Michigan
26-27
Iowa
40-13
Michigan Drops Opening Game of Big Ten Tournament to Iowa
5/23/2023 4:40:00 PM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. -- The University of Michigan baseball team fell 13-3 to Iowa in eight innings in the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament on Tuesday (May 23) at Charles Schwab Field.
The Wolverines (26-27) will take on Illinois on Wednesday (May 24) at 7 p.m. CDT. The game will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network.
Michigan went 1-2-3 in the top of the first before Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Connor O'Halloran (8-6) took the mound. He allowed a one-out single, but stranded the Iowa runner at third with a pair of strikeouts to end the frame.
The Wolverines took a 1-0 the lead in the top of the second when Joey Velazquez, who singled to left and advanced on a walk and a wild pitch, scored on a Mitch Voit single to third base.
Iowa (40-13) tied the game up in the bottom of the second with a sacrifice fly. O'Halloran stranded two more with a strikeout to end the inning.
U-M drew three consecutive walks to Voit, Gabe Sotres and Cody Jefferis to open the fifth inning. Ted Burton then appreaed to have been hit by a pitch, but the umpires ruled he leaned into it, and he and the next two batters struck out to put an end to the threat. In the bottom of the fifth, O'Halloran walked the opening batter but struck out two in a row; however, Iowa then scored six runs on four hits -- including a grand slam -- to take a 7-1 lead.
Tito Flores got one run back in the sixth on a solo home run with one out. Eamon Horwedel and Ahmad Harajli combined for a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning, leaving two runners on, and the Wolverines trailed 7-2 heading into the seventh.
Michigan drew two more walks in the seventh inning, but both Jefferis and Jonathan Kim were unable to score. Iowa added to its lead in the seventh off Harajli and Walker Cleveland with a RBI single and three-run home run to push its advantage to 11-2.
Flores got the Wolverines going again in the eighth inning with a one-out triple and scored on an error that allowed Jack Van Remortel to reach, but that was the extent of the damage. The Hawkeyes scored two more runs in the bottom of the eighth to invoke the run rule and end the game.
O'Halloran fanned seven batters as part of a five-inning line that saw him charged with seven runs on seven hits and two walks. With those seven punchouts, he now has 110 on the season, good for a tie for sixth all-time in a single seaon. O'Halloran also stands alone in 10th with 222 career punchouts.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Whitlock, Jack (7-0)
L: O'Halloran, Connor (8-6)
Batting:
3B: Flores, Tito 1
HR: Flores, Tito 1
RBI: Flores, Tito 1 ; Van Remortel, Jack 1 ; Voit, Mitch 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Velazquez, Joey 1 ; Flores, Tito 2
HBP: Sotres, Gabe 1
Batting:
HR: Petersen, Sam 1 ; Frazier, Brayden 1
RBI: Petersen, Sam 3 ; Hojnar, Sam 2 ; Huckstorf, Kyle 2 ; Frazier, Brayden 4 ; Moss, Cade 1
SH: Petersen, Sam 1
SF: Huckstorf, Kyle 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wilmes, Ben 2 ; Petersen, Sam 1 ; Tello, Raider 1 ; Hojnar, Sam 2 ; Mitchell, Gable 1 ; Seegers, Michael 3 ; Huckstorf, Kyle 1 ; Frazier, Brayden 1 ; Moss, Cade 1
SB: Petersen, Sam 1 ; Tello, Raider 1
HBP: Seegers, Michael 1 ; Huckstorf, Kyle 1
