Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Wolverines to Host Crosstown Foes Eastern Michigan
4/1/2024 11:08:00 AM | Baseball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team (11-17) will finish the second half of the home and home series against Eastern Michigan on Tuesday (April 2) at the Wilpon Complex, home of Ray Fisher Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m., and the game streaming live on B1G+.
Notes
• The Wolverines have won two Big Ten series -- defeating Penn State to open conference play and ending Maryland's streak of 23 consecutive conference series wins -- to sit in a tie for third in the conference. U-M dropped the Friday game against the Terrapins but rebounded to win 12-1 on Saturday. Jacob Denner pitched 7.2 innings of one-run baseball while the offense exploded with an eight-run second inning. In the Sunday rubber match, Mitch Voit earned the start on the mound and went seven innings. He also added a home run at the plate to give U-M the lead in the sixth inning.Â
• Voit hit .375 over the week and added five runs and six RBIs. He is leading the team in many categories on both sides of the ball. Voit leads the team in average (.333), doubles (13), innings pitched (44.1) and strikeouts (29) among other categories. He is tenth in the conference in hits and second in doubles. Voit has four home runs on the season. He set a new career high in strikeouts with six on Sunday against Maryland and passed his season total last year of 25.
• The Wolverines are tied with Purdue for second in the nation in double plays and trail Coastal Carolina who have 34 on the season. Kyle Dernedde has been involved in 24 of the 32 double plays while Mack Timbrook is second on the team at 21. U-M turned one over the weekend and has turned at least one double play in 19 of its 28 games this season.
• Stephen Hrustich homered over the weekend and is tied with Drake Westcott of Illinois for the conference lead at nine. He also ranks seventh in the conference in slugging percentage at .653 and fourth in walks at 25. Over the last 14 games, Hrustich raised his average by more than 100 points and is now second on the team hitting .296 on the season.Â
• Over the last weekend, Cole Caruso led the Wolverines with nine hits for a .692 average. He slugged 1.000 with four doubles and added five runs and five RBIs. After his strong weekend, his average improved by sixty points, and he is now hitting .243 on the season. He is also tied for the team lead in RBIs with 22 and in a five-way tie for second in doubles with six. Caruso had four doubles over the weekend including three in the Saturday game. Â
• Denner earned the start on Saturday and quieted the Maryland offense. He pitched 7.2 innings and allowed just six baserunners -- three hits, two walks, and one hit by pitch. Denner struck out six Terrapins batters and allowed just one run. With the appearance, he now has 76 for his career which ties him with Ali Husain and Mike Ignasiak for fourth all-time in career appearances. He also moved up the career strikeouts list and passed Connor O'Halloran and Oliver Jaskie to sit ninth all-time with 226 and now trails Rich Hill by three.
• Mack Timbrook had a strong weekend at the plate with seven hits, four runs and four RBIs. On Sunday, he hit his second home run of the season, a three-run bomb which added some insurance runs. Timbrook raised his batting average by 45 points over the weekend and added a stolen base for five on the season.
• Collin Priest hit .400 over the weekend and was one of five players to hit a home run. He is now third on the team hitting .286 with four home runs. He is second in slugging percentage at .592. Priest has played in 24 games with 12 starts and made his first start in the field on Sunday making the start at first base. Â
• Thirty-five of the 38 players on the roster have seen game action this season with 22 players recording a plate appearance and 18 players seeing action on the mound. Joonsung Park was the most recent to do so and was hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance. Five players have done both this season with Voit leading the way among those with six starts on the mound and 106 plate appearances.
• Eastern Michigan is 11-15 on the season but has won six of its last eight games. All time, U-M is 121-64-2 against Eastern and the first game was back in 1867. In Ann Arbor, the Wolverines are 74-34 with the last game coming in 2019, a 10-1 win for U-M. The two teams met earlier this year with EMU winning, 14-4.
