Baseball Recap: Michigan keeps its season alive with win over Illinois

Michigan’s late night victory sets up a rematch with Penn State in the semifinals.

Facing elimination after falling against Penn State on Thursday night , the Michigan Wolverines baseball team took the field Friday night in Omaha to take on Illinois . To keep the season alive, the Wolverines were able to edge out a tight 4-2 victory.

On the mound, Michigan went with Will Rogers, giving him a break from his usual duties behind the plate in favor of this high leverage outing. Illinois countered with left-hander Payton Hutchings.

After two scoreless innings from Hutchings, Michigan got on the board first in the third inning. After Brock Leitgeb and Jonathan Kim walked to lead off the inning, Stephen Hrustich was able to capitalize with a base hit, bringing Leitgeb in to score. Michigan was up 1-0 early.

In the fifth inning, Michigan would continue to build on its lead. The red-hot Mitch Voit hit a triple to deep center field with one out in the inning. It was then Hrustich who came up big again, doubling to right field to drive in the run to give Michigan a 2-0 advantage.

While Michigan was building a lead for itself on offense, Rogers was absolutely dealing on the mound. Rogers got through seven scoreless innings, and even chipped in with the bat, as he was able to drive in Cole Caruso with a double in the top of the eighth inning to put Michigan on top, 3-0. Rogers pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth as well.

In the ninth, Michigan tacked on an insurance run, as Voit stayed hot and crushed a one-out solo home run to left field. That would put Michigan up 4-0, but Illinois wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

In the bottom of the ninth, Rogers went back to the hill for Michigan, and retired two batters while walking a third. Camden Janek then hit a triple to drive in a run, while Drake Wescott drove in Janek on a single.

All of a sudden, Illinois was threatening with two outs, but Michigan turned to Dylan Vigue, who was able to retire the final batter and give Michigan a 4-2 win.

Rogers was unquestionably the star of the night for the Wolverines. Despite some late damage, he pitched 8.2 innings, allowing only three hits and two earned runs. He also struck out eight hitters while walking two. It was a great performance when Michigan badly needed one.

Michigan now has another date with Penn State, after losing to the Nittany Lions by a final score of 9-5 on Thursday. That game will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday and air on Big Ten Network, with the winner moving on to the championship.