Michigan baseball loses wild one to Rutgers to close regular season

Michigan baseball closed out the regular season with a loss to Rutgers in a wild game but all in all, it was a good weekend for the Wolverines. 

The Wolverines came into their final three-game series of the regular season with some very real objectives and despite an 18-12 loss on Saturday, Michigan baseball achieved them.

Michigan was aiming to reach the Big Ten tournament, which the top eight teams qualify for, yet there was still work to do. However, a 9-6 win on Thursday night over Rutgers, the Big Ten leader coming into the weekend, clinched a tournament berth for the Maize and Blue.

On Friday, Michigan proved it could beat one of the Big Ten’s best again, as it rallied from a 7-2 deficit thanks to some heroics from Joe Stewart to beat the Scarlet Knights 9-7, a win that clinched a series win over Rutgers.

Michigan was aiming for the sweep on Saturday, but Rutgers was gunning for the Big Ten regular-season championship and prevailed in a game that included 30 runs scored, 27 hits, and 16 different pitchers used.

Clark Elliott hit his second home run of the series and drove home four runs in the loss for the Wolverines after getting two hits. Michigan scored four runs in the third to grab a 4-2 advantage and scored three more in the fifth after Rutgers scored five in its half of the fourth inning to tie the score at 7-7.

Yet, Rutgers scored 10 runs in the last three innings and despite getting four runs across in the bottom of the ninth, Michigan baseball fell short.

Riley Bertram, Joey Velazquez, and Tito Flores, all joined Elliott who had two hits in the loss for the Wolverines. Angelo Smith got the loss for U-M, which finished 28-25 overall as well as 12-12 in the Big Ten. The tournament starts Wednesday in Omaha.