According to recent projections from D1 Baseball, Michigan is in the NCAA Tournament, just not with a ton of breathing room.
A lot can happen in the final week of the season, but for a Michigan baseball program that hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since the departure of Erik Bakich as the head coach, getting back into the field of 64 would be huge.
To that end, Michigan, which was projected as a No. 3 seed in the Mississippi State Region (projected as the No. 14 overall seed), could not have gotten off to a better start as it tries to impress the selection committee this week at the Big Ten baseball tournament.
Michigan opens the Big Ten Tournament in dominant fashion
Cade Montgomey opened the tournament on the mound for the Wolverines and didn't allow as a run as Michigan baseball, the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, run-ruled Rutgers, with a 10-0 victory.
Brayden Jeffries opened the scoring for Michigan with a home run to make it 1-0. It was the first of a few home runs. The next two came back-to-back for Michigan. Leading 4-0, Evan Haeger and Noah Miller each went yard from Tracy Smith's squad.
Eventually, a two-run double from Colby Turner in the seventh clinched a 10-0 win for Michigan. It was just the third run-rule win for the Wolverines in the Big Ten Tournament, and more importantly, it was another step toward securing an NCAA Tournament berth.
The Big Ten Tournament bracket is a little wonky. But the Wolverines are now one win away from advancing to the quarterfinals on Friday, against one of the top four seeds. If they do that, it feels like it will be hard to deny them an at-large selection.
Michigan is 33-22 and won seven of its Big Ten series over the course of the season, losing three-game sets to UCLA (No. 1), Nebraska, a team projected to host a regional, and Ohio State.
Michigan baseball will play Ohio State or Washington on Wednesday at 9 PM EST in Omaha (Big Ten Network). The winner moves to the quarterfinals, while the loser falls into a loser-out game against whichever team is left out of the four-team pool (Rutgers, Ohio State, and Washington).
Once a team advances to Friday, it becomes a single-elimination tournament for all eight teams. A win on Wednesday would mean a game against Nebraska on Friday. Otherwise, a win on Thursday would mean a first-round matchup with Oregon.
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