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Thursday, June 10, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.

Nine Wolverines receive 

all-conference recognition

Baseball Beat predicts Michigan’s fate

The 
Michigan 
baseball 

team 
is 
well 
represented 

on this year’s all-Big Ten 
teams, which were chosen 
by conference coaches and 
announced 
Sunday. 
Nine 

Wolverines — five position 
players and four pitchers — 
received recognition. 

Sophomore second baseman 

Ted 
Burton 
and 
redshirt 

sophomore left-hander Steven 
Hajjar both made the all-

Big Ten first team. Despite 
coming into his starting role 
midway through the season, 
Burton managed to lead the 
team in average (.355) and OPS 
(1.118), and finished among 
team leaders in homers (6) 
and doubles (12). Hajjar had a 
consistently excellent season, 
throwing five-plus innings in 
all of his 13 appearances and 
earning seven quality starts.

Fifth-year catcher Griffin 

Mazur, fifth-year shortstop 
Benjamin 
Sems, 
sophomore 

left fielder Tito Flores and 
sophomore 
right-hander 

Cameron Weston made the 
second team. Mazur developed 
from a light-hitting catcher at 
Irvine to a slugger at Michigan 
(6 homers, 33 RBI), likely 
earning himself a selection 
in the 2021 MLB draft in the 
process. 
Sems 
made 
many 

acrobatic plays in the field and 
consistently 
contributed 
on 

offense (team-leading 41 runs). 
Flores overcame a midseason 
slump and finished as one 

of the Wolverines’ premier 
hitters (team-leading 36 RBI). 
Weston led all starters in ERA 
(2.40) and WHIP (1.12), and 
tossed a complete-game one-
hitter against Michigan State. 

Sophomore first baseman 

Jimmy Obertop and junior 
right-hander 
Willie 
Weiss 

made the third team. Obertop 
missed some time with an 
injury, but still finished with a 
team-leading 10 homers. Weiss 
made 
several 
multi-inning 

saves and allowed only seven 
earned runs all season. 

One player from each Big Ten 

team earned a Sportsmanship 
Award. 
Graduate 
right-

hander Joe Pace is Michigan’s 
recipient. 

“He’s a super hard worker 

and a great ambassador to 
Michigan 
baseball,” 
Mazur 

said of Pace. “He’s a classy guy. 
I think everybody respects him 
…. He’s definitely incredibly 
deserving of that award.”

Sophomore 
right 
fielder 

Clark Elliott and fifth-year 
third 
baseman 
Christian 

Molfetta are notably absent 
from the all-Big Ten teams. 
Both 
were 
extremely 

dependable 
in 
the 
field 

and important cogs in the 
Wolverines’ offense. 

“It was a crowded ballot this 

year, with a lot of deserving 
kids on it,” Michigan coach 
Erik Bakich said. “I didn’t 
really think that those two 
guys 
got 
snubbed. 
I 
just 

thought it spoke more to the 
strength of the conference and 
the caliber of players in the 
conference.”

Jack Whitten: 
There’s 
a 
viral 
video 
of 

Michigan coach Erik Bakich 
excitedly jumping off the team 
bus in South Bend. I hope he 
told the driver to keep it idling 
outside the stadium, because the 
Wolverines won’t be there for 
long. 

This weekend, the Michigan 

baseball team will need to win 
three or four games to win the 
regional. The last time it won 
three or more games in a weekend 
series was in early March against 
a terrible Purdue team. For the 
remainder of the regular season, 
the Wolverines failed to sweep a 
three-game series or win three 
of four, and it played only two 
regional-caliber teams in that 
time. 

In light of that, I will be 

shocked if Michigan wins the 
three or four games required to 
advance. I don’t think they can 
dominate an entire weekend 
of play against this caliber of 
competition.

But I do see a path forward 

for the Wolverines. Redshirt 
sophomore 
left-hander 
Steve 

Hajjar and sophomore right-
hander Cameron Weston will 
have to go extremely deep into 
games — I mean eight or nine 
innings each — to keep the 

bullpen’s best arms fresh and 
ready to relieve senior left-hander 
Ben Dragani in the third game.

Michigan’s offense must carry 

its winning approach into every 
pitch, and if the Wolverines do 
lose a game, hitters must remain 
disciplined and not freak out. 

Michigan’s excellent defense is 

extraordinarily unlikely to cost it 
a win, but the unit could improve 
if junior second baseman Riley 
Bertram breaks out of his slump, 
retakes the position and moves 
sophomore Ted Burton over to 
first base, allowing sophomore 
Jimmy 
Obertop 
to 
be 
the 

designated hitter. 

Even if all that happens, and 

Michigan plays its best baseball 
of the year, I’m not positive it will 
be enough to win the weekend. 
But at the very least, I think the 
Wolverines will vindicate the 
selection committee’s decision 
to give them a bid by winning a 
game and losing the others with 
dignity.

Steel Hurley:
I’m a bit more optimistic 

about the Wolverines’ chances 
than Jack is; the frontline duo of 
Hajjar and Weston has the ability 
to dominate any lineup, while the 
offense is powerful and explosive.

But 
too 
many 
Michigan 

players are trending in the wrong 
direction. Obertop has not been 
the same since his mid-season 
knee injury— he hit eight home 
runs in 22 games prior to the 

injury and has just two in his 18 
games since returning. Other 
players have fallen off a bit as 
well; graduate transfer infielder 
Christian Molfetta was hitting 
a scorching .349 after the same 
first 22 games, yet fell off to just 
.284 by the end of the season and 
was subsequently moved down in 
the batting order.

Burton—a first team all-Big 

Ten selection—and sophomore 
outfielder Tito Flores have been 
on fire lately, but they can’t be 
asked to carry as much of the load 
as they have lately if this team is 
to make a run in the postseason.

From 
a 
talent 
standpoint, 

Michigan is good enough to make 
it out, and everyone knows by 
now about the experience of the 
run in 2019 that this team can 
draw on. But the pitching depth is 
a bit of a question mark, even this 
late in the season, while the bats 
have gone cold for long stretches 
before. If Michigan drops into the 
loser’s bracket at any point, it will 
likely be too difficult to make it 
back. Thus, I am predicting that 
Michigan will fall to Notre Dame 
in the regional final, but this 
region could definitely be a wild 
one and I do think the Wolverines 
have a decent chance to make it 
out on the backs of Hajjar and 
Weston— if the team can get 
production from the bottom of 
the order.

 JACK WHITTEN
Daily Sports Writer

 MICHIGAN DAILY 
BASEBALL BEAT

BECCA MAHON/Daily

The Michigan Daily Baseball beat has low expectations for the team as they head into their NCAA tournament.

Read more at michigandaily.com

GRACE BEAL/Daily 

MULTIPLE WOLVERINES received recognition in the Big Ten.

SPORTS

