The Michigan baseball team has just three Big Ten weekends left ahead of them. With both NCAA and Big Ten tournament stakes rising each week, the Wolverines are using the upcoming out-of-conference series as a brief intermission.
Facing Long Beach State this weekend, Michigan is approaching the game with a different mindset than it would against a Big Ten opponent. The Wolverines are less concerned with the outcomes of the out-of-conference series.
Instead, Michigan has tunnel vision and is locked into chasing a regular-season Big Ten title.
“We want to win the thing we talked about in the locker room,” Wolverines coach Tracy Smith said Sunday. “We want to win the regular season Big Ten (title) and this hasn’t been done in a while.”
The last time Michigan brought home the Big Ten regular season title was 16 years ago, which was at the end of a three-year streak from 2006 to 2008. Despite the Wolverines winning the Big Ten tournament in 2022 and going on their post-season run to the NCAA regional round, Nebraska went home with the regular season honors.
This year, though, Michigan is right within reach, currently sitting fourth in the Big Ten with three weekends remaining to make its goal happen.
The Wolverines struggled to walk away with the opening games of numerous series in early conference match-ups. Close losses, sometimes in extra innings, continuously set Michigan behind early in its weekends. But recently in Big Ten play, the Wolverines are relying on their momentum-driven offense to secure necessary wins toward their end-of-season goal.
In the past two weekends, Michigan used Sunday games to maintain its ground in the conference.
In the last game of the series against Minnesota two weeks ago, the Wolverines made contact early and took control from the beginning. A grand slam from junior third baseman Cole Caruso gave Michigan an early four-run lead, propelling it to a win. Caruso ended in a similar spot the next week in the final game of the weekend against Ohio State. With the Wolverines down by two, Caruso once again was the difference, hitting with a three-RBIs homer to jumpstart the offense. Caruso’s game saving moments are keeping Michigan competitive in the Big Ten.
“I love the way the guys are doing it and it’s kind of all hands on deck,” Smith said. “There’s a lot to be learned by some of these performances and I hope the younger guys are paying attention.”
And as the Wolverines enter an out-of-conference series again this weekend, the sole focus continues to remain on that title.
In the beginning of the season, Michigan struggled to find its identity as a team, and it showed on the field. Entering conference play, the Wolverines sat at 7-14 and struggled to string together continuous wins. Michigan has since proven that it works better in the confinement of its conference. And an upcoming out-of-conference series will test the Wolverines’ current form.
“We’re probably going to treat it a little differently than a Big Ten series,” Smith said. “Because we have to make sure our guys are healthy.”
Going into the string of games versus the Dirtbags, Michigan’s concern is already on the following weekend against Michigan State — and the management of the lineup will reflect that. The Wolverines are using these games as a rest for their players, rather than test them.
At the end of the day, Michigan’s result of the weekend holds little weight, win or lose. Because at the end of the season, the Wolverines’ main focus is to bring new Big Ten hardware home.