Homers from Flores, Stewart Propel Michigan to Series Sweep of Michigan State

Sunday, April 17

East Lansing, Mich.

1:00 PM

Michigan

20-15, 6-3

Michigan State

13-19, 2-7

Michigan

Michigan State

(Michigan Photography)

Homers from Flores, Stewart Propel Michigan to Series Sweep of Michigan State

4/17/2022 4:04:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Kurt Svoboda

» Michigan scored three unearned runs in the third inning, highlighted by a two-run homer from Tito Flores.
» Joe Stewart hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning against his former team.
» Chase Allen threw 5.0 shutout innings to improve to 5-0 and Jacob Denner earned his first save of the season.

EAST LANSING, Mich. –The University of Michigan baseball team completed a three-game series sweep of Michigan State on Sunday (April 17) as the Wolverines used a three-run home run from Joe Stewart to build a 6-0 lead en route to a 6-3 victory at McLane Stadium.

The game was scoreless going into the fourth inning, when Stewart, a graduate transfer from Michigan State, led off the inning against his former team with a double to right-center. He stole third base with one out, and scored on a two-out error. That error continued to hurt MSU as U-M's next batter, Tito Flores, launched a two-run homer high into the trees beyond the left field wall for a sudden 3-0 lead. Operating with full momentum, Michigan doubled its lead the next inning.

Michigan kept the momentum going into the fifth and doubled its lead. Jack Van Remortel singled to lead off the inning, and Jordon Rogers bunted his way onto first. After a lineout, Stewart stepped up to the plate and smashed a fastball high over the 403-foot mark in center field, with the ball hitting halfway up the trees beyond the wall to give U-M a 6-0 lead.

Chase Allen improved to 5-0 on the season in a spot start, just his second of the year. The sophomore scattered two hits and two walks while striking out four batters -- all of them in the first two innings of play.

Allen gave way to Noah Rennard in the sixth inning. Rennard allowed a run in the sixth and two in the seventh. MSU threatened in a big way as a trio of singles in the bottom of the seventh, including an RBI double from the Spartans' leadoff batter Mitch Jebb that made it a 6-2 game with runners in scoring position. Trent Farquhar lofted what should have been an out to right field, but Clark Elliott lost the ball in the sun while going up the notorious hill behind the warning track, which resulted in an RBI double and a 6-3 game. Rennard then issued a walk but responded with a pair of clutch strikeouts to wriggle out of further damage.

Rennard then worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning and handed things off to Willie Weiss. Weiss yielded a jam-shot single over the shortstop's head, and U-M elected to make a change in favor of lefty Jacob Denner to finish a string of four-consecutive left-handed hitters. Denner recorded a harmless fly out, got a strikeout and then yielded a soft line-drive single to left field which brought the tying run to the plate in Brock Vradenburg. Denner sawed off the MSU lefty and induced a harmless fly ball to left to earn his first save of the season.

The Wolverines scored six runs on five hits in the series sweeping victory, but left just one runner on base while Michigan pitchers stranded 10 Spartan base runners.

Michigan returns to action next Friday (April 22) when the Wolverines begin a three-game series against Ohio State at 6 p.m. at the Wilpon Complex, home of Ray Fisher Stadium.