{"id":1458,"date":"2025-05-25T05:40:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T05:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/25\/tate-carey-showcases-season-growth-in-loss-to-ucla\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T05:40:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T05:40:34","slug":"tate-carey-showcases-season-growth-in-loss-to-ucla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/25\/tate-carey-showcases-season-growth-in-loss-to-ucla\/","title":{"rendered":"Tate Carey showcases season growth in loss to UCLA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>OMAHA, Neb. \u2014 60 feet away, freshman right-hander Tate Carey faced the might of No. 2 seed UCLA\u2019s bats. Despite having a spot in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals guaranteed, the Bruins showed up with their everyday lineup in hopes of slugging their way to a second victory in pool play. It\u2019s highly unlikely that Carey anticipated such a responsibility placed upon him at the start of the season, and yet by the end, he was entrusted with this final starting spot.<\/p>\n<p>Tasked with stopping this offensive powerhouse, Carey\u2019s six innings displayed the culmination of a season\u2019s worth of growth and planted the seeds of what is to come. Despite No.7 seed Michigan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/no-7-seed-michigan-fights-hard-falls-to-no-2-seed-ucla-in-big-ten-tournament\/\">eventual<\/a> fall, Carey\u2019s performance in his six innings showed that the game did matter. made the game matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot to be disappointed and sad about,\u201d Wolverines coach Tracy Smith said. \u201cBut a lot to be happy about with that type of personality, that type of kid coming back and being able to work with him in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his pitch arsenal, Carey\u2019s fastball jumps out. Having dominated with it all season, he did so again in his first inning, striking out two batters \u2014 including the Bruins\u2019 superstar shortstop Roch Cholowsky. But ultimately, UCLA came prepared for the matchup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe were pretty much just sitting fastballs,\u201d Bruins center fielder Aidan Espinoza said of their preparation for facing Carey. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to just lay off of all off speed and just execute hitting the fastball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>UCLA reaped the benefits of such an approach, with Carey giving up a double and a pair of walks, while the Bruins were able to get a contact necessary for two singles that put the team up 3-0, all while tallying no outs. Two months ago, such a deficit would have been Carey\u2019s sign to check out. Back when he was a relief pitcher, Carey couldn\u2019t even last through an inning in games against Purdue and Penn State. One mistake acted as a snowball effect and his performance\u2019s rapid degradation would lead to an early exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But what was once an insurmountable challenge for Carey has now become a manageable hurdle. While the Bruins may have taken the lead, Carey didn\u2019t give up his control over the game. Recomposing himself, he countered their attacks with poise, personally throwing a runner out at third base, and following with the two outs that closed the inning. Carey\u2019s performance on the bump yielded just one more run and he notched four strikeouts while allowing only one walk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe progression of him, the confidence, the growth to just keep executing pitches and keep your team in there, even though they scored three, and give yourself a chance to come back,\u201d Smith said. \u201c\u2026 He left the game with a lead because of that maturity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carey closed out his day at the Big Ten Tournament with 97 pitches, his highest pitch count in any game this season. When he began his time as a starter, he began faltering at the 70-80 pitch mark. Resultantly, pitching a strong nearly 100 pitches against such a potent offense on the largest stage he\u2019s ever seen is a performance not only indicative of his prowess, but his growth as a player. And he left the game as a winning pitcher, saving his 9-0 record as Michigan\u2019s winningest pitcher.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cExciting if you\u2019re a Michigan baseball fan,\u201d graduate shortstop Benny Casillas said of Barr and Carey. \u201cThose guys had really good years as freshmen, both stepped up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After not even having a consistent pitching rotation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-can-still-win-the-big-ten-but-it-needs-pitchers-to-step-up\/\">last year<\/a>, pitching was at the forefront of Smith\u2019s mind. Of the 12 freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-looks-to-build-up-its-freshmen-before-they-take-the-plate\/\">additions<\/a> to the Wolverines\u2019 roster, nine of them were pitchers. And while several have all shown tremendous growth this season, Carey comes out on top. His rise is a testament to the development capabilities of this Michigan staff and the ability to capitalize on a fastball that won\u2019t quit.<\/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>OMAHA, Neb. \u2014 60 feet away, freshman right-hander Tate Carey faced the might of No. 2 seed UCLA\u2019s bats. Despite having a spot in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals guaranteed, the Bruins showed up with their everyday lineup in hopes of slugging their way to a second victory in pool play. It\u2019s highly unlikely that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1102,1624,595,315,1117,1101,1163],"class_list":{"0":"post-1458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","9":"tag-growth","10":"tag-loss","11":"tag-season","12":"tag-showcases","13":"tag-tate","14":"tag-ucla"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458","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=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1460,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions\/1460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}