8A — Thursday, April 16, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
BASEBALL
Michigan unable to find offensive spark
By BEN FIDELMAN
Daily Sports Writer
After
walloping
Eastern
Michigan last week, the Michi-
gan baseball team headed into
Wednesday’s rematch at Ray
Fisher Sta-
dium with
its
sights
set
on
another midweek win.
But the Eagles had other plans,
topping the Wolverines, 4-2.
Michigan (6-6 Big Ten, 21-16
overall) relied on a group effort
on the mound, using a total of
seven pitchers on the evening.
Just three of those seven gave
up earned runs, but the Big Ten’s
best offense was unable to pick up
the slack and push Michigan over
the top.
“We knew it was going to be
one of those days where a lot of
guys could get their names called,
and it just so happened that today
we had to match up our pitch-
ers with their offense and try to
minimize as best we could,” said
Michigan coach Erik Bakich.
“With the exception of the begin-
ning and the end, we put up some
zeroes in the middle. With our
lack of offense and ability to score
today, it just wasn’t enough.”
The Eagles (4-8 Mid-American
Conference, 14-23 overall) put
numbers on the board first, push-
ing single runs across in the first
and third innings. They jumped
on Wolverine right-hander Keith
Lehmann in the top of the first,
scoring once and loading the
bases with two outs, but the
junior was able to get out of the
jam, allowing only one run.
Lehmann didn’t return to the
mound for the second inning and
was replaced by right-hander
Jayce Vancena. The freshman
worked a perfect top of the sec-
ond, but ran
into trouble in
the third. East-
ern
Michigan
capitalized on
a leadoff single
from
second
baseman John
Rubio,
who
then stole sec-
ond and scored
on a triple off the right-field wall.
Vancena then gave way to senior
right-hander Donnie Eaton, who
induced two groundouts to end
the Eagle threat.
Eastern
Michigan’s
Kyle
Huckaby held Michigan hitless
through three innings, before
freshman shortstop Jake Bivens
singled to right field to lead off
the bottom of the fourth. Huck-
aby hit junior third baseman
Travis Maezes
with a pitch,
putting
two
runners
on
base with no
outs for Michi-
gan left fielder
Carmen Bene-
detti,
who
leads the Big
Ten
in
RBI.
The sophomore came through,
delivering a run-scoring single
to right field, pulling the Wolver-
ines to within one run of tying
the game.
Michigan continued the pres-
sure, eventually pushing across
the tying run in the bottom of the
sixth inning.
Sophomore right fielder John-
ny Slater led the inning with a
double to the right-field corner
and moved to third base off a sin-
gle from senior first baseman Kyle
Jusick. Senior designated hitter
Dominic Jamett eventually hit
into a double play, bringing Slater
home from third to knot the score
at 2-2.
After the Wolverines threat-
ened once again in the bottom
of the eighth, Eastern Michigan
broke through in its last at-bats.
Shortstop David Lett started
things off with a one-out infield
single, which preceded a double
to the left-field corner by right
fielder Jordan Peterson to put
two runners in scoring position
for the Eagles with only one out.
The next batter up was Rubino,
who tripled to center field for his
fifth hit of the game to put East-
ern Michigan on top, 4-2. The
top of the Wolverine lineup went
down in order in the ninth.
Wednesday’s loss marked the
second in a row for Michigan
after they fell to Michigan State
on Tuesday night.
“(The lack of offensive pro-
duction) is frustrating because
it hasn’t been our issue,” Bakich
said. “We’ve been able to score
and score in multiple innings this
year, and this just hasn’t been our
(week). That happens in base-
ball. You have some peaks and
valleys, and hopefully this is just
some little team valley and we
can rebound and get right back
on top.”
E. MICHIGAN
MICHIGAN
4
2
“It is frustrating
because it hasn’t
been our issue.”
Men’s Basketball
Awards List
Bill Buntin MVP
>> Spike Albrecht
>> Zak Irvin
>> Zak Irvin
>> Spike Albrecht
Most Outstanding
Defensive Player
Sportsmanship Award
>> Aubrey Dawkins
Most Improved Player
>> Max Bielfeldt
Sixth Man Award
>> Spike Albrecht
Hustle Award
>> Spike Albrecht
Leadership Award
>> Zak Irvin
Iron Man Award
>> Sean Lonergan
Academic Achievement
For more awards
Check MichiganDaily.com
for the full list