Michigan’s regular season ends on a sour note.
Riding a two-game winning streak and within striking distance of the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament , the Michigan baseball team hit the road for its final series of the 2024 regular season. Michigan would do battle with Indiana for three games, two on Thursday and one on Friday.
In Thursday’s first game, Kurt Barr got the start on the mound for Michigan. Indiana’s Devin Taylor jumped on him early, though, leading off the home half of the first inning with a solo homer to go up 1-0. The Hoosiers wouldn’t hold the lead for long, as Michigan’s Will Rogers would drive in two runs on a double in the fourth inning, giving Michigan a 2-1 edge.
Taylor was back at it again for Indiana in the fifth inning, as he drove in a run with a single, chasing Barr from the game and tying the score at 2-2. Barr would finish the game with 5.2 innings pitched, surrendering two earned runs and six hits.
Jacob Denner took over and shut the Hoosiers down for 3.1 innings, allowing just two hits.
Michigan’s Collin Priest hit a solo homer in the eighth, which proved to be the decider, giving Michigan a 3-2 victory.
In Thursday’s second game, Indiana’s offense came out scorching hot. The Hoosiers scored four runs off Chase Allen in the first inning, and Devin Taylor tacked on two more runs with a homer in the second inning. Just like that, Indiana was ahead 6-0.
Allen would go back to the mound in the third inning, but failed to record an out as Indiana’s offensive barrage continued. In the third, the Hoosiers scored four more runs off Allen and Eamon Horwedel to take a commanding 10-0 lead.
Collin Priest would hit his second homer of the day, this time a two-run shot, to get Michigan on the board in the fifth inning. But Indiana countered with another run in the bottom half of the inning. The score would hold from there, giving Indiana an 11-2 victory.
Looking to win the series, Michigan sent freshman Dylan Vigue to the hill on Friday night. After pitching a scoreless first inning, Indiana’s Jasen Oliver smacked a three-run homer in the second inning to put the Hoosiers up 3-0.
Michigan would get on the board in the top of the third, with Brock Leitgeb scoring on a fielder’s choice. Indiana kept its foot on the gas in the bottom half of the frame, striking for two runs on two solo homers to go up 5-1. The Hoosiers hit another solo homer in the fourth, pushing their lead to five.
In the top of the fifth, Michigan would cut into the deficit, as Kyle Dernedde clubbed a two-run homer to make it 6-3. Devin Taylor would counter with a two-run homer of his own to push the lead back to five. Michigan added another run on a Collin Priest homer in the eighth, but it was too little too late. Indiana went on to win it 8-4.
By dropping two out of three in the series, Michigan finished the regular season with a 30-26 overall record, including 14-10 in the conference. That puts the Wolverines in a tie for fourth place with Iowa, who they’ll play in the opener of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday.