{"id":4537,"date":"2026-02-17T12:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/evan-haeger-finds-his-stride-in-michigan-debut-at-surprise-college-baseball-series\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:49:13","slug":"evan-haeger-finds-his-stride-in-michigan-debut-at-surprise-college-baseball-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/evan-haeger-finds-his-stride-in-michigan-debut-at-surprise-college-baseball-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Evan Haeger finds his stride in Michigan debut at Surprise College Baseball Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Following an offseason defined by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/mitch-voit-drafted-by-the-mets-at-no-38\/\">graduations<\/a> and transfers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-finds-reinforcements-in-transfer-portal\/\">in<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/dylan-vigue-transfers-to-georgia\/\">and<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/freshman-shortstop-tyler-inge-transfers-to-oregon-state\/\">out<\/a>, last year\u2019s disappointing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-displays-dynamic-fielding-in-final-game-of-big-ten-tournament\/\">results<\/a> for the Michigan baseball team asked if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/rejuvenated-pitching-staff-gives-michigan-flexibility-and-raises-its-ceiling\/\">new<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-rebuilds-its-infield-ahead-of-season\/\">lineups<\/a> could solve the Wolverines\u2019 past problems. In the first series of the year, redshirt sophomore outfielder Evan Haeger answered.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One of Michigan\u2019s newest additions, Haeger emerged from the transfer portal after stints at Alabama and Houston. His contributions over the weekend set the Wolverines up for a tournament win at the College Baseball Series in Surprise, Ariz. against then-No. 12 Oregon State, Stanford and then-No. 24 Arizona.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Haeger led the team with three hits and four RBIs over the weekend. His batting average of .400 trailed only transfer junior right fielder Brenden Stressler and more than doubled his .174 with Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not my at-bat,\u201d Haeger said. \u201cIt\u2019s the team at-bat. I just want to provide meaningful opportunities for us to win. Every time I was at two strikes, I just got out of the \u2018Me\u2019 thinking and decided to give it up for the team, and it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Haeger\u2019s three hits in four at-bats during the first matchup against Oregon State led to four out of Michigan\u2019s five RBIs. Two of those runs came at exactly the right time for the Wolverines. In the eighth inning with two outs and the score tied 3-3, Haeger sent the ball shallow into right field \u2014 just deep enough for runners on second and third to make it home. When Michigan\u2019s defense quickly shut down Oregon State\u2019s next two innings, Haeger\u2019s two-run lead was preserved in the 5-3 final score.<\/p>\n<p>For the rest of the series, Haeger\u2019s offensive contributions pared down as his teammates picked up their share of the RBIs. But his clean defensive play minimized the effects of five errors from the Wolverines, and his runs extended the lead against Arizona and put his team on the board in their second bout against Oregon State.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTools-wise, (Haeger) is a really good baseball player,\u201d Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. \u201cOf course I expected him to play well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the Wolverines turned to more subdued play as the series progressed, Haeger\u2019s initial momentum pushed the team through a tone-setting opening weekend. Wins over ranked teams <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/michigan-baseball-schedule-rpi-strategy\/\">set<\/a> Michigan up with a strong, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warrennolan.com\/baseball\/2026\/rpi-live\">third-ranked<\/a> starting RPI. Even with a loss to Oregon State in the final game of the series, the Wolverines\u2019 standings are a solid foundation for the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s showing was meaningful for Haeger, too. The right fielder opened a new chapter in his collegiate career with his statistical support of the statement weekend. While he\u2019s only played four games in the maize and blue, Haeger logged statistics that far outpace his production on his previous teams and demonstrated reliability over the series.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really easy to play for the eight letters on your chest when it\u2019s Michigan,\u201d Haeger said. \u201c\u2026 A lot of the credit goes to the coaches and the rest of my teammates for setting me up and putting me in a spot to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Through the course of the weekend, Michigan proved that it has the manpower to back itself up when it needs to the most. Yet amid the roster, Haeger made his mark on the tournament title in his and the team\u2019s first impressions.<\/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>Following an offseason defined by graduations and transfers in and out, last year\u2019s disappointing results for the Michigan baseball team asked if new lineups could solve the Wolverines\u2019 past problems. In the first series of the year, redshirt sophomore outfielder Evan Haeger answered.\u00a0 One of Michigan\u2019s newest additions, Haeger emerged from the transfer portal after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[731,504,576,872,3597,4264,222,623,4265,4266],"class_list":{"0":"post-4537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-debut","11":"tag-evan","12":"tag-finds","13":"tag-haeger","14":"tag-michigan","15":"tag-series","16":"tag-stride","17":"tag-surprise"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","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=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4539,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions\/4539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}