Michigan's Clark Elliott is congratulated by teammates after bringing home the first run against The University of Louisville against in the championship game of the NCAA Louisville regional baseball tournament. June 6, 2022 Aj4t5752
Michigan Baseball deserved better as season ends on robbery
Michigan baseball was robbed on a terrible call on Monday that cost the Wolverines a legit chance to advance to the Super Regional.
Mistakes by officials and umpires are part of the game. But when you have the technology and a person designed specially to use replay reviews to get the calls on the field right, there is no excuse for getting it wrong and that’s what happened in Monday’s regional baseball final against Louisville.
Michigan baseball rallied from a 7-2 deficit in the first inning and grabbed a 9-7 lead. It held it until the eighth inning when Louisville was called safe on a two-out double when the runner was clearly thrown out at second base.
The evidence was so clear that the runner’s fingers were even bent back on the tag applied before his fingers touched the bag. Yet, he was still called safe. Louisville tied the game on a double soon after and then grabbed a two-run lead after a home run, in an at-bat that should have never taken place.
If the replay official gets the call right, the inning is over and Michigan baseball is three outs away from the Super Regional.
Sure, Louisville could have rallied. It scored seven runs in the first inning after all. But Michigan baseball had all the momentum and at the very least, they deserved to go into the ninth needing just three more outs instead of two runs just to extend the game.
The Wolverines didn’t get any runs though in the ninth, despite putting a couple of runners on base and that sealed their fate in an 11-9 loss. Still, we are proud of this team, and as Scott Bell wrote on Twitter, “Proud of this run. This team deserved better.”
It also ends a magical run too early. The Big Ten tournament championship will always live on and this NCAA tourney run was special too — you just wish this team would have gotten a fair shake.
Clark Elliott, Joe Stewart, Jimmy Obertop, and all the guys deserved better but they also deserve our thanks for another spectacular postseason run.
One that made Michigan baseball fans everywhere extremely proud.
