The Indiana baseball team’s offensive prowess hasn’t come under criticism all season. First in all major statistical categories — batting average, on-base percentage and slugging — the Hoosiers are the Big Ten’s most robust hitters. And with the low possibility of lights-out pitching from either team, the Michigan baseball team needed to win a slugfest to come out on top.
With a myriad of homers from both sides, the Wolverines (32-20 overall, 15-13 Big Ten) took on Indiana (30-22, 15-13) in a Game 1 thriller of their series. But Michigan came up just short of the win, falling by one run, 8-7.
As the Hoosiers brought in two runs off of three hits in the top of the first inning, the slugfest had already begun. In response, leadoff graduate shortstop Benny Casillas singled to left field, seeing only one pitch in his at-bat. Two plays later, junior Mitch Voit stepped up with a 400-foot home run over the farthest point of the Ray Fisher Stadium — good enough to move him and Casillas up and over home plate.
While it started hot, the rest of the first three innings of the contest proved to be disastrous for Michigan. With subpar pitching from junior right-hander Kurt Barr, the Hoosiers earned five runs with one coming off of a solo homer in the third inning. The Wolverines rotated through their entire lineup through both innings, earning only a single hit from senior third baseman Cole Caruso.
While Michigan’s mid- and late-game sparks were missing in its last weekend series, those sparks were not absent in this contest. Roping a full-count pitch deep into right field, Voit earned his 16th double of the year and second hit of the game. Another single from Caruso put runners on the corners. With only one out, a flyball from graduate first baseman Jeter Ybarra would secure Michigan’s third run of the game. But instead of looking to the clouds, Ybarra looked to the fences and crushed the payoff pitch for a three-run home run.
“I’m not gonna say I tried to do that,” said Ybarra. “… But I mean, with two strikes, I was just trying to compete in the zone, compete with any pitches in the zone. … The guy left the hanger curve ball down the middle and I was able to react and get the barrel on it and hit it pretty far.”
Now down just two runs, the Wolverines had room to breathe — but Despite Redshirt freshman catcher still Noah Miller not typically being a power hitter, he stepped up to the plate right after Ybarra and sent another ball over the right-field fence, cutting Indiana’s lead, 7-6.
“We never really question (Noah’s) approach,” said Michigan coach Tracy Smith. “ … Noah, for the most part, has given us pretty good at bats all year.
Michigan struck again in the bottom of the eighth after another homer from Indiana. With a photo-finish double from Casillas, a misplaced pitch that moved him to third base and a chopped ball from Voit, the Wolverines cut the lead to only one run yet again, 8-7.
After a shutout ninth inning from sophomore right-hander Dylan Vigue, Michigan hitters had a chance to comeback from their one-run deficit. A double from Ybarra kicked off the inning, but a successive flyout, strikeout looking and a strikeout swinging ended the inning without the tying run run for the Wolverines.
“Our execution in the ninth inning was terrible,” Smith said. “The bats that subsequently followed the double were not good at-bats”
Even though it fell early to Indiana, Michigan didn’t lie down. Although late home runs made the game close, the early admission of runs spelled disaster as it fell, 8-7.
