1
SB: Jeff Davis 1 ; Ben Jones 1 ; Jeff Hehr 1
HBP: Ben Jones 1 ; Shane Davis 1 ; Brad Hrovat 1
PO: Brad Hrovat 1
