Michigan Baseball had an unsuccessful trip out west, as UCLA won in dominant fashion on Tuesday. However, there’s a chance for redemption this weekend, as Michigan squares off with Illinois in its first Big Ten series of the 2025 season:
Coming off a series victory against Long Beach State last weekend, the Michigan Wolverines baseball team was looking to carry momentum into two more West Coast matchups this week.
The second of the two games — to be played against UC Riverside on Wednesday — was canceled due to inclement weather, so the Wolverines played just one game against UCLA Tuesday night. Michigan’s first game against a Big Ten opponent this season certainly didn’t go as planned, as UCLA blew out the Wolverines, 22-5.
Contrary to what the final score might dictate, Michigan came out hot to start the game. In the first inning, Benjamin Casillas and Mitch Voit both scored courtesy of a Jeter Ybarra single and a fielder’s choice, respectively. The Wolverines finished the top of the first up 2-0, but that’s when the good times stopped.
UCLA responded with three runs in the bottom of the first inning, chasing Michigan starter Kurt Barr from the game in the process. The Bruins would stay on the attack in the second, with three more runs to make it a 6-2 game.
The Bruins were only getting warmed up. With Michigan’s offense unable to do anything after the first inning, UCLA scored nine runs on five hits in the bottom of the third inning, doing most of its damage off Brandon Mann and Wyatt Novara. Michigan did self-inflict some of the damage as well, though, as the pitching staff issued four walks in the inning.
With UCLA up 15-2, the game was well out of reach. The Bruins scored two more runs in the fourth and five runs in the fifth to rub salt in the wound. Michigan scored just three more runs, including one off a Will Rogers solo home run in the fifth inning, but it was all for naught as the game would eventually be called in the seventh inning. Michigan fell to 6-5 overall on the year.
But starting Friday, Michigan will have the chance to get the sour taste out of its mouth with a three-game series against another Big Ten opponent, the Illinois Fighting Illini. So far, the Illini are on roughly equal footing with Michigan, as they enter the weekend with a 6-4 record. They dropped their last game to No. 15 Texas by a 15-6 final score.
Two hitters are standing out so far for Illinois in junior infielder Jack Zebig and junior outfielder Nick Groves. Zebig has two home runs this year and leads the team in hits with 16 while sporting a 1.033 OPS. Groves has a .961 OPS, 15 hits, and leads the team in stolen bases with seven.
Grant Ross, Greg LaChance and Vytas Valincius are names to watch as well, as all three enter the weekend with an OPS better than 1.000.
Tyler Schmitt is the ace for Illinois. In three starts this season, he has a 4.73 ERA and 1.80 WHIP in 13.1 innings. He’ll likely go against Dylan Vigue. The Saturday starter for Illinois will likely be Ben Plumley, who has been hit around a bit this year to the tune of a 6.60 ERA. Michigan could counter with Kurt Barr in that game. To round out the weekend, Illinois will likely go with Julius Sanchez, who has been the most consistent of its starters so far with a 4.50 ERA, while also leading the team in innings pitched (16) and strikeouts (17). Michigan will likely counter with some combination of Will Rogers and Gavin DeVooght.
Here’s the full schedule for the weekend:
Game 1
Friday, March 7, 6:30 p.m. ET, Vero Beach, FL
Game 2
Saturday, March 8, 4:00 p.m. ET, Vero Beach, FL
Game 3
Sunday, March 9, noon ET, Vero Beach, FL
All games will be broadcast on BTN+.