Noah Rennard and Mitch Voit anchor Michigan’s 5-2 win over Northwestern

There’s never an ideal time for the injury bug to strike a locker room.

But the home stretch of the regular season — jockeying for position in the conference — is one of the least-opportune times for any team to go down one of its best statistical hitters and number two starting pitcher.

With freshman center fielder Jonathan Kim day-to-day after colliding with the wall against Minnesota and junior right-hander Chase Allen likely out for the season, the Michigan baseball team, yet again, required a sift through its roster to find production in its critical series against Northwestern.

And in a season where depth is a point of concern, the Wolverines pitching combination of senior right-hander Noah Rennard and freshman right-hander Mitch Voit stepped up on Saturday to fill Allen’s shoes. While the pitchers kept their squad in the game, hitting also floundered against the Wildcats’ pitchers with runners in scoring position.

As Rennard and Voit led the way from the center of the diamond, Voit then took matters into his own hands at the plate with a game-winning three-run home run that propelled Michigan (25-22 overall, 12-8 Big Ten) to a crucial 5-2 victory over Northwestern (8-37, 3-17), putting itself squarely into the Big Ten Tournament picture.

“Earlier in the game, it was going rough,” Voit said. “But just kept wanting the opportunity to do better and (the) opportunity presented itself and it was just perfect timing.”

Voit was only presented with that opportunity to give his squad the lead thanks to the strong combined outings of himself and Rennard, who started the game.

Leading the way early, Rennard recorded 1-2-3 innings in three of his first four innings, totaling six strikeouts in 6.2 innings.

“Another quality start,” Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. “ … For us to get through the weekend, we need the quality start but (Rennard’s) been doing it pretty much all year in whatever role you ask him to do. And he accepted the challenge and delivered again for his team.”

Rennard’s competitiveness from the mound gave the Wolverine hitters a chance to take advantage. Despite being 0-8 with runners in scoring position before Voit’s at-bat in the eighth, Michigan tacked on two runs early off two big swings.

A first inning solo home run by senior second baseman Ted Burton put the Wolverines up early, 1-0, and an RBI triple by senior right fielder Joey Velazquez quickly regained the lead for Michigan in the third inning after the Wildcats tied the game in the second inning with a sacrifice fly by left fielder Kevin Ferrer.

Beyond these two initial bursts, the bats could not fully break through the Northwestern defense, led by left-hander Sam Garewal, who struck out 10 Wolverines in 5.1 innings pitched.

The inability to build out the lead momentarily set Michigan back, as Rennard relinquished the lead in the top of the seventh off an RBI single by Ferrer to knot the game at two runs apiece.

But after Voit stepped onto the mound in relief of Rennard, he cleaned up Rennard’s seventh-inning jam, throwing a shutout in the eighth inning.

And with runners on first and second, but two outs, Voit supported his own cause. Breaking his team’s failure to hit with runners in scoring position, in a resounding fashion, he put the game out of the Wildcats’ reach with the go-ahead home run.

“We put him up on the mound, he got very important outs,” Smith said. “But then to stay dialed in, it takes that one at-bat after the two not-so-good at-bats, and delivers the knockout punch.”

Voit then backed up the “knockout punch” with a scoreless ninth, punctuated by an acrobatic line drive catch by Burton that turned into a game-ending double play.

Taking that next-man-up approach is never easy, especially when attempting to replace Allen’s remarkable production throughout his Michigan career. But Rennard and Voit — the anchors in the middle of the diamond, with Voit also leading from the batter’s box — filled the void on Saturday, and then some.

And because of their efforts, the Wolverines can continue to dream of more Omaha magic.