Michigan baseball ranked No. 1 in country for first time in history

Historically, Michigan has been considered a football school. In recent years, the basketball team has eclipsed them. Now, dare we say U-M is becoming a baseball school?

For the first time in Baseball America’s 40 years of weekly Top 25 college baseball rankings, the Wolverines are ranked No. 1 in the country.

U-M opened its season this past weekend, going 3-1 with wins over a pair of top-10 teams: On Friday night, the Wolverines beat then-No. 1 Vanderbilt, 4-3, when fifth-year senior Matt Schmidt hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning; on Saturday night, they capped a doubleheader sweep by beating No. 3 Arizona State, 5-0.

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Perhaps their win over Arizona State was most influential in moving into the top spot — U-M opened the season ranked No. 8 — because of redshirt freshman left-hander Steven Hajjar’s performance.

Hajjar, who missed all of 2019 with a knee injury, threw six shutout innings, striking out seven and giving up just three hits. The early look shows a formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the starting rotation with junior righty Jeff Criswell.

U-M lost only to Connecticut, 7-1, on Sunday afternoon, to close the MLB4 Tournament.

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The Wolverines were not the only team to start strong: Hoping to rebound from a down 2019 season, Michigan State is 4-0 after sweeping a weekend series against Morehead State in Charleston, South Carolina.

MSU outscored Morehead State, 35-12. It is the Spartans’ first season-opening four-game sweep since 2017 against Abilene Christian.

Contact Anthony Fenech at afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.