With just two outs left to seal the game, the odds were in the Michigan baseball team’s favor. The Wolverines led Northwestern by four runs, sophomore right-hander Grant Bradley faced the minimum batters in every inning he pitched and the Wildcats were down to the tailend of their lineup. But those final two outs were enough time for the game to nearly unravel.
Signs of trouble appeared in the second plate appearance of the ninth. Bradley, entering his fourth inning with just one hit recorded, walked his first man of the game. Then, Northwestern catcher Jay Slater, the last of the Wildcats’ lineup, hit a dinger just above the left-field wall. The play cut Michigan’s lead in half, now 7-4 with two critical outs remaining.
A mound visit allowed Bradley to regain his footing. He punched the strike zone twice in a row. When Northwestern’s leadoff hitter finally made contact, sophomore third baseman Brayden Jefferis lobbed the ball to junior first baseman Cade Ladehoff for the groundout. The Wolverines appeared to be back on track — the first home run written off as a blip in the eventual win.
But it happened again. Wildcats shortstop Ryan Kucherak sent a ball over the exact trajectory that Slater’s hit had gone. While it was a solo homer, it halved Michigan’s lead once again, now sitting at 7-6. The Wolverines clutched onto a one-run lead with one out remaining and facing the top of Northwestern’s lineup.
“(The Wildcats) have power,” Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. “In my mind, I’m standing on the rail like, ‘They’re probably going to make a run at some point,’ … But I thought Grant was the key to settling that whole thing down and throwing strikes and taking over in the middle of the game … I know it sounds weird, a guy gives up two home runs in the ninth as the player of the game, but he was the player of the game for Michigan today by taking over that game in the middle innings and just taking momentum away from their dugout.”
To Bradley’s credit, the floodgates never truly opened for Northwestern like they had for the Wolverines’ other opponents in the past. He didn’t throw a single strikeout during his tenure, but few of the Wildcats made strong contact, and all of them were put away with quick fielding.
Despite Bradley’s effort and his otherwise-impeccable three innings, Michigan put junior right-hander Gavin DeVooght on the mound to close the game. Like Bradley, DeVooght delivered when it mattered most. His first pitch was a curveball that caught the hitter looking. And although his next delivery landed inside and nearly grazed the batter’s foot, DeVooght found himself on the right side of the count again with a foul ball.
Still, DeVooght couldn’t close the game alone. The Wolverines’ fielders backed up the pitching staff down to the last plate appearance. When DeVooght’s fifth pitch came back soaring high and straight over center field, it appeared for a second that Northwestern might pull off the game-tying home run. But the ball fell squarely in the outfield and right into the glove of redshirt junior center fielder Greg Pace Jr.
“Sometimes you just gotta do this to the opposition,” Smith said, tipping his hat. “You’ve got to say, ‘Hey, good job by you.’ I still felt comfortable because we had some talent behind (Bradley), but I thought he did exactly what we needed him to do.”
Both Bradley and DeVooght did their jobs in the opener against the Wildcats. Bradley held the normally explosive Northwestern team to three scoreless innings, facing the minimum number of hitters each time. And DeVooght protected Michigan’s final one-run lead with a timely 2-1 count that built him a buffer. To fill in the gaps in the final inning, the Wolverines’ fielders secured outs every chance they could.
There wasn’t anything that Michigan could’ve done about the Wildcats’ final rally. But the Wolverines’ response to the last-minute surge, a combination of effort from the bullpen and in the field alike, was exactly what they needed to stay on top over Northwestern in their opening matchup.
