Michigan
Fresno State
Michigan Opens Smith Era With Split Against Fresno State, Michigan State
2/17/2023 11:16:00 PM | Baseball
MESA, Ariz. -- The University of Michigan baseball team opened the 2023 season, splitting a pair of games on Friday (Feb. 17) in the MLB Desert Invitational. In the first game, the Wolverines defeated Fresno State 6-2 before falling 15-8 to Michigan State at Sloan Park, the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs.
Michigan (1-1) opened game one with a leadoff walk from Cody Jefferis, who stole second but was stranded alongside Joey Velazquez to end the top of the first.
Connor O'Halloran looked strong on he mound in the first, allowing a lone single, and that runner was stranded at first basde as the inning ended.
In the second inning, Fresno State (0-1) took a 2-0 lead on two hits and two errors. O'Halloran was able to limit the damage to just two runs with a huge strikeout to end the frame. U-M get one run back in the top of the third inning as Jefferis walked and eventually made his way around the bases thanks to an error, a single by Ted Burton and a wild pitch.
O'Halloran shut down the Bulldogs in their half of the second and added another strikeout in the bottom of third as part of consecutive 1-2-3 innings in the third and the fourth.
The offense started to come alive in the top of fourth when Gabe Sotres homered to left field for his first college round-tripper to tie the game at 2 and took the lead when Tito Flores hit a deep single to score Greg Pace Jr.
Michigan added another run in the seventh inning when Ted Burton homered to left-center field to double the Wolverines' lead. In the bottom half, Noah Rennard came on in relief and picked up where O'Halloran left off. Rennard faced the minimum three batters after a 6-4-3 double play. Only three batters came up for Fresno in the bottom of the eighth as well after another double play -- this time a 1-6-3 -- ended any Bulldogs threat.
Michigan added insurance runs in the ninth inning with Burton's second home run of the game and Mitch Voit singling down the left-field line to score Velazquez and give Michigan a 6-2 lead. Rennard stayed on the mound for the ninth and pitched a perfect inning to give Michigan its first win of the season and the Tracy Smith era.
Michigan opened game two against Michigan State (1-0) with a Jefferis single. He advanced to second after Flores drew a walk and came around to score on a Joe Longo single to left field. The Spartans knotted the game at 1 in the bottom of the inning.
U-M got the bats going in the second, jumping out to a 5-1 lead. Jefferis plated three with a bases-clearing double, bringing home Pace, Casey Buckley and Camden Gasser. Jefferis then scored on a Velazquez sacrifice fly.
Allen escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second thanks to a big strikeout and a groundout and U-M escaped the inning unharmed. MSU added s run in the third inning after a walk and an error. The score remained at 5-2 after four innings, but the Spartans added one more in the bottom of the fifth off Eamon Horwedel.
Michigan was held scoreless in the top of the sixth, and in the bottom half, Avery Goldensoph relieved Horwedel. Michigan State tallied five runs on four hits and one walk in the inning to take an 8-4 lead after six frames.
The Wolverines cut the deficit to 8-6 when Gasser hit an RBI single to score Longo in the top of the seventh. Jake Keaser pitched a 1-2-3 seventh before giving up a pair of runs in the eighth to extend the Spartans' lead to 10-6 and gave way to Brandon Mann, but MSU scored five more times to push its lead to 15-6.
Michigan opened the ninth with a single from Brandon Lawerence, but was forced at second on a fielder's choice that put Gasser safely at first base. Jordan Rogers pinch-hit but flew out to right field. Flores followed with a double to advance Gasser to third. Burton stepped to the plate and a hit a two-run single to cut the Spartans lead to seven, but the Wolverines could not use the momentum with Velazquez grounding out 3-4-3 to end the game.
The Maize and Blue will return to action at the MLB Desert Invitational on Saturday (Feb. 18) against UC San Diego at Salt River Field in Scottsdale, Ariz. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. MT, and the game will be streamed live on MLB.com.
