Michigan
Iowa
Maize & Blue to Face Iowa in B1G Tournament Opener
5/21/2018 11:09:00 AM | Baseball
THIS WEEK
Big Ten Tournament
Wednesday, May 23Â -- vs. Iowa (Omaha, Neb.), 9 a.m. CDT
Tournament Central | TV: Big Ten Network | BTN2GoÂ
• Complete Game Notes (PDF) | Coach Bakich on WTKA
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team (32-19) will open postseason play at the Big Ten Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed on Wednesday (May 23) at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska, at 9 a.m. CDT. The Wolverines will first face off against No. 6-seed Iowa, and the winner will advance to play the winner of No. 2-seed Purdue and No. 7-seed Ohio State. All Big Ten Tournament games will be aired live on the Big Ten Network.
» The Wolverines earned a No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Conference Tournament after finishing third in the Big Ten. Michigan has advanced to the Big Ten Tournament each year under head coach Erik Bakich.
» Michigan finished in third place in the Big Ten Conference with a 15-8 record after dropping three games at Purdue in the final series of the regular season. Michigan also finished third in the conference back in 2015, which featured a postseason run for the Wolverines and a Big Ten Tournament title to give Michigan a berth to the NCAA Tournament.
» Michigan finished the regular season with a 32-19 record to earn the 30th 30-win season in program history. It is also the fifth 30-win season of the Bakich era.
» The Maize and Blue currently ranks in the top five in the Big Ten Conference in multiple offensive categories, including batting average (fourth), runs scored (fourth), RBI (tied-fourth), hits (fifth), and stolen bases (third). Additionally, the Michigan pitching staff ranks third in earned-run average and batters struck out, as well as second in opposing batting average.
» Michigan sits at No. 55 in the latest RPI ranking, which ranks sixth-highest of the Big Ten teams. Big Ten regular-season champion Minnesota ranks highest at No. 16, while Indiana (No. 23) and Purdue (No. 40) sit inside the top-40. In 2017, the Wolverines were at No. 35 in the RPI following the Big Ten Tournament and received an at-large bid to the NCAA postseason, but were one of the last four teams selected.
» A loss at Iowa in the series opener (April 27) snapped a 20-game win streak for the Wolverines, who had not lost a game since dropping their home opener to Lawrence Tech on March 14. The win streak marked a new record under Coach Bakich and stands tied as the third-longest in program history.
» Prior to its 20-game win streak, Michigan was 4-11 on the season with a .219 team batting average and a 4.66 team ERA. Since a win against Bowling Green on March 16, the Wolverines have won 27 of their last 30 games, including 20-straight wins before dropping the series at Iowa.
» Iowa earned the No. 6 seed for the Big Ten Tournament with a 13-9 record in conference play, which included a weekend sweep of Penn State to end the regular season. The Hawkeyes won the 2017 Big Ten Tournament and captured the conference's automatic bid to advance to the NCAA Tournament, where they defeated host Houston in the first round before falling to Texas A&M and Houston to end the season. Iowa will be looking to make its third NCAA postseason appearance in four years.
» Iowa and Michigan met previously during the 2018 campaign, with the Hawkeyes taking the series and snapping a 20-game win streak for the Wolverines. Overall, Michigan leads the all-time series, 118-56.
» The Wolverines finished the 2018 regular season with a 10-1 record against in-state competition and a four-game season sweep of Big Ten foe Michigan State. The Wolverines and Spartans played a non-conference game on May 9, with Michigan taking the game by a 10-2 score.
» After losing 15 players at the end of the 2017 season, including a program-record 11 in the Major League Baseball Draft, the Maize and Blue added 14 players to its roster in the off-season. The roster additions included 12 freshmen and two junior college transfers that hail from seven different states. The Wolverine recruiting class was ranked No. 10 by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, marking the highest ranking ever for a Big Ten recruiting class.
