The Michigan Wolverine baseball team entered the NCAA Tournament as Big Ten regular season and tournament champions. The Wolverines, serving as the only Big Ten team advancing to the NCAA Tournament, faced Vanderbilt in the first game of the Atlanta Regional. Michigan earned a #3 seed with Vanderbilt snatched a #2 seed out of the South Eastern Conference. Georgia Tech, the host institution for the regional and Atlantic Coast Conference runner-up, has the #1 seed and #8 seed overall; they will face Stetson, the #4 seed, in their opening round battle.

            The Vanderbilt Commodores jumped on Michigan right out of the gates. After Wolverine starter, Zach Putnam walked the first two batters, Ryan Flaherty moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt to third baseman, A.J. Scheidt. A batter later, Brian Hernadez hit a ground ball out but it was enough to score David Macias from third and put Vanderbilt up, 1-0. Michigan struck back, however, putting three batters on in the top of the second. Commodore starter, Matt Buschmann, allowed singles to Adam Abraham and Doug Pickens as well as a Derek VanBuskirk walk with one out. A.J. Scheidt came up with some clutch hitting when he singled to drive in Abraham put Michigan on par with Vanderbilt, 1-1. Buschmann was able to escape the dilemma by striking out Mike Schmidt and forcing an Eric Rose groundout.

            Vanderbilt made sure that they would prove their seeding advantage in the bottom half of the second inning. After a lead-off single for Shea Robin, Ryan Davis smoked one out of the park in right center to put the Commodores up 3-1. Michigan’s A.J. Sheidt continued to put in the RBI’s in Atlanta in the top of the fourth to answer the Vanderbilt charge. He doubled to right field with Adam Abraham on first, via a walk, to scored Abraham and Michigan scratched its way to only a one run deficit. A pair of homeruns sealed the deal for Vanderbilt though in the bottom of the fifth. Both Pedro Alvarez and Brian Hernandez  blasted solo shots to increase the cushion to 5-3.

            The NCAA Tournament opening round game finished with the score 5-3 in favor of Vanderbilt. Matt Buschmann went the distance pitching for the #2 seed; allowing two runs on six hits and punching out seven. With the win, his record improves to 6-4. Zach Putnam, on the other hand, picked up the loss. Putnam only went 1.2 innings and surrendered three runs on only two hits. Drew Taylor came in for relief of Putnam as he allowed two runs on four hits and struck out four. Putnam falls to 6-2 on the year.

            With the loss, Michigan drops into the loser’s bracket at the Atlanta Regional. They will face elimination tomorrow (June 3) at 1:00 PM. At Russ Chandler Stadium, Michigan will be facing the loser of the Georgia Tech-Stetson match-up that will take place at 7:00 PM later today. Vanderbilt will play the winner of the Yellow Jacket-Hatter game at 5:00 PM tomorrow. All games from the Atlanta Regional will be broadcasted on Cox Sports television.

Final- Vanderbilt 5 Michigan 2  

Go Blue!