OMAHA, Neb. — Following its loss to Illinois on Tuesday, the No. 7 seed Michigan baseball team squared off against No. 2 seed UCLA in its final game of the season. And with nothing to play for but its pride, it battled all day.
Due to Tuesday’s loss against the Fighting Illini, the Wolverines (33-13 overall, 16-15) had nothing title-related to play for —no chance at a Big Ten Tournament win or an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Still, refusing to lie down to the Bruins (41-15, 23-8), Michigan tried to throw enough shots to complete the upset, but ultimately ended in a 7-5 defeat.
The Bruins broke the seal in the second inning. As the first five UCLA batters reached base safely in the second inning, the onslaught tallied three runs. But after freshman right-hander Tate Carey whipped a ball to third on a bunt, he regained his composure and retired the top-two hitters in the lineup.
While the Bruins punched first, Michigan punched back.
In their very next at-bats after the three-run bout, junior center fielder Greg Pace Jr. dropped a single into center field. Graduate shortstop Benny Casillas followed this up with a double down the third-base line, allowing the speedy Pace to score from first standing up. Later traffic on the basepaths allowed junior second baseman Mitch Voit to rope a line drive into the hole at short, bringing Casillas around to score and tightening the margin to 3-2.
While an early three-run deficit proved insurmountable in Michigan’s Game 1 loss to Illinois on Tuesday, the Wolverines clawed back inning-by-inning on Thursday, with pride on the line. It was a position that the team had been in all too often in recent games. Starting games off on the wrong foot has beleaguered Michigan’s record during its recent slump. But the ability to compete in a blow-for-blow slugfest against UCLA pointed to its bats having woken up.
“They jumped out to an early 3-0 lead but we came right back and put together good at-bats to get right back in it,” Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. “… You wonder ‘are guys going to play hard all the way through?’ Well we did that.”
In the fourth inning, Casillas fouled a hard line drive off his foot, forcing an examination from the athletic trainer and a lengthy pause while Casillas worked out the injury. Stepping into the box the very next pitch, Casillas roped a home run into the UCLA bullpen to take the lead.
“(Casillas) went out and got two hits today to finish at .401,” Smith said. “That’s a credit for everything that guy stands for.”
Playing through injury, the graduate was determined to stay in for the last game of his career. Casillas, batting just above .400 on the year, could’ve exited the game and preserved his historic record. Instead, he took the gamble and it paid off in the form of his second home run in three games.
An inning later, the two squads traded blows again as Bruins shortstop and Big Ten player of the year Roch Cholowsky and Pace both rocketed homers into center field — with Pace reclaiming Michigan’s slight 5-4 edge.
“We were chasing some runs.” Pace said. “But as you know, solo home runs don’t win games. I just wanted to continue to put together good at-bats.”
Pace’s words offer a forewarning for the danger of relying on the long ball. While UCLA squandered the lead for the first time all game after Pace’s home run, it stormed back with good at-bats. As a misplayed ground ball compounded the danger of a few base knocks, the Bruins scratched three runs across the board in the eighth inning to reclaim the lead.
While Michigan seemed primed for a comeback in the final frame, sending its top three bats to the plate, a quick one-two-three inning was an uncharacteristically quiet result to its formidable top-three hitters.
So in the end, it was UCLA’s punch in the eighth that proved to be the knockout.
Michigan didn’t roll over, but it didn’t get the job done. As the Bruins proved why they own a share of the Big Ten regular season title, the Wolverines left Omaha winless, despite a valiant effort in the face of one of the country’s best teams.
