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Thursday, May 4, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

In 
the 
Michigan 
baseball 

team’s game against Rutgers 
Saturday, what should have been 
a harmless first inning fly-out 
was anything but.

Left 
fielder 
Miles 
Lewis 

sprinted into the gap in left-
center field in pursuit of a 
high 
fly 
ball 

off the bat of 
Scarlet Knight 
designated hitter 
Mike 
Carter. 

Meanwhile, 
senior 
center 

fielder 
Johnny 

Slater ran just 
as hard towards 
the ball — and 
Lewis.

As 
the 
two 

outfielders converged at full 
speed, Lewis slid to catch the 
ball. Slater dove over him, and 
his knee collided with Lewis’s 
forehead, knocking the redshirt 
sophomore to the turf. After 
nearly 10 seconds, Lewis rose 
from the ground a “bloody 
mess”, according to Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich.

Bakich 
has 
previously 

described Lewis – a former 
high school football player – as 
“absolutely shredded, ripped, 
very strong” and “someone who 
could play tailback for Coach 
Harbaugh”. 
So 
even 
though 

Lewis required nine stitches 
in his forehead, that wasn’t the 
immediate concern.

“It was a clean cut, it was 

across his eyebrows and up,” 
Bakich said. “I was worried that 
he might have some dizziness or 
symptoms of a concussion, but 
he described it as a football hit. 
I didn’t think he’d return that 
quickly.”

Yet 
there 
was 
Lewis 
– 

concussion-free – back in the 
lineup 
and 
batting 
second 

Sunday. And as if the previous 
day’s 
incident 
had 
never 

happened, he laced two hits in 
his first three at-bats and scored 
two runs.

Slater, 
though, 
wasn’t 
as 

lucky. The senior center-fielder 
appeared fine immediately after 
he exited the game along with 
Lewis after the collision. But a 

short time later, Slater and the 
coaching staff discovered that 
the AC joint in his shoulder was 
sprained.

“When you have a sprain of 

a joint it’s kind of day-to-day, 
week-to-week,” Bakich said. “He 
will be back this season, I just 
don’t know if it’s going to be this 
weekend, next weekend or the 
weekend after that.”

It seems strange 

to say that such a 
gruesome accident 
could 
have 
a 

silver lining. But 
coming off a 12-5 
blowout 
loss 
in 

the series opener 
against 
Rutgers, 

Bakich pointed to 
the collision as a 
turning point in 
the weekend – and 

possibly the season.

“It was definitely something 

that 
we 
talked 
about 

immediately,” 
Bakich 
said. 

“Gathering the team together 
and saying, we’re going to have 
to fight our asses off without 
these guys and we’re going to 
have to do it for 
them.

“That 
was 
a 

defining moment 
in the weekend 
where 
that 

weekend 
could 

have 
gone 
one 

of two ways. It 
would have been 
easy to point to 
a losing weekend 
and the reasoning 
and the excuse that we had a 
couple big injuries. But our guys 
did a great job of not letting that 
be a reason.”

Perhaps most importantly, the 

most important contributions 
to Michigan’s series-clinching 
wins on Saturday and Sunday 
came from the players who were 
directly called upon to replace 
Michigan’s injured starters.

Saturday, freshman Christian 

Bullock replaced Lewis in left, 
while redshirt freshman Joe 
Pace took Slater’s spot in center. 
Despite having combined for just 
14 at-bats up to that point, the 
pair made an immediate impact. 
Pace went 2-4 with a double, 
while Bullock was 1-2 with two 

RBIs and a stolen base.

Meanwhile, 
sophomore 

Jimmy Kerr started all three 
games at second base due to 
sophomore Ako Thomas’s broken 
hand suffered last week against 
Indiana. In the five games 
Thomas has missed, Kerr hasn’t 
just held down the fort: he’s hit 
.571, including seven hits in 10 
at-bats and three RBIs against 
Rutgers — a performance that 
earned him Big Ten Player of the 
Week honors.

Much 
of 
the 
Wolverines’ 

success this season has stemmed 
from their consistency. Since 
Slater was moved to the second 
spot in the lineup for the 
first time against Maryland, 
Michigan’s batting order has 
remained for the most part 
unchanged, 
and 
with 
great 

success — until Thomas’s injury 
against Indiana, the Wolverines 
had been on a 14-1 streak.

However, lineup consistency, 

while 
overwhelmingly 

beneficial, comes with a catch 
– it is heavily contingent on 
health.

For 
most 
of 
the 
season, 

Michigan 
has 

enjoyed 
nearly 

perfect 
health. 

