{"id":5144,"date":"2026-05-11T10:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/michigan-sticks-to-its-guns-rallies-past-minnesota-for-series-win\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T10:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:49:13","slug":"michigan-sticks-to-its-guns-rallies-past-minnesota-for-series-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/michigan-sticks-to-its-guns-rallies-past-minnesota-for-series-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan sticks to its guns, rallies past Minnesota for series win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>After Friday night, the Michigan baseball team looked completely out of ammo.<\/p>\n<p>The Wolverines aimed to conquer Minnesota the same way they\u2019d defeated their last six Big Ten opponents: with timely hitting and solid defense. But the Golden Gophers pummeled Michigan 13-1 in Friday\u2019s series opener, seemingly sending the Wolverines back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n<p>In both Saturday\u2019s comeback win and Sunday\u2019s rubber-match victory, Michigan stuck to the approach that\u2019s lifted it over its last seven conference foes. Instead of seeking to emulate the successes of its opponents, the Wolverines (32-18 overall, 17-10 Big Ten) held firm to their own gameplan and out-executed Minnesota (30-20, 11-16) to keep their conference win streak alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe knew they were going to make a run and that they\u2019re dangerous top and bottom,\u201d Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. \u201cBut we talk to our guys all the time, it\u2019s not about the opposition. It\u2019s about executing your job.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The Gophers rank third in the Big Ten in ERA and fourth in slugging, and they showcased their power on both sides of the ball. Minnesota right-hander Isaac Morton pounded the zone Friday and allowed just three hits over 83 pitches \u2014 and over the first two games, the Gophers\u2019 lineup tallied 12 extra-base hits to the Wolverines\u2019 two.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After beating senior right-hander Kurt Barr for two doubles and a pair of home runs Friday, Minnesota ramped up steam early and never looked back. Saturday started with more of the same as Gophers center fielder Easton Richter blasted a three-run shot in the third inning to give his team a five-run lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, I\u2019d love to tell you we\u2019re gonna be a big home run (team), but we\u2019re not,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe just gotta throw together the bags and do what the situation calls for, and you can still win baseball games doing that. You don\u2019t need a three-run homer, and we\u2019ve proven that time and time again this season. We\u2019re just gonna stay with who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This time, Michigan wouldn\u2019t let Minnesota out of its sight. The Wolverines reclaimed control from the mound, holding the Gophers to just a pair of runs over the next five innings. And Michigan\u2019s lineup never matched its opponents\u2019 firepower, but it did find its own way to get runs on the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Wolverines\u2019 two best hitters \u2014 junior second baseman Colby Turner and sophomore third baseman Brayden Jefferis \u2014 combined for a pair of singles at the top of the fourth inning to get the ball rolling with a Turner run. Michigan went on to draw level through four unearned runs, including an error-induced score and three sacrifice flies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>A Turner double in the ninth was the only extra-base hit the Wolverines recorded all day, but they didn\u2019t need to overpower Minnesota to come out on top. Redshirt sophomore catcher Noah Miller hit a RBI bunt single in the eighth inning to tie the game at seven and put Michigan ahead in the ninth when a Richter error sent two baserunners home for the Wolverines.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan ended up squeezing by for a 9-8 victory Saturday \u2014 but it couldn\u2019t rely on another three-error day from the Gophers to carry it through the series. So when Sunday came calling, the Wolverines focused on their own approach: solid defense and timely hitting.<\/p>\n<p>Sophomore left-hander Michael Quedens did just that in the rubber match, keeping Minnesota out of sync over a stellar six innings. Redshirt freshman right fielder Dane Morrow and graduate catcher Elie Kligman complemented the approach, giving Michigan an early second-inning lead with another pair of sacrifice flies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a hit, it goes against your batting average, but guys are doing it willingly, because they know it gets the guy to third base with less than two outs,\u201d Smith said about sacrificing at-bats. \u201cAnd the sac fly scorched them. I was really pleased with our philosophy to get (runners) on, get them over and get them in, and that requires everybody buying into the team concept. And we did a really, really good job of that the last couple days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the time Morrow returned to the plate in the third and dialed up yet another successful sac fly, the Wolverines boasted a six-run advantage. They never relinquished it and slowed down the remainder of the contest to their own tempo on the way to an 8-5 victory.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The Gophers\u2019 lineup packed a punch all weekend, and Michigan was anything but bulletproof. But the Wolverines ensured that their own offensive playstyle was the one that dictated the series.<\/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>After Friday night, the Michigan baseball team looked completely out of ammo. The Wolverines aimed to conquer Minnesota the same way they\u2019d defeated their last six Big Ten opponents: with timely hitting and solid defense. But the Golden Gophers pummeled Michigan 13-1 in Friday\u2019s series opener, seemingly sending the Wolverines back to the drawing board. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[4684,222,4065,4685,623,3489,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-5144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-guns","9":"tag-michigan","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-rallies","12":"tag-series","13":"tag-sticks","14":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144","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=5144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5145,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions\/5145"}],"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=5144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}