Michigan
Troy
Rain Washes Out Saturday Action, Sets Up Sunday DH
2/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
DOTHAN, Ala. -- Second-day action for the Wiregrass Classic, including the University of Michigan baseball team's Saturday (Feb. 25) contest against host Troy University, has been postponed due to heavy rains.
The Wolverines (0-1) will play two games on Sunday (Feb. 26) before heading to Florida on the continuation of the annual spring trip. Michigan will face original Sunday opponent South Alabama (6-4) at the scheduled 10 a.m. CST start time, with the makeup contest with host Troy (3-5) following the completion of the opener (approximately 12:30 p.m.). All the games are still scheduled for nine innings.
Fifth-year senior LHP Paul Hammond (Mason, Ohio/Mason HS) with a 4-3, 4.14 earned run average in 2005 is slated to pitch Sunday's opener for the Wolverines against South Alabama, with junior RHP Andrew Hess (Kalamazoo, Mich./Central) at 1-1 with a 9.62 ERA in 2005 set to face Troy.
This is the fourth time in Rich Maloney's four-year tenure as head baseball coach at Michigan that the first weekend action has been rained on. In 2003 the Wolverines were rained out vs. top-ranked Georgia Tech (Feb. 22) in the second game of the season in the Health Memorial Diamond Classic hosted in Savannah, Ga., by Armstrong Atlantic State. Maloney collected his first win in the Sunday (Feb. 23) makeup doubleheader, beating Rider 15-1 before losing 7-6 to Tech in the bottom of the ninth inning of the second game.
The 2004 season opener was rained out at Florida (Feb. 24), and the 2005 opener vs. Illinois-Chicago (Feb. 25) set for the New York Mets training site in Port St. Lucie, Fla., was officially rained out as a 7 p.m. game. The game was then rescheduled and played earlier in the same day (2 p.m.), giving Maloney his first Wolverine season-opening win before the severe thunderstorm did hit the area at 7 p.m. The Michigan and UIC series finale (Feb. 27) was rained out a year ago.
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
