Aaron

Today shows why Fucci and Houston don't play as much. Both do the exact mistakes as Fougerousse and Espalin as seniors, while the freshmen will fix this and be good players long term. Its 2-1 after 3. Richardson and Barr still messed up at bats that inning. Also Mudungo into pitch. Assuming Mercer wants 3 innings each from Bothwell, Mudungo and Tucker so they all are available next weekend and then one of them can start Monday again next week.

Finally on the board. Fougerousse dump a single into LF then Colopy doubles to the LF wall. Colopy has been the one guy last two games who has hit very well. 2-1.

Now Barr pops up a 3-1 pitch on the IF. The plate approach today by this lineup against this pitching is by far worst I have seen this year. Its despicable.

Richardson strikes out on a pitch in the dirt. Second straight game our hitters look befuddled. I get it Sunday given the profile of the pitcher you faced (off speed lefty) who was just on. Zero excuse today. Zero. Team needs to explain why bad pitchers are befuddling them and why some at bats are so impatient.

Bothwell works out of some trouble but overall has been good. Not his fault Houston botched an out. Also as I said Illinois can hit very wel. Illinois changes pitcher to another guy with a very high (8.18 ERA). This guy has a lot less walks so just gives up a lot of hard contact presumably. Let's see what we can do.

Ashley flies out. Not a terrible at bat by him but Espalin and Fucci ruined the inning earlier. We are letting a horrible pitcher off the hook with an impatient approach by every other hitter. One hitter is doing fine and working count beautifully and then the next is swinging at pitches out of zone. Need EVERY single hitter to be patient against a guy with no control. Not every other one.

Houston works a fine at bat and singles. Again every other hitter being patient instead of everyone and its killing us against a pitcher with zero control.

Now Espalin does the same thing. 2 Outs runner on first when literally every player should of walked if they were patient.

Again Fucci pops up first pitch. Then we get a four pitch walk. If we would stop swinging we would walk runs right in. But its only every other batter being patient which is huge difference and its killing us.

Horrific start. In first we faced a pitcher who literally has walked everyone he has faced. Ashley worked a good at bat and grounded out. No problem there. Also Barr and Fougerousse drew walks which was fine. Problem is both Richardson and Colopy ruined the inning by swinging at strikes not even close to the zone or we would of probably chased the guy and walked in with runs as has happened to him all year. Than in top 2nd Illinois doubled down the line which was earned, but Houston made a horrible error or we would of been out of inning scoreless. Intead Illinois gets a run to lead 2-0. Illini can hit very well. Problem is they can't pitch at all unless we hand them strikeouts as we did last inning. Plenty of time to make that up against this Illinois staff, but have to be patient in EVERY at bat not just 3 of 5 hitters in an inning. To Bottom 2 and team is punting their season for no reason. We are in a very brief rain delay now as a quick shower passes but we are back now after about a 3 min delay.

Yup that's what I mean by top 4 play each other.

Update: Kirschsieper and Rybarczyk both threw long relief Friday so Illinois may literally piece it together one inning at a time with bullpen day and their bullpen is really not good. To have Bothwell going presumably gives us zero excuse. We may win 10-5, but no reason not to put up 5-10 runs as I said. Also their best reliever Vera (and if you can call him that but only bullpen guy under 5.00 ERA) threw 40 pitches today so won't see him and Rybarczyk and Kirschsieper pitched now again so probably won't see them either. Illinois really going to needs to piece this together. Hopefully they punched themselves out eliminating Iowa for us and we can thank them by beating them down. I really hope Illinois does not claim to have "COVID" issues given the game means nothing to them. If I am IU I am demanding to see the records for any positive test (with names redacted of course for HIPPA) or I am asking Big Ten for a forfeit and will not believe for a min. they have it.