Against Indiana 
and Rutgers, for 
the 
first 
time, 

this 
was 
not 

the 
case. 
The 

Wolverines knew 
they needed to 
adapt.

“We 
had 

to 
make 
the 

adjustment to our offense, in 
terms of, we might have to do 
some things we haven’t done 
as much of in the past,” Bakich 
said. “Bunting, some gadget 
plays, and running different 
types of defenses. But that’s 
what we train for as well.”

Obviously, Michigan would 

rather not wait for Thomas and 
Slater to return to the lineup. 
But once they do, the Wolverines 
will be a different team than 
before. Their ability to adjust 
and react immediately to injuries 
or other unforeseen changes was 
unknown until just recently.

Saturday and Sunday, this 

ability was tested, and Michigan 
passed the test.

Despite injuries, Michigan overcomes

JACOB SHAMES

Summer Managing Sports Editor

“That was 
a defining 

moment in the 

weekend”

“We had to 
make the 

adjustment to 
our offense” 

Freak outfield collision proves to be turning point of series

BASEBALL

Wolverines place ninth 
at Big Ten Tournament

Over 
the 
weekend, 
the 

Michigan 
men’s 
golf 
team 

started its postseason play at 
the Big Ten Championship at 
the Baltimore Country Club in 
Maryland, looking for a better 
result than its 11th place finish 
at the last tournament. This 
turned out to be a challenging 
task 
due 
to 
unexpected 

injuries, 
but 

nevertheless, 
the 
Wolverines 

shot 878 (296-
288-294) 
to 

finish ninth out 
of 
a 
14-team 

field, 49 strokes 
behind 
the 

winner, Illinois.

“We 
had 
a 

couple 
guys 

even 
battling 

injuries through 
the week, just not really feeling 
very good, and not being able to 
swing it the way they wanted to 
swing it,” said Michigan coach 
Chris Whitten.

The Wolverines were led by 

sophomore Nick Carlson and 
senior Bryce Evon. Carlson 
was tied for seventh after two 
rounds, and he finished tied for 
16th with a 214 
(71-70-73). Evon 
had 
a 
slower 

start with a 76 
in 
round 
one, 

but 
bounced 

back with a 71 
and 72 in the 
final rounds for 
a total of 219. 
Evon 
finished 

tied for 33rd.

“I think two 

of our guys, Nick Carlson 
and Bryce Evon, played very 
steady golf. I’m sure they still 
wish they had played better,” 
Whitten said. “Nick had one of 
his more poor events the last 
time out, and worked hard and 
made some good changes and 
led our team this week which 
was good to see. Bryce was 
very consistent this week and I 
thought he did a good job. Those 

two guys were improved.”

Seniors Reed Hrynewich and 

Tom Swanson and junior Kyle 
Mueller were in Michigan’s 
lineup as well and finished tied 
for 41st, 66th, and tied for 44th 
respectively.

“Overall, (we) were good 

around 
the 
greens 
which 

I 
thought 
would 
be 
the 

challenging part of this golf 
course, and we just struggled 
in 
our 
approach 
shots,” 

Whitten 
said. 

“Getting the ball 
positioned was a 
big deal. … (The 
greens) had a lot 
of tilt and if you 
missed the green 
in 
the 
wrong 

place 
there 

was almost no 
chance to pitch 
the ball close.”

On Thursday, 

the NCAA will 

reveal which teams are selected 
to move on to the Regional 
Championships, 
which 
will 

take place May 15-17.

“We 
have 
to 
wait 
until 

Thursday 
to 
see 
how 
the 

rankings change and if we’ll be 
selected for the postseason for 
the NCAA Regionals,” Whitten 
said. “Until that time we’re just 

gonna 
prepare 

assuming 
that 

we’re gonna go. 
I think we have 
a 
really 
good 

chance 
to 
be 

selected.”

Michigan 

could 
make 
a 

deep postseason 
run if it keeps 
improving, 
especially 
if 

it isn’t further troubled by 
injuries.

“Some guys need to get 

healthy and actually need some 
rest — maybe about three days 
of rest,” Whitten said. “A couple 
other guys need to get back to 
work on their game. We will 
probably have a little bit of 
qualifying within the team to 
determine the lineup for the 
postseason.”

MEN’S GOLF

ROHAN KUMAR

For the Daily

“We had a 
couple guys 
even battling 

injuries”

“I think we 
have a really 

good chance to 

be selected.”

Michigan now awaits NCAA Tournament

