Michigan Set for Four-Game Battle with Purdue in South Carolina - MGoBlue

» Michigan and Purdue will play a four-game set Friday through Sunday.
» The schools have not met on the diamond since the 2018 B1G Tournament.
» The Wolverines took three of the four games they played against Iowa in their season-opening series last weekend.

THIS WEEK
Fri-Sun., March 12 -- vs. Purdue (Greenville, S.C.)

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team has a short turnaround before returning to play this weekend, heading to Greenville, S.C., for a four-game series against Purdue at Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive (Boston Red Sox High-A affiliate).

• Michigan enters the season in familiar place as the top-ranked team in both the Midwest Region and Big Ten Conference, as the Wolverines are ranked No. 22 nationally by Baseball America and No. 19 by Collegiate Baseball Magazine. In last season's shortened campaign, Michigan achieved status as the nation's top team according to Baseball America. U-M, which started the season ranked No. 8 by BA, earned its No. 1 ranking by beating former No. 1 Vanderbilt (4-3; Feb. 14, 2020) and former No. 3 Arizona State (5-0; Feb. 15, 2020). The Maize and Blue became the first Big Ten school to earn Baseball America's No. 1 ranking.

• Michigan and Purdue will play a single game on Friday (March 12), a doubleheader on Saturday (March 13) and a single game on Sunday (March 14). In accordance with Big Ten Conference guidelines, no fans will be allowed to enter the stadium. All four games will be streamed live on Big Ten Network Plus.

• The Wolverines defeated Iowa on Monday (March 8) and returned to campus in the early morning hours Tuesday (March 9). An "off day" on Tuesday will be followed by its only team training of the week in Ann Arbor before traveling to South Carolina for competition against the Boilermakers.

• Michigan leads the all-time series with Purdue, which dates back to 1893, by a count of 146-63. The teams have not met since 2018, and Purdue is on a four-game win streak after U-M had ripped off seven straight games between 2014-17.

About U-M

• Michigan demonstrated prowess at pitcher, defense and on offense last weekend in taking three of four games against a talented Iowa team in games played in Round Rock, Texas. Michigan pitchers limited the Hawkeyes to a .198 team batting average while racking up a better than two-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio.

• Redshirt sophomore Steven Hajjar, a consensus preseason All-American, struck out eight batters in 6.2 innings of the opening game, but that was not the most notable starting performance of the weekend. That honor went to sophomore Jacob Denner, who struck out seven Hawkeyes against just two hits in 5.0 scoreless innings to win game three of the series.

• The Wolverines are expected to stick with their previous weekend rotation of Hajjar, right-handed pitcher Cameron Weston, Denner and righty Blake Beers.

• Michigan's bullpen was impressive against Iowa. Closer Willie Weiss returned to the mound for the first time since 2019, and his wipeout slider helped the righty strike out five batters over 2.1 innings of work to earn a victory in the opening game. Michgan also received stellar relief outings from 2018 Freshman All-American and All-Big Ten lefty Ben Dragani (1-0, 3.1 IP, 0 H, 2 K), freshman Connor O'Halloran (2.0 IP, 1 H, 2 K), graduate student Will Proctor (1.1 IP, 0 H, 1 K) and junior Jack White (2.0 IP, 0 H, 3 K).

• Offensively, Jake Marti delivered a two-run double on his first swing of the bat in a U-M uniform and was a nuisance to Iowa throughout the four games with a .556 on-base-percentage, a .385 batting average and three stolen bases. He was joined by Tito Flores (.357 batting average, three doubles), Christian Molfetta (.357, double, triple) and Griffin Mazur as players to get on base more than half the time against the Hawkeyes. Mazur had an impressive weekend, driving a grand slam as his first hit in a U-M uniform and followed that the next day with a three-run blast and a sharp RBI single to left. His first homer carried more than 410 feet and his second went into the upper deck at Dell Diamond.

• The Big Ten Conference announced a 44-game conference-only schedule in 2021 with each school juggling a varied schedule consisting of three and four-game series and multi-team weekend series featuring games against two schools.

Scouting the Opposition

• Purdue won its opener against Nebraska but struggled on offense the remainder of the weekend in posting a 1-3 record against the Cornhuskers.

• On Sunday (Feb.28), Boilermaker pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts against Nebraska, but the offense could not support it as Purdue left the bases loaded twice with strikeouts and ended two innings on double-play balls.

• Sunday starter Jett Jackson provided 10 of the 16 strikeouts over just 4.1 innings, but he did allow six baserunners and two runs in that span.

• Trent Johnson's pitching start in Friday's season opener gained some notoriety as he has pitched in four consecutive season openers. He allowed four runs on 10 hits against seven strikeouts in five innings of work in a no-decision.

• Purdue pitchers struck out 46 batters in 32.0 innings of work against the Huskers, but they also allowed a .302 batting average, .422 on-base-percentage and and compiled a 5.62 earned-run average.

• Offensively, Miles Simington (.455 batting average) and Even Albrecht (.375) led the way, while Brad Nisel (.333) had two triples and Zac Fascia (.333) had two doubles on the weekend.

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2021-03-10 15:55:53Z
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Michigan Set for Four-Game Battle with Purdue in South Carolina - MGoBlue

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