Back to back homers to open spark Michigan baseball tourney win
Michigan had to wait until nearly midnight eastern time to finally play its Big Ten Tournament opener, but it was worth it. The No. 5 seed Wolverines opened the game with back-to-back home runs by Clark Elliott and Joe Stewart and score two late runs after an Illinois comeback to beat the No. 4 Illini, 7-5.
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Michigan will play No. 1 seed Maryland tonight after several other games are played. First pitch will come 40 minutes after a loser’s bracket game between Illinois and Indiana.
Elliott and Stewart became the first duo to start a Big Ten Tournament game with consecutive home runs. It also marked the first time in the history of Charles Schwab stadium in Omaha, Neb. that two hitters from the same team started the game that way.
The lead wouldn’t last, however. The Illini cut it in half in the second inning and tied it with two runs in the fourth Pitcher Connor O’Halloran gave up a single and two doubles with two outs, and it was 3-3 entering the fifth.
Michigan junior Jimmy Obertop gave the Wolverines the lead back with an opposite field home run, answering the Illinois rally.
That would be the theme throughout the night. While the maligned Michigan pitching staff (7.01 ERA entering the game) had a hard time holding leads, the hitters came through.
Illinois tied it at four in the fifth, and the two teams went to the eighth inning squared at four. Two-sport athlete Joey Velazquez, a linebacker on the football team, drove in Tito Flores to give Michigan the lead. Elliott added an RBI single, and an Obertop single in the night gave U-M some insurance and a 7-4 lead.
Chase Allen picked up the win with one run allowed in two innings of work. Cameron Weston got the save, also allowing a run in two innings.
Michigan and Illinois were initially slated to play Wednesday at 1 p.m., but rain changed the itinerary. Thursday’s game didn’t end until after 3 a.m. Friday morning, and the Wolverines will likely have to play late into the night again Friday.
They’ll face a tough opponent in Maryland. The Terps beat No. 8 seed Indiana in 11 innings on Thursday in the third game of the tournament.
Maryland won all three games of a series over Michigan this season, dominating U-M pitching May 13-15 in College Park. They won the first game, 8-7, and hammered U-M for 35 runs in the next two games. The Terrapins won 20-6 and 15-10 to sweep the three-game set.
U-M did win a neutral site game, 7-4, in Greenville N.C. March 4.
