The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/315684
OLYMPIC SPORTS It may not be the College World Se- ries, but the Wolverines got a taste of that May 21-25 at the Big Ten Tourna- ment, which was held in Nebraska's Ameritrade Park. The Wolverines earned the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament, which only invites the Big Ten's top eight teams every year. The Wol- verines finished the regular season 28-27-1 overall and 13-11 in league action, but played stronger down the stretch. Michigan started the season 8-12-1 before finding a groove in late April and May, winning 10 of its final 13 games, a stretch that included im- pressive series wins over Northwest- ern and Ohio State to claim fifth place in the final Big Ten standings. "Obviously, we had higher expec- tations than finishing fourth or fifth in conference play," Michigan head coach Erik Bakich said. "We expect to win every series we play. The ex- pectation at Michigan needs to be to finish first in the regular season, and anything else is a disappointment. "This year, we challenged ourselves with a much tougher non-conference schedule, and we have thrown a lot of young players into the fire. We have been consistent on the pitching mound, and our offense has gotten better as of late. We're a team that is playing the best we have played. As much as it was an up-and-down season in the early going, we seem to have hit our stride here." The Wolverines won at least one game in each of their eight three-game series against Big Ten opponents, in- cluding handing a 4-2 loss to an Indi- ana team than finished 21-3 in confer- ence play. Against the teams that finished ahead of them in the final Big Ten standings, the Wolverines went 1-2 against No. 1 Indiana, 1-2 against second-place Nebraska, 2-1 against third-place Illinois and 1-2 against Baseball coach Erik Bakich guided the Wolverines to 10 wins in their final 13 reg- ular-season contests and a fifth-place finish in the Big Ten standings. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP