jacob denner

I wrote a softball update a few weeks back, when Michigan was starting to show some promise offensively, with a few important weekends upcoming. Three weekend series have passed since then, with Michigan continuing to bank wins and stay near the top of the conference as we learn what this young team is made of. It's about time for another softball update and in turn, it's time to give Michigan's baseball team some love as well, after yet another series win in conference play, most recently over the rival Ohio State Buckeyes. Today we'll be accomplishing both, talking about developments in the softball season and the road ahead, before digging into where Michigan Baseball sits with a month to go in the regular season: 

Softball hitters: REAL 

When I wrote about softball last time, I was reporting on the genuinely encouraging developments on offense for the Wolverines that had suddenly materialized, following a moribund first month of the season. At the time I noted that we would gain more information on just what these young hitters were made of over the following couple weeks, with two solid pitching teams upcoming in Northwestern and Iowa. There were reasons to believe the offensive surge was real, but until they faced more deecent pitching staffs, it was difficult to buy in fully. 

So what happened? Michigan has continued to hit pretty well. They didn't bludgeon Northwestern, which no one was expecting against a team with a star ace like Ashley Miller, but after scoring just one in the first game in an abbreviated run rule game, they put up 4 and then 5 on the 'Cats. It was disappointingly not enough to win any of the games due to a pitching meltdown, but from an offensive standpoint, I came away encouraged. Northwestern has only allowed 4+ runs nine times this season in 38 games and two of those were against the Wolverines. That's something. 

Then came Iowa, who had allowed 6+ runs four times all season. Michigan put up 6+ in all three games, seeming to send their pitching into a tailspin that then carried over into a disastrous series against Indiana this past weekend. Michigan put up 11 and 5 in mid-week games against MSU over the past two weeks and then put up 4, 6, and 11 this past weekend against Nebraska. The pitching held up enough to sweep all of those games against Iowa, MSU, and Nebraska. To cap it all off, Michigan went on the road yesterday to Oakland and defeated the Golden Grizzlies for the second time this season, winning by a 9-4 final score.  

I don't believe that Michigan is one of the very best offenses in college softball, but we have enough evidence now that this is a good college offense. More importantly, it is an offense that is miles better than what they put out there in any of the last few seasons. The numbers over the past 29 games speak for themselves: in that span Michigan is hitting a quadruple slash of .324/.419/.558/.977 as a team. Their batting average, OBP, and SLG would all be top 25 in the country if sustained over a full season. Of course, they haven't been facing the most *elite* pitchers in the country during this stretch (mostly conference games against a weak B1G) and thus we wouldn't expect it to be fully sustained over a full season. but I've followed this team a while now. I've watched versions of Michigan over the years, particularly 2022 and 2023, that couldn't hit the ball against anybody. To now have a team that is bludgeoning the merely okay teams on the schedule is a significant development. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: digging deeper into softball + baseball talk]

As promised, three weeks have passed since I last chronicled the happenings of the Michigan Softball and Baseball teams, so it's time to check back in. Softball was playing in the BTT when I started writing this, so I'm going to leave that one until early next week once we know the final result of Selection Sunday (likely not gonna be good!), but it feels like a good time to check back in on baseball. Nine more games have gone by and the regular season is nearing its conclusion. Once again we'll do a quick recap, check in on the B1G chase, recap the goings on with the team, and then preview the upcoming slate: 

Baseball: Jostling for B1G Positioning

The last time I wrote about Michigan Baseball we were getting ready for a massive home series against Michigan State that represented the last truly difficult B1G series on the schedule. At that time, the team was sifting through choppy results in conference play and were firmly in the "must win the B1G Tournament to make the NCAAs" territory, so our focus was on seeding (and qualifying) for the BTT in Omaha. That remains true in this edition. 

Season Results Since We Last Talked: That pivotal home series against MSU went pretty well! Michigan got out to a quick 5-2 lead in the Friday game and let strong pitching from Noah Rennard carry them, Mitch Voit working a clean and efficient ninth inning to nail it down. With the ace Connor O'Halloran going on Saturday, Michigan was situated in good position to get a series win at that point and that's what they got on Saturday. O'Halloran threw a complete game, striking out five and allowing three runs on 115 pitches. The Michigan offense gave him a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first on RBI knocks from Joey Velazquez and Jack Van Remortel and those were all the runs he'd need en route to a 7-3 victory. Michigan's pitching depth again proved problematic in another Sunday defeat, but taking 2/3 from MSU was satisfactory. 

That led Michigan into their bye week in the B1G, meaning it was time for a non-con tussle with Oklahoma State. That series meant nothing with the Wolverines far outside NCAA consideration as an at-large team, instead mostly serving to give this Michigan team some experience. They only ended up playing two games due to weather, with the Cowboys sweeping the Wolverines (not terribly surprising). O'Halloran pitched a decent game in the opener of the series, but two runs allowed in the 7th handed the Pokes a 5-3 victory. The second game was much messier, OKST using a 5 run fifth to take a commanding lead and eventually hanging on to win 8-5. Tough sledding for Tracy Smith's crew, but again not terribly meaningful in the long run. 

The mid-week game against Kent State wrapped up a seven game home-stand, Michigan able to use more of their A-List arms for that one due to the shortened series against OKST. Michigan won it 7-5 on the back of homers from both Mitch Voit and Tito Flores, as well as an RBI double from Jonathan Kim. After that the Wolverines were off to Minneapolis, a three-game set that ended up being quite low-scoring. Michigan's pitching showed up, nine runs allowed in the three games. Unfortunately, they only scored six runs in three games, including being shut out in the Friday game. The Maize & Blue held a 2-0 lead headed into the bottom of the 8th on Saturday when starter Noah Rennard began to unravel and Voit was unable to salvage it. Thankfully, the brilliance of Jacob Denner on Sunday (complete game, one run allowed!) and a first inning three-run HR from Velazquez powered Michigan to a win in Game #3 that denied the Gophers the sweep. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: B1G standings, notable performances, previews]

The dawn of the Tracy Smith era in Ann Arbor is nearly upon us. After Erik Bakich exited the program in favor of Clemson, Warde Manuel turned to former Indiana and Arizona State head coach Tracy Smith to lead the Wolverines into the future. It was a bumpy transition at first, with plenty of players entering the portal, but Smith did alright keeping a lot of the roster together, minus graduation/MLB guys he was bound to loss. As a result, a reasonable chunk of production returns from last season's Big Ten Tournament Champion roster. There are plenty of questions, though, uncertainty on the mound, sizable holes in the lineup, and a fresh new coaching staff. Let's get acquainted with all of them: 

Who is Tracy Smith? Who are these new coaches?

Things are a bit different at the top and the Bakich --> Smith transition is the most important. I covered Smith back when he was hired in July, but the first thing to know is he's a much older and more veteran coach than Bakich was when he arrived in Ann Arbor. Smith was a solid coach at Miami (OH), winning the MAC a couple times, and then was hired to coach Indiana in 2005, where he replaced a former mentor Bob Morgan. At IU, Smith was an excellent coach, turning them into the no-doubt best-in-the-conference program by his last few seasons in Bloomington, finishing 2nd, 1st, 1st in the last three years. He won two B1G regular season titles and two B1G Tournament titles, taking Indiana to the CWS in 2013 and snagging the #4 national seed in the 2014. 

The reason Smith was available for Michigan to hire is what happened after he left Indiana, a disappointing tenure at Arizona State. Despite exceptional recruiting, their on-field results were underwhelming, falling short of expectations repeatedly and never finishing higher than 3rd in the PAC-12, also never making it out of the regional in the NCAAs. There were reports of locker room problems, something that the ASU AD alluded to in his decision to fire Smith. It was not what you want from a coach that is coming to Michigan, and my feeling at the time of the hiring is it's all about which Tracy Smith this is. Indiana Tracy Smith would be a terrific coach... the ASU Tracy Smith would be a disaster for Michigan. 

Still, this is a fresh start for Smith and as I wrote in July, maybe he just got out over his skis recruiting blue chip players at a national program like ASU and he's more suited to coaching in the B1G/Midwest, where his background is. It's too early to know anything about Smith at Michigan, but it is a very early decent sign that he was able to fetch several of Michigan's players out of the portal, convincing them to stay. Retrieving Jimmy Obertop and getting him to come back, for example, was massive. I'm willing to hope for the best as there is a wide range of legitimate outcomes with Smith. He needed to bomb out at ASU to be a candidate to come to a program like Michigan, but it's also not too often you get to hire a coach with multiple B1G regular season titles on his resume (something that Bakich never achieved). 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Assistants, hitters, pitchers, expectations]