Wolverines Stay Hot With Pair of Wins at Michigan State

Saturday, April 19

East Lansing, Mich.

1:05 PM

Michigan

26-8, 0

Michigan State

13-19, 0

Michigan

Michigan State

Wolverines Stay Hot With Pair of Wins at Michigan State

4/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery

Site: East Lansing, Mich. (Kobs Field)
Score: Michigan 10, Michigan State 4; Michigan 7, Michigan State 1
Records: U-M (27-8, 15-1 Big Ten), Michigan State (13-20, 4-11 Big Ten)
Next Game: Sunday, April 20 -- vs. Michigan State (Wilpon Baseball Complex), 1:05 p.m.

• Game 1 Boxscore | Game 2 Boxscore | Photo Gallery

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team continued its strong play in Big Ten Conference action with its fifth doubleheader sweep in league play, downing Michigan State, 10-4 and 6-1, on Kobs Field. Michigan improved to 14-1 in conference play this season and remains the top team in the league standings.

Redshirt junior Chris Fetter (Carmel, Ind./Carmel HS) posted his team-leading seventh win of the season. The righthander improved his record to 7-0 for the year, earning the win in the first game. In his 5.1 innings of work, Fetter scattered seven hits and struck out two, while allowing four earned runs.

U-M jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the first inning of game one. Six different Wolverines tallied hits, led by junior SS Jason Christian's (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland HS) two in the first frame.

Christian started the day with a double into the left-centerfield gap to extend his hitting streak to nine games. Fifth-year senior 2B Leif Mahler (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Prep) then drew a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs.

Senior 1B Nate Recknagel (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion HS) connected for his first hit of the series in the ensuing at bat, blooping the ball between the short stop and the leftfielder. The runners held at second and third, loading the bases for junior DH Zach Putnam (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer HS).

The Wolverine clean-up man wasted little time at the plate, driving a 1-0 pitch back up the middle and into centerfield to bring home Christian and Mahler for a 2-0 U-M lead. Junior 3B Adam Abraham (Grosse Pointe South, Mich./South HS) made it a 3-0 game with a long drive to left field that caromed off the bottom of the wall, marking his eighth double of the season.

Two batters later, Putnam scored and Abraham moved to third on a passed ball to up the score to 4-0. With two outs and Abraham still on third, sophomore C Chris Berset (Vienna, Va./Heights School) was called out on strikes on a 3-2 pitch -- but another passed ball allowed him to reach first and Abraham to score for a 5-0 lead.

Senior/junior CF Kenny Fellows (Holt, Mich./Holt HS) extended the inning with a perfectly-placed bunt down the third baseline to put runners on second and third. Christian gave the Wolverines an 8-0 lead with his second hit of the frame -- a single to rightfield -- to score Berset and move Fellows to third.

In his second plate appearance of the inning, Mahler lined a pitch off the leg of Spartan starter Mark Sorenson the ricocheted into rightfield, bringing home Fellows and completing the seven-run first.

The Maize and Blue added three more runs in the third inning when Recknagel launched his Big Ten-leading 14th homer of the year over the left field wall. With two runners on base and a 3-1 count in his favor, the senior slugger turned on a pitch and gave U-M a 10-0 advantage.

The jack was the 34th of his three-year U-M career and moved him into second place in the Michigan record books. He trails only Casey Close (1983-86), who blasted 46 in his four years while donning the block M.

Fetter rolled through the first five innings, allowing just two hits, but he ran into trouble in the sixth. After four runs on five singles and only one out an a runner on first, freshman RHP Kolby Wood (Eau Claire, Mich./Berrien Springs HS) got the call from the bullpen. The freshman ended the Spartan inning three pitches later, inducing a 6-4-3 double play ball off the bat of Brandon Doherty.

In game two, freshman RHP Travis Smith improved to 4-1 in rookie campaign, scattering seven hits over 5.2 innings, allowing just one run. Smith is now 2-1 in league play.

Putnam and VanBuskirk provided the power in game two, each pounding a solo shot in the second inning. Putnam's blast was the seventh of the season, extending his hitting streak to a career-tying 12 games.

The right-centerfield jack for VanBuskirk was his fourth of the season and second in Big Ten play. Three of his four homers this season were hit with the bases empty.

Abraham extended the lead to 4-0 with a two-run homer to left-centerfield on a 3-1 count in the fourth inning. Following a Putnam leadoff walk, the junior tri-captain blasted his second jack in the three-game series for the four-run Wolverine advantage.

The Wolverines added three more with one in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and senior/junior Michael Powers (St. Clair Shores, Mich./South Lake HS) came in to pitch the final 1.2 innings, leading the Wolverines to improve to 14-1 in Big Ten play.

