That was the call of Assistant Sports Information Director Matt Fancett in the 7th inning, and apparently it was enough to rally the Wolverines today as they took on Iowa. The team bus, the Indian Trails charter bus, made it all the way to Iowa City fine, but the day after the drive, the bus had problems and couldn’t transport the team from the hotel to the stadium.
The team sputtered out of the game, collecting several hits, but never having the big inning. In the first inning, Iowa start Nick Brown went 1-2-3 through the top of the order on just 13 pitches. Cislo, who is ranked nationally for fewest strikeouts per at bat, and Fellows both K’d to start the game, and LaMarre was robbed of a single by Brown who showed he can also field his position well, grabbing a line shot right at him. Chris Fetter even came out in this game looking a little shaky. Fetter gave up 3 hits (one double) and a walk in the inning, allowing 3 runs – all earned. Iowa came out swinging but Michigan wasn’t going down without a fight.
In the top of the second, Michigan answered right back, capitalizing on a Hawkeye error to open the inning. The tone was set on the opening pitch of the inning when Mike Dufek lined a hard grounder at the first basemen, who couldn’t come up with the ball. McLouth followed up with a single and Oaks walked to load the bases, setting up John Lorenz with a big RBI opportunity. Lorenz fell short of the RBI, but in name only. Dufek would score when Lorenz grounded into a 6-4-3 double play (double plays negate RBIs). Timmy Kal closed out the scoring in the 2nd with an RBI single to score McLouth.
Fetter also came out more focused in the second inning. Over the next 8 innings (yes, he threw a complete game), Fetter would allow only 2 more baserunners, both from singles; one of those baserunners was caught stealing, therefore only causing Fetter to face 25 batters in 8 innings. Fetter was absolutely dealing. He struck out 9 batters on the day while inducing 10 ground ball outs. That’s a pretty solid total. He’s definitely the player of the game.
Michigan got the go ahead run in the 8th after starter Nick Brown was relieved by Schatz. Schatz didn’t give up a hit in the inning, but he did have two hit batsmen and a walk, allowing Kevin Cislo to fly out just deep enough into center to get pinch runner Nick Urban in safely.
I think Coach Dahm at Iowa explained it least best:
“We didn’t make many mistakes tonight, but the mistakes we did make they (Michigan) capitalized on them.
I’ll have this cleaned up and with the rest of the vitals in the full recap on Monday. I just feel like there needs to be some good news on the Michigan blogosphere after the hockey team lost in the first round of the NCAAs. At least baseball didn’t fail me.
Posted by formerlyanonymous 
