Baseball's Home Opener vs. Dayton Moved to Thursday

UPDATE March 16: -- Michigan's three-game weekend series against Dayton has been altered due to inclement weather forecasted throughout the region. The teams will now commence their series on Thursday (March 17) at 6 p.m.

Friday and Saturday schedules are to-be-determined and will be communicated at the earliest possible opportunity. The teams remain scheduled for a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Due to the schedule shifts, Thursday's game will be free and open to all fans. Anyone who has purchased a ticket for games on Friday and/or Saturday can show the ticket for admission to Sunday's game.

Fans are encouraged to download the Michigan Athletics Mobile App to receive timely notifications about the weekend schedule. Announcements will also be made via the @UMichBaseball account on Twitter.

» Michigan's weekend series against Dayton has been altered due to inclement weather.
» Michigan's home opener is scheduled for March 18 vs. Dayton to begin a three-game home series.

This Week
Tuesday, March 15 -- at No. 4 Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.), 6 p.m. CDT, SEC Network
Live Stats |Video
Thursday, March 17 -- vs. Dayton (Ray Fisher Stadium), 6 p.m.
Live Stats | Video | FREE ADMISSION
Friday (March 18) - OR - Saturday (March 19) -- vs. Dayton (Ray Fisher Stadium), TBD
Live Stats | Video | Tickets
Sunday, March 20 -- vs. Dayton (Ray Fisher Stadium), 1 p.m.
Live Stats | Video | Tickets

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team continues its early-season travels with a single game at No. 4-ranked Vanderbilt Tuesday evening (March 15) before opening the home portion of its schedule against Dayton this weekend (March 18-20).

The weekend series against Dayton marks the first time Michigan has been able to host public attendance since the 2019 College World Series season. To celebrate the return of fans to Ray Fisher Stadium, all attendees 18 years and younger will receive free admission all weekend.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

• Michigan dropped two out of three games at Louisville last weekend amidst blustery conditions at Jim Sullivan Stadium, including a game that was suspended in blizzard-like conditions on Friday.

• Junior Clark Elliott led the way for U-M against the Cardinals, batting .455 (5-for-11) with a .600 on-base percentage. His best came on both ends of the suspended second game of the series as Elliott was 3-for-3 with three walks and four runs scored in the win. He also robbed a home run in right field in the third game of the series to show off his full arsenal of tools.

• Junior catcher Jimmy Obertop, who led U-M with 11 homers in the 2021 season, got his first long ball of this campaign and collected four hits on the weekend as he warms up offensively.

• Junior Jordon Rogers also logged his first round tripper of the season.

• Sophomore lefty Connor O'Halloran earned the pitching victory against Louisville. His start was shortened due to snow but he was impressive with a career-high eight strikeouts against one walk in four innings of work. Louisville scored four runs against him but two were unearned and two more came amidst routine fly balls that were lost in the snow and fell safely for RBI hits.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS

VANDERBILT

• Vanderbilt enters midweek play at 13-2 overall and riding a 12-game winning streak after dropping two of three to start the season against Oklahoma State. Vanderbilt has played all but four games at home this season.

• The team is led offensively by Davis Diaz (.459) and Dominic Keegan (.442), with Keegan leading the team in extra-base hits (10) and tying for the lead with four homers. Enrique Bradfield, Jr. is batting .283 and has already stolen 11 bases in 12 attempts.

• Patrick Reilly (2-0, 1.10 ERA) leads a talented pitching staff that has held opposing teams to a .180 batting average and a 1.94 ERA overall. Reilly had struck out 25 batters over 16.1 innings of work and eight different pitchers have logged at least seven innings through the early going.

• Michigan won the last meeting between the schools by a score of 4-3 in the 2020 season opener at the MLB4 Tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. Matthew Schmidt connected on a two-run homer in the ninth inning, scoring Clark Elliott, who singled with one out in the ninth to spark the rally. Elliott's teammate, Jimmy Obertop, had a double off the wall and classmate Ted Burton also started the season opener as a freshman. Senior Riley Bertram also played in that contest, starting at second base.

DAYTON

• Dayton enters midweek play at 7-5 overall and has dropped two straight games while seeing two games canceled in last weekend's cold weather.

• The team has struggled offensively at the start of the season, batting just .232, and is led by Keagan Calero's .341 average. Henry Strmecki (.283) and Alex Neff (.167) both have two homers but have combined for 38 strikeouts.

• Ryan Steinhauser (2.51) has been solid for the Flyers, striking out 17 batters in 14.1 innings, while Anthony Hattrup (0.79) has made two starts and two relief appearances, striking out 11 batters in 11.1 innings.

ABOUT MICHIGAN BASEBALL

• In the Big Ten Conference preseason coaches poll, Michigan was selected to finish second in the conference behind Nebraska and ahead of Iowa, Maryland, Iowa, Ohio State and Indiana. Ted Burton, Clark Elliott and Cameron Weston were all named to the preseason honors list.

• Michigan enters the season in familiar place as one of the teams to watch in a deep and talented Big Ten Conference. Most baseball media outlets have projected Michigan, Nebraska, Maryland and Iowa as NCAA Tournament teams.

• Michigan enters the campaign following a choppy 2021 season that saw the Wolverines advance to NCAA Regional play despite a decision by the Big Ten Conference to play a conference-only schedule. Michigan finished 27-17 in the regular season, advanced to Regionals and saw three players selected in the MLB Draft, including second rounder Steven Hajjar.

• Michigan has had 12 players drafted in the past four years. The Wolverines led all college programs in players drafted in the opening three rounds in both 2020 and 2019. Additionally, in 2017, Michigan had the most overall draft choices of any college program when a staggering 11 players were selected.

• In 2020, the Maize and Blue become the first school from the Big Ten Conference to earn Baseball America's No. 1 overall ranking, which came in the second week of the season following wins over then-No. 2 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Arizona State.

• Michigan advanced to the national championship game in Omaha in 2019, making its eighth overall appearance in the College World Series. The Maize and Blue has two national championships to its credit (1953 and 1962).