Michigan clinches series victory over Michigan State with dominant 8-3 win

No stranger to the intensity of the in-state rivalry, senior left fielder Tito Flores stepped up to the plate for his first at-bat of Saturday’s game with his squad already up 2-0. Before even getting a chance to hit anything, he took a ball thrown by Michigan State right-hander Harrison Cook right to the shoulder. As Flores was making his way to first, he made a gesture and had some words for the Spartans dugout — his frustration from the hit clearly on display.

From there, the emotions and vigor of the rivalry matchup kicked up a notch.

Immediately following the hit-by-pitch, graduate first baseman Jack Van Remortel turned the first pitch he saw into a two-RBI single. Those runs extended the Michigan baseball team’s early lead to 4-0, chasing Cook out of the game with only one out recorded.

Although the game tightened — the margin shrank to just one run in the fifth inning — the Wolverines (21-17 overall, 9-5 Big Ten) stretched their lead for good with three runs in the sixth to pull away from Michigan State (23-13, 6-5), securing an 8-3 victory and rivalry weekend series win.

Michigan’s hitting right out of the gate provided junior left-hander Connor O’Halloran with a comfortable early cushion, as a two-RBI single by senior right fielder Joey Velazquez gave the Wolverines a 2-0 advantage before Flores and Van Remortel extended the lead.

“It’s always good to play for the front,” Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. “It sets a mindset not only on the offensive side, but from a pitching standpoint … to get a little breathing room. To me, it lends that attitude (that) they can pitch aggressively in the zone and trust the guys behind them.”

But that cushion was short-lived.

Spartans right-hander Ryan Szczepaniak, appearing in relief of Cook, cooled the Wolverines’ early hot hitting. Szczepaniak began his outing with 4.2 scoreless innings, giving his own Michigan State hitters a chance to come back.

And the Spartans capitalized, using the opportunity to grind out runs off O’Halloran and chip away at the deficit. 

An RBI double by shortstop Mitch Jebb put Michigan State on the board in the third inning. Jebb then scored all the way from second, taking advantage of Van Remortel’s delayed recognition after Spartans first baseman Brock Vradenburg beat out the throw to first. Then, second baseman Trent Farquhar cut Michigan State’s deficit to just one run in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly. While not credited as an error, the lack of situational awareness by Van Remortel helped the Spartans get back in the game.

“Defensively, we made a couple mistakes there,” Smith said. “In my opinion, we gave them two (runs) just by not taking care of and doing the things that we can control, which is playing catch. … We kind of gave them a couple of just by not playing catch.”

Yet when the game seemed to be up for grabs after these miscues, the Michigan hitters once again rose to the occasion to quash any chance of another rally attempt.

As Szcsepaniak’s pitch count rose into the sixth inning, Van Remortel rebounded off his mistakes in the field, taking a pitch over the left-center field wall for a home run to give the Wolverines some breathing room.

That breathing room subsequently turned into a lead well beyond arm’s length, forcing the Spartans to make multiple pitching changes. Back-to-back doubles by the top of the order, graduate shortstop Cody Jefferis and senior second baseman Ted Burton, piled onto the lead. Extending the advantage to 7-3, the Wolverines’ response showed signs of their steady approach when facing the pressure of an opposing comeback effort.

“It was a mature approach in the dugout because the guys were confident,” Smith said. “Like, ‘Hey, we’re alright. We’re up a run, let’s extend the lead.’ And that was really the dialogue in the dugout.”

Again with a comfortable lead, O’Halloran settled back in with four consecutive shutout innings to finish off his first complete game of the season.

An insurance run scored by junior catcher Gabe Sotres on a wild pitch provided the exclamation point on a dominant all-around performance for the Wolverines, one that was catalyzed by big first and sixth innings at the plate.

And finding that intensity from the get-go after the Flores hit-by-pitch helped them do so.