The Michigan baseball team will be hard-pressed to repeat its performance from last week, during which the Wolverines won eight games in as many days when, but it travels to Tulsa this weekend, the only thing stopping them is that the Wolverines play only three games in three days.
Michigan (8-4), which is ranked No. 30 nationally by Collegiate Baseball, travels to Oklahoma this weekend to play Oral Roberts, Kansas State and Pepperdine in the F&M Bank Classic. The Wolverines will try to extend their winning streak to 11 after sweeping the field at last week's Rollins Baseball Week Tournament.
This weekend, things will not be quite as easy for the Wolverines. They face stiffer competition than in last week's tournament. Only host Rollins, a Division II program boasted a winning record. The same is not true of Michigan's opponents this weekend.
"We're facing three fairly good clubs," Michigan coach Geoff Zahn said. "But we have to take care of ourselves."
On Friday Michigan plays host Oral Roberts. Assistant coach Chris Harrison should feel right at home in J.L. Johnson Stadium where he earned four varsity letters while playing for the Golden Eagles from 1978-1981. Oral Roberts has a 12-10 record after finishing 32-24 last season.
Leading Oral Roberts into the contest are infielder Ron Soratos, who is batting .353, and first baseman Brian Dinsmore, who comes into the game with five doubles, three home runs and 11 RBI.
Junior Brian Steinbach, who holds a 2-1 record, will take the mound for Michigan Friday. Steinbach has a 1.50 earned run average and is coming off his first complete-game shutout of the year last week, a three-.hitter against Maine. He has not allowed an earned run over his last 17 innings.
The Wolverines face Kansas State for the first time ever on Saturday. J.J. Putz is expected to start against the Wildcats, who have a 10-6 record on the season. Kansas is coming off of a sweep of Nebraska and is led by shortstop Heath Schesser and Scott Poepard. Schesser leads the team with a .508 batting average and 36 RBI while Poepard is batting .433 with 23 RBI.
Putz, who has a 1-0 record on the season, is coming off his strongest pitching performance to date, in which he held Virginia Tech to five hits and two runs in six innings.
Michigan winds up the weekend Sunday against Pepperdine. Last season, the Waves finished second in the West Coast Conference with a 19-6 conference record. Zahn was an assistant coach at Pepperdine until his hiring as Michigan's head coach.
"There are players there that I love," Zahn said. "It'll be great to see them, but I would love to beat them."
Sophomore Luke Bonner is expected to start for the Wolverines against Pepperdine. Bonner is 1-2 this season, and picked up his first win against Virginia Tech last week.
In order to win this weekend, Michigan will need both strong pitching and the same good hitting that propelled it to eight wins last week. The weather in Michigan has helped the team's cause.
"We've been fortunate to get outside both days so far," Zahn said. "We wanted to work on a few things, our fielding, pitching and hitting."
Junior Derek Besco, last week's offensive star, was named one of the Louisville Slugger's National Players of the Week as selected by Collegiate Baseball. Besco highlighted Michigan's offensive display in Winter Park with a .486 batting average, four home runs and 22 RBI. Besco was not the only player who performed well in Florida.
"Bryan Kalczinski played well," Zahn said. "Also, (freshman) Rob Bobeda has been a surprise." Through 12 games, Bobeda is batting .385 and has scored 11 runs.