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Thursday, May 31, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

Lavert Hill cames back to 100 percent 

DETROIT — It’s not often 
that a Michigan football coach 
questions one of his players 
publicly. 
But 
that 
was 
the 
method Michael Zordich used 
when junior Lavert Hill missed 
at least eight practices with a hip 
and leg injury earlier this spring.
The secondary coach said Hill 
needs “learn to 
play with some 
nicks” 
in 
mid-
April, 
marking 
the 
second 
consecutive 
offseason 
where 
ailments 
have 
kept 
the 
cornerback 
off 
the field.
But Hill didn’t 
need the message 
for motivation.
“I don’t get none of that. It 
just goes through one ear and 
out the other,” Hill said Sunday 
afternoon. “I don’t really know. I 
just focus on my game.”
In any case, Hill says he’s now 
fully healthy after participating 
in the final few practices of the 
spring.
“I’m good. I’m 100 percent 
right now,” Hill said. “It just 
came over time, keep exercising, 
doing stuff, what the trainers 
told me to do. It worked out 
pretty fine.
“It just felt like I never left. 
Just being 100 percent feels 
good. When I’m 100 percent, I 
can do anything.”

That was evident for Hill last 
season, when he made 25 tackles, 
seven pass breakups and two 
interceptions in 13 starts. But as 
one of Michigan’s nine returning 
starters on defense, he realizes 
there’s plenty of room to grow.
Hill 
said 
he’s 
specifically 
working 
on 
jamming 
wide 
receivers at the line of scrimmage, 
along 
with 
perfecting 
route 
reading 
— 
both 
physical 
intricacies of his 
trade. In the past 
year, 
however, 
he’s 
noticed 
his 
biggest 
improvement 
is 
on 
the 
mental 
side. 
“I’m better as 
far as the mental 
part of the game,” 
Hill said. “Just 
slowing 
things 
down, studying film, getting 
to know things better, and just 
pacing myself and keeping it 
slowly in my head.”
Hill, along with Michigan 
sophomore Ambry Thomas, even 
got a taste of what could lie ahead 
if those improvements continue. 
The pair visited Jourdan Lewis 
– the former Michigan All-
American and current Dallas 
Cowboys corner — to train in 
Dallas last weekend.
And 
even 
when 
Lewis’ 
attention shifted to attractions of 
the downtown area, football took 
priority for Hill and Thomas, 
catching Lewis’ attention.
“They always want to work,” 
Lewis said. “It’s refreshing to see 

guys who just want to be a part 
of something great. They want 
to work, and everything is about 
football.
“It was amazing (watching 
them). They were way better 
than what I did. Just the strides 
they’ve been taking are so far 
away from where we were at 
their age. It’s going to come to 
fruition when the game slows 
down and they get the mental 
part down.”
Lewis, Hill and Thomas have 
known each other for years 
from 
playing 
youth 
football 
together in Detroit. Sunday was 
a throwback to those days, as 
Lewis, along with Hill’s brother 
and former Michigan standout, 
Delano, hosted a free WR vs. 
DB skills camp at Detroit PAL 
Headquarters.
It was one of many trips for 
Lewis back to his home state this 
offseason. In March, he returned 
for Michigan’s Pro Day and got to 
watch the current team practice.
“I noticed the schedule is 
different, 
Lewis 
said. 
“(The 
players are) getting more free 
time. It feels like (coach Jim 
Harbaugh) understands these 
kids know what to do. They know 
what’s at risk. They want to win.
“I believe they’re national 
contenders. 
They 
have 
all 
the pieces, they have all the 
coaches, they have the guys at 
every position to get done what 
they want to get done. It’s just 
about coming together now, just 
executing out there on the field 
on Saturdays.”

