Highlights & Recap: Michigan Baseball Wins Weekend Series At Michigan State

The 22nd-ranked Michigan Wolverines headed to East Lansing this weekend looking for a series victory over the Michigan State Spartans, and that's exactly what they got, winning the first two contests of the weekend (Friday and Saturday) before falling on Sunday. With the two wins, Michigan won the season series over the Spartans, 3-2.

The Spartans had lost four straight and 10 of their last 11 games coming into the weekend, while Michigan was coming off a four-game series split with Illinois.

Here is a rundown of this weekend's events on the diamond.

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Michigan's lefty ace, redshirt sophomore Steven Hajjar, just needed to face a couple batters before settling in. The Andover, Mass., native let up a leadoff single and walked one batter in the bottom of the first inning, but didn't allow any more baserunners after that while pitching a gem for six innings. He notched a career-high 13 strikeouts.

The Wolverines' bats got going with two outs in the third inning, with fifth-year senior catcher Griffin Mazur, a UC Irvine transfer, singling in sophomore first baseman Jimmy Obertop, who had doubled. Following that up, sophomore second baseman Ted Burton hit a double of his own to score Mazur.

Another two-out rally extended Michigan's 2-0 lead in the fourth, with fifth-year senior center fielder Christian Bullock walking, before fifth-year senior third baseman Christian Molfetta singled up the middle. Due to a slip by the MSU outfielder, Bullock was able to score all the way from first.

Redshirt junior reliever Isaiah Paige allowed an unearned run in the eighth inning, the Spartans' only run of the contest.

Then came insurance time. Mazur stayed hot, slapping a single into center field to score two more runs and give the Wolverines a 5-1 lead.

All told, Michigan notched 11 hits to MSU's two en route to a series-opening win. Hajjar improved to 3-0 on the year and owns an ERA of 2.88.

Box Score

Michigan got everything it wanted and more out of sophomore right-hander Cameron Weston, the Wolverines' No. 2 pitcher in the rotation. He posted nine strikeouts and 13 ground-ball outs in a complete-game one-hitter, and at one point retired 20 consecutive batters.

Michigan's offense was opportune and efficient, with five hits leading to three runs.

Fifth-year senior shortstop got Michigan's offense off to a solid start in the second inning, when he popped a solo homer over the right field wall to provide the Maize and Blue with a 1-0 edge. That same inning, Burton registered an RBI single to make it 2-0.

The Spartans' only hit of the game, a leadoff double by left fielder Jack Frank, came in the bottom of the second, and it ended up leading to a run, with a wild pitch advancing Frank to third before he scored on a sacrifice fly.

Sophomore left fielder Tito Flores went yard over the left field wall to give Michigan a 3-1 lead, which ended up being the final score.

Box Score

It was MSU's afternoon from the beginning of the game until the end. The Spartans cashed in on Michigan errors, scoring two runs in the first to take an early lead.

The Spartans scored another in the third to make it a 3-0 ball game. A left-hander, Michigan starter Jacob Denner only lasted two and a third innings, before he was replaced.

In the third inning, erratic pitching did Michigan in, with four walks, two hit batters and and a wild pitching helping MSU to score seven runs in the frame — they only notched two hits.

Down 10-0, Michigan chipped away a bit, with two swings of the bat — solo shots from Obertop and Flores in the seventh — putting two runs on the board. But it was too little too late, and Michigan fell by a score of 10-2.

Box Score

Michigan will back in action Friday through Sunday (May 14-16) when the Wolverines host Indiana in a pivotal three-game series at the Wilpon Complex, home of Ray Fisher Stadium. Michigan trails the Hoosiers by one game in the Big Ten standings (shown below).

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