Michigan Hits the Road for Midweek Games at CMU, MSU
5/7/2018 4:58:00 PM | Baseball
THIS WEEK
Tuesday, May 8 -- at Central Michigan (Mount Pleasant, Mich.), 4 p.m.
Live Stats | Live Video
Wednesday, May 9 -- at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.), 3 p.m.
Live Stats | BTN Plus
• Complete Game Notes
• Coach Bakich on WTKA
• Follow #Team152: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Hot off a Big Ten Conference series win over Rutgers last weekend, the University of Michigan baseball team (29-14) will hit the road for two non-conference midweek games this week. Michigan will first head to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, for a non-conference slate at Central Michigan on Tuesday (May 8) at 4 p.m., before making a trip to Michigan State on Wednesday (May 9) for a non-conference contest in East Lansing at 3 p.m.
» The two midweek games signal the end of a five-game road swing for the Wolverines, who played three games at Rutgers last weekend. Following the midweek contests, Michigan will return home to Ann Arbor and play host to Illinois in the Wolverines' final home series of the 2018 season.Â
» Following a weekend series against Illinois, the Wolverines will wrap the regular season with three games at Purdue before heading to Omaha, Nebraska, for the Big Ten Conference Tournament, May 23-27.
» After going 4-1 with wins over Eastern Michigan and Rutgers last week, the Wolverines dropped two spots this week to sit at No. 15 in the latest Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll. Michigan earned its first ranking of the season prior to the Maryland series as the Wolverines appeared at No. 16 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll on April 9 and were ranked as high as No. 7 last week (April 23). Michigan was ranked 13 out of the 15 weeks of the 2017 regular season.
» The Wolverines currently sit tied with Minnesota atop the Big Ten Conference standings with a 14-3 record. While Michigan's remaining Big Ten schedule includes series against Illinois and at Purdue, Minnesota will host Michigan State before traveling to Rutgers for the final games of the regular season.
» The Maize and Blue currently ranks third in the Big Ten with a 3.45 earned run average and boasts a conference-low .227 opposing batting average. All three members of Michigan's weekend starting rotation are also ranked in the top 12 in the conference for earned run average. As a team, Michigan's ERA ranks in the top 35 among Division I programs.
» The Wolverines are currently led at the plate by junior Jonathan Engelmann, whose .375 batting average ranks eighth in the Big Ten. Freshman Jesse Franklin leads Michigan with nine home runs and a .623 slugging percentage, which ranks fifth in the conference and leads all Big Ten freshmen.Â
» Central Michigan will go into the week with a 20-25-1 overall record and a 12-9 record in the Mid-American Conference. The Chippewas recently dropped a series to Eastern Michigan last weekend, but swept Bowling Green the weekend before. CMU is led at the plate by redshirt freshman Griffin Lockwood-Powell, who boasts a .313 batting average to go with a .439 on-base percentage and .450 slugging percentage. Junior righty Michael Brettell leads the Chippewa pitching staff with five wins through 75.2 innings pitched.
» Michigan and Central Michigan played previously this season, with the Wolverines taking the game by an 8-5 score at home at the Wilpon Complex, home of Ray Fisher Stadium. The teams first met in 1956, with Michigan winning that meeting, 8-5. Since then, the Wolverines own a 43-30-2 record over the Chippewas.
» Michigan State enters the weekend with a 17-25 record and sits in eighth place in the Big Ten Conference after dropping a series at Penn State last weekend. The Spartans are led offensively by sophomore Justin Antoncic, who boasts a .289 batting average through 41 games, while redshirt senior Chad Roskelly leads the team with a .391 slugging percentage and 21 runs batted in. Redshirt-freshman Mason Erla is Michigan State's go-to starting pitcher with five wins and a 4.16 earned run average.
» The Wolverines boast a 201-106-2 all-time record against the Spartans, with the teams' first meeting occurring in 1884. Michigan swept Michigan State in the traditional home-and-home series to kick off Big Ten play this season, as the Wolverines outscored the Spartans 26 runs to four. The three wins came during Michigan's 20-game win streak, which included Big Ten sweeps of Michigan State, Northwestern, Maryland and Penn State.
» 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 head coach Erik 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 25 of their last 28 games, including 20-straight wins before dropping the series at Iowa.
» 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, and 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.