MARK CALCAGNO
Daily Sports Editor

AMELIA CACCHIONE/DAILY
Junior Lavert Hill returns from injury feeling 100% and with a new mentor - former Michigan All-American Jourdan Lewis

BASEBALL
Michigan ends season 
with loss to Ohio State

As senior third baseman Brock 
Keener sat down for his press 
conference for the last time as a 
Wolverine, his eyes were red with the 
tears that only come after a season-
ending defeat.
The Michigan baseball team (15-8 
Big Ten, 33-21 overall) fell to Ohio 
State (14-10 Big Ten, 36-21 overall) 5-3, 
and Keener was faced with the hard 
realization that he had just played his 
last game in a maize and blue uniform. 
Likely falling short of a bid to the 
NCAA Touranment, the team exited 
the Big Ten Tournament earlier than 
needed.
In many ways, Keener’s toughness 
and resilience serves as a perfect 
embodiment of the team itself.
Early in the season, Keener broke 
the thumb on his glove hand—a 
troubling injury for any baseball player, 
but Keener is a catcher. Any physical 
ailments to a catcher’s appendages, 
and their ability to do their job greatly 
diminishes.
But Keener stuck it out and fought 
for his role on the Michigan lineup. 
After all, this was his senior season.
Keener’s injury showed in his play 
behind home plate. Many passed balls 
snuck past him, and the Wolverines 
saw their fair share of wild pitches. 
But none of that deterred Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich. Keener caught for 
as long as he was physically able and 
Bakich indulged his senior, seeing as 
he consistently gave the Wolverines 
their best chance to win.
“Tough, competitive kid,” Bakich 
said on Keener. “Good lesson for a lot 
of those younger guys on our team 
for them to see what that grit and 
competitiveness looks like.”
Heading 
into 
the 
Big 
Ten 
Tournament, Keener’s thumb reached 
the point of no return, and he simply 
was not able to catch anymore. 
Wanting his bat and grit in the lineup, 
Bakich shocked Michigan followers 
and played Keener at third base.
Keener played as valiantly as 
anyone could ask of the senior, 
making web gem plays on defense and 
cranking clutch hit after clutch hit.
On Friday’s match, with the 
Wolverines 
trailing 
5-1, 
Keener 
stepped to the plate with runners on 
second and third and two outs. With 
the clutch gene seemingly coded into 
his physiological makeup, the catcher 
turned third baseman smacked a two-

RBI single right up the middle. In one 
swing of the bat, Keener gave his team 
exactly what it needed and kept the 
game competitive.
“I guess (I) try not to view it as a 
big AB because the guys in front of me 
worked hard to get on, and all these 
games were nail biters,” Keener said. 
“It’s tough, and I try to do whatever I 
can to help the team win.”
Now all Keener can do is sit and 
reflect on his time at Michigan and his 
legacy. There’s no doubt that toughness 
is the first word people will associate 
with the catcher with a broken thumb.
“For me, this season, has taught 
me, really through my whole college 
career up until this season is resilience 
and to truly love something, you keep 
giving it your all,” Keener said. “For 
me personally, this was my journey to 
Michigan and my time at Michigan. 
This season was the same thing, it 
doesn’t always start out how you 
want it. I’m blessed to be a part of this 
team and blessed to be a Michigan 
Wolverine, that’s for sure.”
Added 
junior 
center 
fielder 
Jonathan Engelmann: “Brock here is a 
guy who’s overcome everything that I 
can possibly imagine. You play games 
for guys like that. Just for example 
in this tournament when he played 
third base, it was like, ‘Who is this guy 
who’s making web gem plays left and 
right.’ He’s always overcoming, and he 
puts the team first. In college, you’re 
playing with guys just like that, and it’s 
inspiring to say the least.”
Barring some sort of divine 
intervention, the Wolverines will fall 
short of making an NCAA Regional. 
To put it simply, Michigan did not beat 
enough good teams.
However, the Wolverines boast 
one of the youngest cores in the Big 
Ten and won’t be down for long. This 
time next year may be a different 
story, and it will have all started with 
the foundation laid by the juniors and 
seniors who will leave Ann Arbor next 
year for the workforce or the MLB 
Draft.
So come Monday during the NCAA 
Selection Show, the Michigan baseball 
team will gather together one last 
time. If or when its name doesn’t get 
called, Bakich wants the freshmen to 
remember the feeling.
“We may not see our name on the 
screen on Monday,” Bakich said, “but 
I want them to feel that as well and 
especially for those younger guys 
because that will be the last time they 
ever feel that.”

JACOB KOPNICK
Summer Managing Sports Editor

“When I’m 
100 percent, 
I can do 
anything. ”