We took a bullet to the leg today. Not to the head, but it makes Illinois a must win. Having this game now might save us and we have to win it. Bierman gave us a great chance now and Illinois close to eliminating Iowa. It is going to be a 4 team race with IU either 1.5 or .5 behind Nebraska facing them to start next weekend. Maryland is lurking one game back also. Getting the Illinois game and going 3 out of 4 this weekend is a must. If we split with Nebraska, sweep Ohio State and beat Illinois we will be at least a game up on Michigan and two up on Maryland since we lead them both in loss column and they play each other. We used up our mulligan and all top 4 teams with a chance play each other. For Tuesday, Illinois has two options to start and both are not good options. One is Lefty Cole Kirschsieper who was a starter early in year, but was so bad, he got moved to pen where he has been far better in a one inning relief role. Their other option is Ty Rybarczyk who is a righty who has started at times, but not been good at all besides one game against Minnesota which means nothing. We should be able to go with Bothwell and thanks to Bierman as I said we are sitting in a great position for this game and absolutely have to win it. Could be a bit high scoring like yesterday, but if we don't get at least 5-10 runs we have no one to blame but ourselves. Losing two out of three really hurts but does not cripple us if we can win 4 out of 5 at home where our bats are much better. Bierman may have taken the lost today (not his fault), but he was really good and may have won us the game Tuesday, by saving us every arm outside Maciochi in pen and never having to use Bothwell. He can hopefully give us 4-5 strong innings and we can put game away quickly jumping on their awful pitching. Then you can come back with Mudungo or Bothwell next Monday and use one of them in long relief. We get much better matchups in the pod this time and get a single game Friday-Monday (all televised again on either ESPNU or BTN) and all very late starts with OSU and NEB also on field. Friday is the trickiest with presumably Sommer against their stud lefty Povitch for Nebraska again. After that though every pitching matchup is massively in our favor. Saturday Neb will be coming off a game with OSU and will have to throw either Schanaman again who we beat up in 1st last Sunday or Hroch who has not been great either and both are righties against Brown who has been back to his dominant self last two weeks. Sunday will be Bierman again against OSU's 3 (we shouldn't have to face Lonsway or Burhen who are their two best guys and the ones who befuddled us in last sweep) coming off a doubleheader. Monday it will be Bothwell or Mudungo against OSU's four. This sets up beautifully in every game but Friday and we need to take advantage to pull back in front of Michigan and stay either 1/2 game ahead or behind Nebraska depending what they do against OSU. Really if things go as planned Nebraska is our real worry (unless we sweep them) and I don't like that Friday matchup but think we win rest (today was first game in over two weeks that did not go how you expected on scoreboard and even then Bierman delivered). We lost our margin for error and all four teams chasing title play each other over next two weekends, so if IU can go 6-2 down stretch I think we are OK to win title unless Nebraska wins every game they play pretty much. Anything less than 6-2 and numbers get dicey. I hate losing 2 out of 3 but can't look at either game and say we should of won it with how it played out. Right now that OSU Sunday game we gave away is the one we really would like to have back and put us in better position. Otherwise things have gone as you would expect.

Leadoff reach as now Michigan makes a terrible error.

Now we have just lost it. An easy grounder leads to an error for two more runs. Probably not going to matter unless we get two runs, but we lost focused this inning which is a problem but may not make a difference. Positive is Bierman probably saved us a chance at a win Tuesday with Bothwell vs. whoever Illinois throws in what should be a very high scoring game.

As soon as I say that Toetz can't catch a ball and it leads to a run. May not matter in end, but that may or may not cost Bierman an underserved extra run to his stats depending on if that is ruled error.

We had two innings where we were horrible and impatient which is critical. Rest of time we were extremely patient against a pitcher type who is our biggest kryptonite (junk ball lefty) and has his best stuff of year. He was nearly unhittable today and we still chased him after 6 and 1/3. Were patient against the bullpen guys also and it just did not work out. Baseball is a cruel game and we were dealt a terrible hand today. Simple as that. Our only mistake was 4th and 6th impatientness by our best hitters which may or may not have been difference. Overall we were clean and Michigan just earned their runs and has had one or two breaks. That's baseball sometimes and this is a costly loss if we don't come back, but we did most everything we could. Macciochi to mound.

Bierman lifted after 7 1/3. Did his job and may have won us a must win Tuesday. He was his usual self. Not his fault offense has struggled.

Bierman still out there and dealing. This not his fault.

It was 2-1 and it was not a bad pitch to swing at. Fougerousse has had a good weekend. Just didn't go our way which happens sometimes but not sure we could of done something different. The inninngs to complain about are 4th and 6th where are best hitters swung early in counts and made outs and probably allowed Denner to pitch extra inning which might be difference.

Nope Fougerousse's grounds to SS and now we are down to final 3 outs. That was our best chance thanks to Michigan walks and we gave it our all. Fougerousse swung at a 2-1 pitch that if it gets through game is tied. Unfortunately right at SS. Baseball is game of inches and those inches going UM's way today:(.

Groundball moves runners over with 2 outs. Now any hit by Fougerousse ties game.

First Michigan makes a pitching change as Weiss lost strike zone. Another righty Will Proctor 3.60 ERA. Reminder game is on ESPN2.

The second one was hair more outside but very very similar.

Another walk. 2 on 1 out for Barr. Here is the at-bat of the season.