In all three of its matchups against Nebraska, the Michigan baseball team started out ahead. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, their initial offensive spurts were not indicative of their gamewide and weekend-wide performance, as their leads ultimately fell apart en route due to missed opportunities.
Despite its early headstarts, Michigan’s offense stalled time and time again, failing to muster momentum that could further extend their lead. While individual players hustled to scratch out runs, ultimately its lack of firepower across all three games spelled a series loss.
“Everybody struggled,” Wolverines coach Tracy Smith said. “… Statistically I bet our batting average with runners on base or just over the weekend in general had to be well under .200.”
There were bright spots, but those were few and far between. Without logging a single hit on the day, graduate shortstop Benny Casillas accounted for Michigan’s only two runs in Game 1, following his walks with aggressive baserunning to score. Game 2’s offense was propelled by big hits including a triple by junior second baseman Voit in the fourth inning and a massive leadoff home run by Casillas in the sixth. Caruso carried on the trend of big hits into the third game, walloping two powerful hits well past the wall to give the Wolverines two of their three runs for the day.
But leads held onto by a singular run and handful of players can be cut away at instant, and all weekend, that proved to be the case for Michigan.
“I don’t think we did much offensively,” Smith said. “Those are good players… Cole got a couple home runs today but that’s pretty much it. But thank god he got it.”
It’s a jarring contrast for a team reliant on the prolific production of their offense. The Wolverines rank third in the Big Ten in batting average boasting a .292 while fresh off of a 47-run weekend against Ohio State. In comparison, during their 92 at bats against the Cornhuskers, Michigan only summoned a feeble 18 hits and scored just seven runs all weekend.
“The offense comes and goes,” Smith said. “It’s partly what they were doing. Their arms were pretty good, they were very efficient, making good pitches.”
Smith’s remarks aren’t off base. Nebraska put together a strong pitching performance and balanced strike throwing with inducing soft contact all weekend. To boot, they minimized free bases and errors constricting any further momentum.
But ultimately the onus of the Wolverines defeat is entirely their own. In the first game, they suffered a myriad of missed opportunities, leaving seven runners on base. The trend was especially exemplified by the third inning where the Cornhuskers gave up two free bases off of hit-by-pitches while cycling through Michigan’s top of the order. And yet, the opportunity was hastily discarded as both Casillas and Voit struck out while graduate first baseman Jeter Ybarra was grounded out.
The Wolverines saw their offense the most stunted in Game 2. Of the nine innings, five of them were succinct one-two-three innings, manufactured by the aforementioned soft contact that Nebraka’s pitchers were able to produce. Even when Casillas scored in the sixth inning, Michigan’s offense simply couldn’t spark, leaving two more runners on base due to a series of fly outs.
As a whole, the Wolverines offensively idilded in ways that left every game within reach for the Cornhuskers. Even in their 3-2 win, Michigan’s inability to add insurance runs left the outcome uncertain until the final pitch. While Nebraska’s two wins were never certain, it simply had to wait for the thread to loosen, and it always did.
This weekend bluntly displayed the volatility of relying on a few key bats to carry the load. When Michigan’s offense hums, it can dominate, but when it sputters, it leaves a team with little room for error.
