{"id":1383,"date":"2025-05-19T23:32:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T23:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/michigan-flexes-offensive-experience-in-win-over-indiana\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T23:32:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T23:32:49","slug":"michigan-flexes-offensive-experience-in-win-over-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/michigan-flexes-offensive-experience-in-win-over-indiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan flexes offensive experience in win over Indiana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In its final game of the regular season, the Michigan baseball team sent its seniors off with a high-scoring victory. In Saturday\u2019s win over Indiana, the Wolverines trotted out a new lineup. Penciling in senior infielder Joe Longo as the designated hitter as well as graduate outfielders AJ Rausch and Robbie Hamchuk in the order, Michigan found production in its experienced hitters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Recently, freshmen have contributed meaningful at-bats and added production when needed. While this means that some older players have had fewer plate appearances, the Wolverines\u2019 elder batsmen still contributed early runs for a lead and late runs for insurance, solidifying the offensive output needed to secure a win.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe talk about \u2018prepare to play, don\u2019t wait to play,\u2019 \u201d Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. \u201cAnd even if you\u2019re not playing a lot, which these guys haven\u2019t a lot lately, you\u2019re still putting in the work and preparing. So it\u2019s nice to see some positive results with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With five of the first six Michigan batters in the lineup being graduates or seniors, it was relying on that experience to drive the output from the top of the order. And in the first inning, singles from graduate shortstop Benny Casillas and Rausch set the table for junior second baseman Mitch Voit to single Casillas home. Later in the inning, senior third baseman Cole Caruso sent Rausch home to claim an early 2-0 lead. This became a pattern in the game as the seniors set the table and knocked runs home in the offensive showcase.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Pressing on, even with a lead, Michigan added more runs in the second inning. As graduate catcher Matt Spear and freshman left fielder Tyler Inge traded singles, Casillas stepped into the box for his second at-bat of the game. Launching an inside fastball over the left-field wall, Casillas admired his blast, gazing at his hit as he shuffled down the first base line before launching his bat back toward the home dugout in a triumphant bat flip.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was senior day so it was probably my last (home run) in Ann Arbor,\u201d Casillas said with a smile. \u201cSo I put a little extra seasoning on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the Wolverines added runs early, the ever-hungry Hoosiers offense attempted to claw back as the innings went on. With the five-run lead having dwindled to just two, Rausch dropped in his third base hit of the game, kickstarting Michigan\u2019s second offense surge of the game. His single started a rally that bounced the Indiana reliever and culminated in the addition of two more runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Sunday\u2019s matchup, Rausch hadn\u2019t recorded a hit in almost two months. But his three singles and two runs scored were essential in the two-hole to kickstart an offense that had been sputtering in recent games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t pressing too much,\u201d Rausch said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been in the lineup in a while so my biggest thing was to go out and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>While Rausch peddled humility, Casillas described Rausch\u2019s performance more bluntly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDog,\u201d Casillas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While Casillas and Rausch served their roles at the top of the lineup, fresh faces in the middle of the order were integral as well. Longo stayed busy on the day by going two-for-three and Hamchuk pitched in a diving catch along with scoring the game\u2019s final run as the pair rounded out solid performances in their last game at Ray Fisher Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>For an offense that has been uncharacteristically quiet in its last two conference series, it could be argued that it was simply due for a break out. But slump-busting games don\u2019t come by chance, they come through preparation. And in Saturday\u2019s win, the seniors\u2019 preparation and steadfastness propelled the team to eight runs and a victory.\u00a0<\/p>\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>In its final game of the regular season, the Michigan baseball team sent its seniors off with a high-scoring victory. In Saturday\u2019s win over Indiana, the Wolverines trotted out a new lineup. Penciling in senior infielder Joe Longo as the designated hitter as well as graduate outfielders AJ Rausch and Robbie Hamchuk in the order, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[461,1538,1479,222,394,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-1383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-experience","9":"tag-flexes","10":"tag-indiana","11":"tag-michigan","12":"tag-offensive","13":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","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=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}