4B — April 11, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
With junior designated hitter
Carmen Benedetti and senior
centerfielder Cody Bruder at the
corners, Bruder got caught in a
pickle trying to steal second, and
Benedetti took advantage of the
back-and-forth to run home.
Freshman second basemen
Ako Thomas was a bright spot in
the lineup that game, collecting
a career-high three hits in four
at-bats.
Game two of the doubleheader
started just like the first, except
it was junior left-hander Brett
Adcock and Minnesota’s Dalton
Sawyer
who
were
tossing
scoreless innings back and forth.
Adcock pitched five scoreless
innings, getting out of bases-
loaded jams in the second, third
and fifth. Adcock walked eight
batters but allowed just three hits.
But Adcock was not pleased
with how he pitched.
“I didn’t have the best day,” he
said. “I didn’t trust the defense
as much I needed to. I needed to
attack the zone more, and I’ve got
to focus on throwing more strikes.”
On the other side, Sawyer
stymied the Michigan offense.
He continued pitching into the
sixth inning without giving up
a run, fanning 10 batters along
the way.
The Wolverines encountered
trouble in the sixth inning.
Junior lefty Carmen Benedetti
gave up the game’s first run in
relief for Adcock, and gave way to
sophomore right-hander Bryan
Pall with a runner on second and
one out. Pall loaded the bases,
but managed to come out of the
inning unscathed.
As in game one, the Golden
Gophers’
offense
opened
the
floodgates in the seventh inning.
After scoring a run on a wild
pitch, Minnesota strung together
back-to-back-to-back RBI hits to
increase their lead to 5-0.
In the bottom of the seventh,
the Golden Gophers put Brian
Glowicki on the mound, and
Michigan attacked immediately.
After a walk and a single, junior
right
fielder
Johnny
Slater
singled to right field to score a
run and avoid the Wolverines’
first scoreless game of the
season. Glowicki was removed
without recording an out in favor
of Lucas Gilbreath. With loaded
bases, a hit batter and fielder’s
choice scored two more runs to
ease the deficit, 5-3.
“They had a sense of urgency,”
Bakich said. “Minnesota had
put up the four spot in the
seventh. I think the guys had
had enough and saved some of
their most competitive at-bats in
the seventh and eighth innings.
Unfortunately it was just too
little, too late.”
Hill, who was slated to start
Sunday’s game, came out of the
bullpen for the final two innings,
in which he struck out six batters.
His performance sparked the
Wolverines’ offense in the eighth
inning, but not enough to take
the come-from-behind win.
Michigan had two runners in
scoring position in the eighth to
potentially tie the game, but an
attempted suicide squeeze by Slater
turned into a double play. Slater’s
bunt was a short pop-up out to the
catcher, and first baseman Drew
Lugbauer was tagged up at third to
end the inning.
“After a day like today, I got
to look in the mirror and make
sure I’m doing everything I
can to make sure these guys
are
prepared
and
playing
fundamentally sound so we don’t
ever have another day where
we have as many breakdowns,”
Bakich said.
Though
its
record
does
not jump off the stat sheet,
Minnesota proved to be the
toughest competitor that the
Wolverines have faced thus far.
Michigan will have to improve
in Big Ten play if it hopes to
go
for
another
conference
tournament title.
BASEBALL
From Page 1B
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
Junior left-hander Brett Adcock walked eight in five innings Friday afternoon.