Michigan baseball opens NCAA tournament with 8-6 win vs. Oregon; CMU falls to Florida, 7-3
After crushing their way through the Big Ten tournament, Michigan baseball kept the hits coming in its NCAA tournament opener, pounding Oregon, 8-6, in the Louisville regional on Friday night.
Catcher Jimmy Obertop homered twice and drove in four runs and third baseman Matt Frey delivered a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning for the Wolverines (33-26), who will face 12-seed Louisville, the regional host, at 4 p.m. Saturday. The winner of that game will advance to the regional final at 4 p.m. Sunday and would need to lose twice to be eliminated. The loser plays at noon Sunday against Saturday’s winner between Oregon and Southeast Missouri State in an elimination game.
Obertop struck out looking in his first time up, leading off the second, but didn’t let the ball past him the next two times up. In the third, with the Wolverines leading 1-0, Obertop launched the fourth pitch of his at-bat into the right-field seats to score Frey (who had reached on a hit-by-pitch) and give U-M a 3-0 lead.
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The Ducks made it a one-run game again in the bottom of the fourth, aided by a hit-by-pitch, an error and a wild pitch. But in the fifth, after a double by Frey, Obertop sent the first pitch he saw over the fence in center to restore the three-run lead.
After an insurance run in the fifth for U-M, Oregon scored a run in each of the fifth and sixth innings, chasing starter Connor O’Halloran. The sophomore allowed three earned runs (four overall) while scattering six hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings. Chase Allen relieved him with two outs and a runner on second; Allen then walked Oregon second baseman Gavin Grant, who reached second on a wild pitch. But Allen recovered to retire leadoff hitter Tanner Smith on a lineout to short to end the threat.
He wasn’t as effective in the seventh, allowing a homer to Brennan Milone to make it a one-run game, followed by a single, a fielder’s choice and a double, which ended his outing. Cameron Weston, who boosted an ailing U-M bullpen in the Big Ten tourney, couldn’t shut the door all the way, as Anthony Hall doubled to drive in the tying run. But Weston retired Jacob Walsh to end the inning, and Frey drove in Clark Elliott with one out in the eighth on his homer to right-center for the eventual winning runs.
Weston then shut down the Ducks over the final two innings with six straight outs, none beyond the infield.
The victory was the first in the NCAA tournament for the Wolverines since their run to the College World Series finals in 2019. There was no tourney in 2020, and Michigan lost both of its games in 2021, falling to Connecticut and Central Michigan in South Bend, Indiana.
Chips fall to Gators, 7-3, in Gainesville, Fla.
Central Michigan (42-18) picked up 12 hits, but couldn’t string them together at the right time, falling, 7-3, to 13-seed Florida in the Gainesville regional on Friday night. CMU will face Liberty, which lost to Oklahoma, 16-3, in Friday’s first game, at 1 p.m. Saturday in an elimination match. The winner of that game will face the loser of Saturday night’s game between the Gators and Sooners.
CMU was victimized early by the long ball, with Sterlin Thompson homering in the third inning and Colby Halter going deep in the fifth. Both homers came off starter Andrew Taylor, the only runs he allowed over five innings.
CMU’s first run came in the top of the third, when the Chips sandwiched singles from Justin Simpson and Danny Wuestenfeld around a groundout from Jakob Marsee to take a 1-0 lead. But the homers soon wiped that away.
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The Chips had a chance to climb back in the top of the eighth, loading the bases with two outs while trailing only 3-1. But Adam Proctor struck out to end the inning and the threat.
The Gators added four runs in the bottom of the eighth off Garrett Navarra and Ryan Insco before Jake Jones ended the scoring with a strikeout of Wyatt Langford. CMU picked up a couple extra runs, with a pair of singles in the ninth, but Navarra struck out swinging to end the game.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan baseball opens NCAA tournament with win; CMU falls to Florida
