Michigan Nine need wins at Illinois for playoff hope

By Raphael Goodstein

Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan baseball team's pulse is still beating - faintly.

After Minnesota swept the Wolverines' four-game home opener, the Michigan Nine (2-6 Big Ten, 9-15-1 overall) split a four-game series at Indiana.

So with the Wolverines' goal of making the six-team Big Ten tournament on life support, they will travel to Illinois for a four-game series with the second-place Fighting Illini.

The young Wolverines can ill-afford to lose the series and fall further behind sixth-place Iowa and Indiana. The eighth-place Wolverines are two games behind the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers.

"The more games we play, the better we're going to get," Michigan coach Geoff Zahn said. "It's just a matter of the young guys getting out there and the older guys coming around. Unfortunately, it's taken us a long time."

With nearly half of the season completed, it can't take any longer.

If Michigan loses this weekend's series, the Wolverines will have to re-prioritize their season's goals.

But the Wolverines remember last season, when they were the last team to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, won the Tournament and rode the hot streak into the NCAA Regional Final.

This year's team knows they have the talent to play with the conference's best if the young team plays up to its potential.

"We've got a chance to beat anybody if we pitch the way we did last weekend," Zahn said.

The key for the Michigan Nine this weekend will be its pitchers' consistency.

In Bloomington last weekend, the Wolverines' pitchers had a 4.50 ERA in their two wins, and averaged eight earned runs per game in their two losses.

"I think it's a case of our pitchers knowing what they have to do and finally getting over that anxiety of walking guys," Zahn said. "You either stop walking guys or continue walking even more guys. I think we pitched better this weekend."

Even though the Wolverines took two from Indiana, they walked 17 batters.

"You have to go through that period where you walk guys," Zahn said. "You don't want to walk guys because that puts pressure on yourself."

Any added pressure could be detrimental to the Wolverines this weekend.

Illinois' .406 on-base percentage will put enough pressure on Michigan's pitchers to throw strikes.

If Michigan's pitchers can't find home plate this weekend, the Wolverines might wake up Monday to find the plug pulled on their season.

This weekend

Game one Friday - Nick Anderson

(1-0, 4.26 ERA)

Game two Saturday - Vince Pistilli

(2-3, 4.73 ERA)

Game three Saturday - Bobby Korecky (2-1, 5.26 ERA)

Game four Sunday - Brian Cranson (2-3, 6.32 ERA)

Who: Michigan (1-1) vs. Illinois (2-2) for a four-game series.

When: 7:35 p.m. tonight, 5:05 p.m. tomorrow (dh), 2 p.m. Sunday.

Champaign