Michigan football, baseball player Joey Velazquez wins two Big Ten titles within same year
The Michigan Wolverines punched its ticket to the NCAA Baseball Tournament on Sunday night after defeating Rutgers in the Big Ten title game. In that victory, an impressive and rare feat was accomplished by Michigan two-sport star Joey Velazquez.
Velazquez is a starting outfielder on Michigan’s baseball team, but he is also a contributor on the Wolverines football team. With Michigan winning Big Ten titles in both baseball and football this season, Velazquez just earned his second conference title in the span of just a couple of months.
Velazquez turned into a valuable part of Michigan’s lineup this season
Velazquez has spent three years on Michigan’s baseball team. In 2020, he hit .364 in 11 at-bats with four hits and one RBI. In 2021, he hit just .174 in 23 at-bats, driving in seven runs with four hits. This season, Velazquez has played himself into a more consistent role in the Wolverines starting lineup.
He played in 28 games on the year with 21 starts. In 79 at-bats, Velazquez had 22 hits, four home runs, 17 RBI, and 11 walks, hitting .278 on the year. Velazquez isn’t able to play at the very beginning of the year in February, at least he wasn’t this year with Michigan’s football team playing in the College Football Playoff and a warm-up period. His first appearance of the season came in Greenville, North Carolina in the Keith Leclair Classic, and he made a big impact with a three-run home run in his first at-bat during the first weekend of March.
In football, Velazquez appeared in eight games on special teams and two games on defense for Michigan last season. He had two tackles and recovered a fumble. Velazquez came to the Wolverines as a three-star linebacker in the 2019 recruiting class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.
By winning the Big Ten Tournament, Michigan clinched its automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines were likely out of luck without that win, and Rutgers, a projected tournament team entering that game, fell out of the field. Michigan is the third seed in the Louisville Regional. Louisville (No. 1, No. 12 overall seed), Oregon (No. 2), and Southeast Missouri State (No. 4) also make up the regional field.