Michigan
Virginia
Michigan to Open 159th Season at Inaugural Puerto Rico Challenge
2/11/2025 1:17:00 PM | Baseball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team (0-0) starts the 2025 season at the inaugural Puerto Rico Challenge with three games in Ponce, Puerto Rico, before closing out the weekend in Caguas. U-M opens the Challenge against No.2-ranked Virginia (0-0) on Friday (Feb. 14) at 2 p.m. AST (note: AST is one hour ahead of EST) before playing Rice (0-0) on Saturday (Feb. 15) at 2 p.m. AST and Villanova (0-0) on Sunday (Feb. 16) at 11 a.m. AST to close out the Ponce Region. U-M will close its opening weekend in Caguas against Stetson on Monday (Feb. 17) at 10 a.m. AST. All games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Notes
• Last season, Michigan went 32-28 improving from head coach Tracy Smith's first season finish of 28-28. The Wolverines finished fourth in the Big Ten regular-season standings with a 14-10 record, winning all but two weekend conference series. U-M reached the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament but lost to Penn State in a back-and-forth contest.
• U-M returns 17 players from last year's team, including All-Big Ten honorees Mitch Voit and Kurt Barr. Jonathan Kim returns and will start the season in center field in his third season. Returning to the hot corner is Cole Caruso after a Gold Glove-finalist campaign in 2024. Dylan Vigue is back to lead the staff in 2025 after a strong summer.
• Joining the veterans is a new crop of talent that includes 11 players from the transfer portal and 11 freshmen. U-M's opening-day lineup could have up to five graduate transfers with Robert Hamchuk, AJ Rausch, Benny Casillas, Jeter Ybarra and Matt Spear.
• Voit earned a spot on the Baseball America Preseason All-America third team at utility. The infielder/pitcher was a semifinalist for the John Olreud Two-Way award last season and returns for his third season, this time at second base. Voit slashed .292/.373/.572 in his sophomore season, playing in 59 of 60 games. He also earned Perfect Game Preseason All-Conference honors prior to this season.
• Barr is returning for his third year with the Wolverines after a successful sophomore season. He appeared in 21 games, starting in 11 of them. Barr posted a team-leading 3.41 earned-run average and a 1.26 WHIP across 89.2 innings pitched and struck out 60 batters.
• Vigue is back for his sophomore season. In 2024, the right-hander started 11 games and made four appearances in relief. Vigue struck out 40 batters in 54.2 innings, compiling a 2-4 record. Coming into the season, he earned Perfect Game Preseason All-Conference honors and was named the No. 2 prospect in the Big Ten for the 2025 MLB Draft.
• Freshman Grant Bradley is ready to make his debut. From Brooklyn, Mich., he played baseball at Napoleon High School, where he was named to the All-State team. Bradley holds the Napoleon strikeout record and had an ERA of 0.46 in his senior season. He was named the D1 Baseball Preseason Big Ten Freshman of the Year and earned the relief pitcher spot on Perfect Game's Preseason All-Conference Team.
• Sophomore Gavin DeVooght comes to Michigan after a season at Ohio State, where he made 18 appearances, including eight starts, on the mound and struck out 37 in 44.1 innings pitched while compiling a 2-3 record. At the end of the season, he earned Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors.
• Virgina begins the season as the No. 2 team in the nation. The Cavaliers boast four D1 Baseball All-Americans and are the publication's pick to win the ACC. UVA finished 46-17 last season and made it to the College World Series before losing to North Carolina and Florida State. Michigan has faced Virginia 21 times in program history with an 11-9-1 record. The only neutral-site games were in 1983 when Michigan won both games at the Rollins Invitational Tournament in Winter Park, Fla.
• Rice begins the season unranked and was picked to finish second to last in the American Athletic Conference after finishing with an 11-16 conference record last season and a 23-26 overall record. The Owls and Wolverines have faced off twice, both times in the 1990s, with Rice winning both games in Texas.
• Villanova finished with an 8-13 Big East record last season and was 17-34 overall. Michigan is undefeated against the Wildcats, with all four games being played at neutral sites. The first matchup was an 8-4 win in 1986 on the Wolverines' spring trip to Orlando, Fla. The other three games took place in 2008 during an opening weekend series in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in 2008 when U-M outscored the Wildcats 47-19 across three games.
• Stetson went 41-22 last season but beings the season unranked. The Hatters won the ASUN championship before exiting in the first round of the NCAA Tournament but eliminated Alabama. Stetson owns an 11-6 record against the Wolverines, but Michigan has won the last three matchups. The last matchup between the teams came in Lubbock, Texas, with U-M winning 16-6.
