{"id":4708,"date":"2026-04-12T19:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/12\/third-inning-surge-vital-for-michigan-in-win-against-michigan-state\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T19:49:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:49:35","slug":"third-inning-surge-vital-for-michigan-in-win-against-michigan-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/12\/third-inning-surge-vital-for-michigan-in-win-against-michigan-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Third inning surge vital for Michigan in win against Michigan State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>EAST LANSING \u2014 In the first inning Saturday, the Michigan baseball team managed to get its first three batters on base, setting itself up in prime scoring position. However, after a lackluster strand of at-bats, the inning ended with zero runs as all three were left stranded \u2014 and the Wolverines knew they couldn\u2019t repeat their mistake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnowing (that) in the first inning, we lost that situation,\u201d redshirt junior left-fielder Greg Pace Jr. said. \u201cWe had bases loaded and didn\u2019t score, and learned from that and (we knew) that next time that opportunity comes around not to miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the contest still scoreless going into the third inning against a scrappy Michigan State team searching to even out the series, Michigan was ready to get the ball rolling. In the first four at-bats in the third inning, the Wolverines batters procured two singles and a double to bring junior second baseman Colby Turner home.<\/p>\n<p>Gaining one run was just the start for Michigan in the third, as they went on to rack up another four in that inning. Junior right fielder Brenden Stressler gained the aforementioned double to score redshirt sophomore catcher Noah Miller, followed by Pace firing his second homer of the season to bat three runners in.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The top of the lineup maximized its offensive output in the initial innings. By the fourth, Turner was 3-for-3 with two runs, Miller was 2-for-3 with an RBI and run, and redshirt sophomore designated hitter Cooper Mullens was 2-for-3 as well.<\/p>\n<p>The Wolverines geared up for a high-scoring game \u2014 yet they capped off their runs with just one more in the subsequent fourth inning. The five run lead they obtained by the fourth inning looked promising, but the Spartans started creeping back. Michigan got only three more hits in the game \u2014 a mirror of its third inning performance \u2014 while Michigan State got six, resulting in three runs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot making the plays defensively (caused the Spartan runs),\u201d Wolverines coach Tracy Smith said. \u201cWe got the ground ball twice, we don\u2019t turn the double play on the comebacker \u2026 we let them back into (the game) ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without the initial scoring surge Michigan garnered, the comeback dream for the Spartans would have still been alive. They inched their way up, with one run an inning from the sixth inning to the eighth. But with such a large hole to climb out of, Michigan State needed more than a slow-and-steady pace to take control of the game. And without ever kicking it into high gear, the Spartans lost, 6-4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re on the road. Anything can happen,\u201d Smith said. \u201c\u2026 when we concentrate, we\u2019re good. When we get a little mentally lazy, (thats) when we\u2019re not locked in. I think the guys are focused and realized how important this is.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The Wolverines confirmed a victory for the series in the ninth inning, yet it was evident that the win found its footing early on. While it began to lose its grip on it as the game progressed, Michigan managed to clamp down on that burst of runs and carry the lead until the final at-bat.<\/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>EAST LANSING \u2014 In the first inning Saturday, the Michigan baseball team managed to get its first three batters on base, setting itself up in prime scoring position. However, after a lackluster strand of at-bats, the inning ended with zero runs as all three were left stranded \u2014 and the Wolverines knew they couldn\u2019t repeat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4386,222,361,1366,408,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-4708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-inning","9":"tag-michigan","10":"tag-state","11":"tag-surge","12":"tag-vital","13":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708","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=4708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4710,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions\/4710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}