{"id":1048,"date":"2025-04-28T05:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/28\/pitchers-lead-defense-in-michigan-win-over-michigan-state\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T05:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T05:00:18","slug":"pitchers-lead-defense-in-michigan-win-over-michigan-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/28\/pitchers-lead-defense-in-michigan-win-over-michigan-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitchers lead defense in Michigan win over Michigan State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>For a majority of the season, the Michigan baseball team has struggled to find defensive consistency. While the Wolverines have had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-pitching-staff-finding-its-depth-midway-through-season\/\">flashes<\/a> of pitching talent, their wins can often be attributed to offensive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/benny-casillas-leads-big-innings-to-lift-michigan-past-toledo\/\">firepower<\/a>. But in Game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/explosive-first-inning-cements-michigan-win-early-over-michigan-state-6-5\/\">3<\/a> against Michigan State, Michigan\u2019s bats were silent through eight innings and for the first time, it was the mound that bailed out the plate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a complete team effort across the board,\u201d Wolverines assistant coach Jake Valentine said. \u201cGood pitching, good defense and timely hitting. Obviously, rivalry weekend it was good to come out on top and play clean baseball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Just two pitchers split their time on the mound Sunday. Freshman right-hander Tate Carey and senior right-hander Will Rogers controlled the bump, with Carey leading the first five innings and Rogers closing out the final four. The matchup marked Carey\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/carey-mann-preston-barr-keep-the-scorecard-clean-against-mount-st-marys\/\">third<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-defensive-mistakes-cost-final-game-comeback-against-iowa-falling-7-3\/\">straight<\/a> Sunday start as he has quickly developed into a dependable arm. On the other hand, Rogers is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/will-rogers-providing-essential-depth-for-michigans-bullpen\/\">familiar<\/a> face, having pitched just five days prior in Michigan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-turns-to-starters-to-secure-9-2-win-over-bowling-green\/\">win<\/a> over Bowling Green. While the two pitchers have drastically different tactics, their combined efforts proved just enough to secure the win for the Wolverines.<\/p>\n<p>While Sunday was the first time Rogers pitched against the Spartans, he had been active in the bullpen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/bottom-of-the-order-drive-michigan-to-8-2-victory-over-michigan-state\/\">throughout<\/a> the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-forces-mistakes-in-9-2-win-over-michigan-state\/\">series<\/a>. Rogers was ready and waiting for his name to be called, and in the fifth inning with the series sweep on the line there, was no easier choice for Michigan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIn the first two games there were some spots where we probably would\u2019ve used (Rogers) in the past,\u201d Valentine said. \u201c \u2026 But today he did exactly what we needed him to do, force contact and attack the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rogers employed his traditional pitching to contact tactic throughout the matchup. With a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-infield-secures-low-scoring-game-2-win-3-1-against-mount-st-marys\/\">dependable<\/a> infield behind him, Rogers\u2019 strategy worked as he ended his outing with only one strikeout but eight put-outs. The final batter Rogers faced illustrated this, as a pop up to right field was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/mitch-voit-impact-extends-beyond-the-plate\/\">secured<\/a> handily thanks to a diving grab from junior second baseman Mitch Voit. But from pitching to contact, comes contact. This manifested in the form of three solo homers in the last third of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to a solid start from Carey and a burst of offensive firepower in the first inning, these three runs surrendered by Rogers didn\u2019t spell disaster for the Wolverines. By stark contrast from Rogers, Carey pounded the strike zone and didn\u2019t give the Michigan State\u2019s batters an inch of breathing room. Carey tactfully picked his spots against each batter, often catching them unaware of where his next pitch would strike. Of Carey\u2019s seven strikeouts, six were swinging, exemplifying his ability to confuse opposing batters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Carey\u2019s) ability to work both sides of the plate with the fastball and the changeup really speeds up (opponents\u2019) eyes,\u201d Valentine said. \u201cA lot of strikeouts were elevated fastballs, where their perceived velocity is more. When you\u2019re overwhelmed with strikes it makes for a long day offensively, and (Carey) did a great job of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s offense has highlighted its explosive ability throughout the season, but on Sunday that was contained to the first inning. Without extended attacks, it was up to the pitchers to hold the lead and Carey and Rogers did just that. With two contrasting yet effective approaches, the duo on the mound held down the Wolverines\u2019 win.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a majority of the season, the Michigan baseball team has struggled to find defensive consistency. While the Wolverines have had flashes of pitching talent, their wins can often be attributed to offensive firepower. But in Game 3 against Michigan State, Michigan\u2019s bats were silent through eight innings and for the first time, it was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1169,1022,222,1168,361,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-1048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-lead","10":"tag-michigan","11":"tag-pitchers","12":"tag-state","13":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1050,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions\/1050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}