The Maize and Blue looks to complete its four-game sweep over MSU when the two teams meet Sunday (April 20) inside the Wilpon Baseball Complex, home to Ray Fisher Stadium. Action begins at 1:05 p.m.

N O T E S

• Michigan swept Saturday's (Apr. 19) doubleheader at Michigan State 10-4 and 7-1 pushing the current Wolverine winning streak to 10 games allowing U-M to maintain its hold of first place in the Big Ten. The sweep was Michigan's fifth doubleheader sweep of the season. In other Big Ten action on Saturday Illinois swept two games at Minnesota 15-2 and 7-3 while Penn State swept visiting Indiana 8-1 and 3-1. Purdue beat Ohio State 8-0 in the first game in Columbus before the second game was postponed. Northwestern beat Iowa in the first game 13-5, but the host Hawkeyes gained the split with an 8-3 win in the second game.

• BIG TEN Standings (After 4-19-08): 1. Michigan 14-1 (.933); 2. Purdue 11-3 (.796); 3. Illinois 8-6 (.571); 4. Ohio State 7-6 (.538); 5. Penn State 7-8 (.467); 6. Northwestern 6-8 (.429); 7. Iowa 5-9 (.357), 8. Minnesota 5-9 (.357) 9. Michigan State 4-10 (.286); 10. Indiana 4-11 (.257).

• Michigan matched a season-best with four home runs in the 7-1 win in the second game at MSU Saturday while scoring seven runs in the first inning of the opener, missing the season best of eight (twice) runs in an inning by one.

• Senior 1B Nate Recknagel hit a home run in each game of the Saturday doubleheader at MSU giving him hits in 31 of U-M' 35 games played this season and in 130 of the 160 games he has played in his career at U-M.

• The home runs were the third and fourth homers during the week in five games for Recknagel and he now has 35 career homers as a Wolverine to rank second on Michigan's career homer list trailing career home run leader Casey Close (46, 1983-86). Recknagel, who played at Oakland University as a freshman in 2005, has 40 career collegiate homers.

• Recknagel's season total of 15 home runs ties him for seventh on the U-M season list with Jake Fox (15, 2003) and Bryan Besco (15, 1997). Next is a three-way tie for fourth place at 16 homers with Casey Close (16, 1985), Barry Larkin (16, 1085) and Chris Sabo (16, 1984). The U-M single season home run record is held by Casey Close (19 homers, 1986).

• Senior/junior RHP Chris Fetter collected his career season best seventh win of the season (7-0) in Saturday's opener at MSU gaining the benefit of U-M's seven-run first inning. He pitched 5.1 innings allowing seven hits and four runs (three earned). Fetter is 7-0 with a 2.89 ERA and he has a .218 opponent batting average with 43 strikeouts in 53.0 innings. Fetter's win matches teammate Zach Putnam as the active career leaders in wins (18). Fetter is 18-5 in his U-M career and pulls into a seven-way tie for 16th on the all-time U-M win list.

• Junior P/DH Zach Putnam, who pitched the win on Friday (Apr. 18) at the Wilpon Baseball Complex, used a bases loaded single in the first inning of the opener to give U-M a 2-0 lead and a solo homer to open the scoring in the second inning of the second game to collect both game-winning RBI for the Wolverines at MSU. Putnam has 16 career game-winning RBI. Putnam extended his hitting streak to 12 games to match his career best. Putnam is hitting .336 (46-for-137) with seven homers and 39 RBI. Putnam has 15 career homers and reached the century mark in career RBI with his two-run single in the opener and he now has 102.

• Freshman RHP Travis Smith pitched 5.2 innings allowing seven hits and one run in beating MSU 7-1 in the second game on Saturday to earn his second straight Big Ten win. Smith is 4-1 with a 3.13 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 37.1 innings.

• Senior/junior OF Kenny Fellows, who entered Friday's game as a pinch runner in the third inning and collected a run-scoring single, scored twice, and had his first two RBI of the season, started both games Saturday at MSU scoring twice and making eight catches in centerfield.

• Junior 3B Adam Abraham, who hit a solo homer Friday, had two doubles and a homer in Saturday's doubleheader. Abraham has four homers for the season and 15 for his career.

• Junior SS Jason Christian, sparked the seven-run first inning rally in the opener at MSU Saturday as he led off the game with a double, scored the first run and then singled later in the inning to drive in the sixth run. Christian had at least one RBI in eight straight games before getting stopped in the second game Saturday. Christian has 34 career multiple-hit games and he bumped his overall batting average up to .337 (31-for-92) and he ranks second on the team with seven stolen bases.

Contact: Gene Skidmore (734) 647-4423