In the first inning, each of the first three batters for the Michigan baseball team reached base, the first batch to do so this early in a matchup against Penn State left-hander Logan Olson. While that is a feat in and of itself, none of those batters passed the first base bag. In fact, none of the Wolverines’ batter made it more than 90 yards in the infield for the first two innings of play.
Then, junior right-fielder Greg Pace stepped up to the plate.
Michigan (15-12 overall, 7-5 Big Ten) hasn’t had a hard time getting hits off of the Nittany Lions (17-10, 6-6) in the weekend series. The Wolverines secured 22 hits against Penn State in the first two games of the series, eclipsing the 17 hits from the Nittany Lions. Despite this, Michigan brought home just 13 runs, enough to secure only one close win. But in their final game on Sunday, the Wolverines finally found a way to turn hits into runs and gained the series win with a 6-5 victory.
Pace has popped in and out of the lineup thus far this season. After suffering a season-ending injury in 2024, Pace’s productivity has been limited. Prior to Sunday’s competition Pace held a .091 batting average, the lowest of any Michigan qualified hitter. Sitting squarely in the nine hole, Pace wasn’t expected to provide much to the Wolverines offense. But Pace changed that narrative quickly when in the third inning he went yard over the right field wall, scoring Michigan’s first run of the matchup.
In his first at-bat, Pace set a standard for the Wolverines’ offense. One that the rest of the lineup was quick to follow.
The remainder of the fifth inning saw Michigan bring home four more runs, thanks to strong at-bats from sophomore left fielder Colby Turner and graduate first baseman Jeter Ybarra. Senior third baseman Cole Caruso capped off the inning with a solo home run of his own, bringing the Wolverines score to five. Penn State’s offense worked quickly putting up five runs of its own through the first two innings, so Michigan’s fifth inning sequence proved just enough to tie up the game.
The following three innings were stagnant for both offense’s, as neither team recorded a run. The Wolverines seemed to show hints of the frustrations that had plagued them earlier in the series, as seven more batters reached base before Michigan was able to put another run on the board.
That run came in the seventh inning, when a double from junior pinch-hitter Jonathan Kim scored Caruso and gave the Wolverines a slight edge.
That edge proved to be all Michigan needed in order to secure the win. The final third of the matchup saw no more runs from either team. But the work that the Wolverines’ offense had already put in paid off, and thanks to a dependable defense, Michigan squeaked out the 6-5 win.
After Pace’s first at-bat, he didn’t put up another show-stopping swing. Instead, a walk and a sacrifice bunt were the last two at-bats that Pace saw. But it didn’t matter, because the impact he made in the bottom of the third inning set the Wolverines on track to secure the win.
