8 — Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Michigan’s star recruiting class 
from 2018 continues to deliver

Some referred to them as the 
best recruiting class in program 
history.
The Michigan baseball team’s 
2018 incoming class received 
plaudits nationwide for its talent 
and balance. It was ranked No. 
10 in the country — the highest 
ranking a Big Ten recruiting class 
has ever received — and tallied 
seven 
freshman 
All-American 
awards. Almost two years in, 
they’ve lived up to expectations.
“It’s a really good class,” said 
Michigan coach Erik Bakich. 
“When we put it together, we felt 
like it was a balanced, dynamic 
class with star potential – guys 
that had a chance to play for a long 
time and be high draft picks in 
three years.”
As sophomores this season — 
now a year older and more mature 
— they have continued to make an 
impression.
Players up and down the lineup, 
as well as on the mound, have 
begun to take on a more active 
role. Right-hander Jeff Criswell 
transitioned from the bullpen into 
a starting role this year with fellow 
sophomore Ben Dragani’s season-
ending injury. In his Sunday-

starter role, he has helped carry 
the Wolverines to dominant wins 
against 
conference 
opponents 
Ohio State and Minnesota, holding 
them to few hits while pitching 
more innings per game than he 
ever has before.
“He’s hopped into the Sunday 
role and I feel like he’s really 
starting 
to 
come 
on,” 
said 
Michigan assistant coach Nick 
Schnabel. “That’s a guy with 
electric stuff.”
Left-hander 
Angelo 
Smith, 
meanwhile, has brought to the 
table both strength as a starter as 
well as poise and reliability as a 
reliever, pitching the team out of 
jams consistently.
Last year, outfielder Jordan 
Nwogu 
was 
a 
solid 
if 
not 
unremarkable presence on the 
team. This year, he’s leading off 
Michigan’s lineup while being 
key in scoring runs throughout 
the season, leading the team 
with a .366 batting average. His 
performance this year represents 
a significant improvement and 
has been a pleasant surprise to the 
coaching staff.
“When these guys came in, we 
had no idea Jordan Nwogu would 
become Jordan Nwogu,” Bakich 
said. “And that’s been a great 
surprise — the way he’s inserted 

himself into the team since the 
middle of last year has been just 
huge.”
Jack Blomgren, Joe Donovan 
and Jesse Franklin have likewise 
been clutch components of this 
season’s offense with 16 home 
runs between the three of them 
thus far.
The man primarily responsible 
for assembling this transformative 
group of players is Schnabel, who 
made countless phone calls, hosted 
plenty of prospects and took trips 
around the country to assemble 
the 2018 team. He is loath to take 
too much credit, however.
“Well, it came together with a 
lot of work from our entire staff,” 
Schnabel said. “It was totally a 
team effort.”
Bakich, who played alongside 
Schnabel during their shared time 
at East Carolina, was unsurprised 
by his modesty — “as a team we 
try to emphasize the ‘our, us, we’ 
mentality instead of ‘my, I, me’ ” — 
but emphasized the importance of 
his role.
“Recruiting is one of those 
things that’s 365 and 24/7,” Bakich 
said. “Coach Schnabel has no 
off switch. It’s the first thing he 
thinks about every morning, the 
last thing he things about before 
he goes to bed. 
“He’s the best at what he does 
and a big reason why we have so 
many good players to coach.”
With 
senior 
heavyweights 
Jimmy Kerr, Blake Nelson, Miles 
Lewis and Ako Thomas on their 
way out, the sophomores will 
likely need to fill an even bigger 
role come next year. But the team 
seems eminently confident in that.
“I absolutely think they can 
take the mantle,” Schnabel said. 
“Obviously in terms of their ability 
they can, but also in what kind of 
kids they are. 
“They’re serious about the 
game and about their growth and 
maturation personally and most 
importantly, they’re a team that 
wants to win.”

AIDAN WOUTAS
Daily Sports Writer

With postseason looming, ‘M’ 
showing grit at the perfect time

Facing the Big Ten’s best 
offense 
this 
weekend, 
the 
Michigan softball team showed it 
could win ugly.
On Friday, the Wolverines 
jumped out to a 
quick 1-0 lead in 
the first inning but 
found itself tied 
heading into the 
seventh. 
Rather 
than being fazed 
by 
the 
surging 
crowd 
on 
the 
road, 
Michigan 
was able to string 
together a couple 
of hits and drive 
in the deciding run.
Saturday’s scene was quite the 
opposite.
Michigan was scrambling for 
any sort of momentum, both at the 
plate and in the field, as it faced an 
8-5 deficit after six innings.
 “I don’t exactly know what the 
biggest struggle was,” said senior 
second baseman Faith Canfield. 
“You just have those days where 
things don’t click, when things 
aren’t gonna go perfect. … Those 
days are gonna happen but take it 
for what they are, just work to get 
better at them.”
The Wolverines were in a 
similar position just two weeks 
ago. Trailing Indiana by two runs 
heading into the final inning, the 
seniors led a comeback that was 
catalyzed by an offensive showing 
Hutchins has been seeking from 
the team all season.
On 
Saturday, 
Michigan 
showed that the scoring it had 
discovered against Indiana hadn’t 
disappeared after one showing. 
One seventh inning later, the 
scoreboard flashed 9-8 in favor of 
the Wolverines — another narrow 
one-run win on the weekend.
“There’s nothing sweeter than 
coming from behind to win a 
game,” Hutchins said. “Those 
are great moments that hopefully 
give us a continued confidence 
and belief in ourselves when we 
get behind. We’ve played well 
from behind. I’m really pleased 

with that.”
Putting on such offensive 
clinics during the crunch time of 
conference games is more than 
just correct mechanics, though. 
This team has something far more 
important than hot bats and well-
timed swings. It 
has grit.
The 
same 
team 
that 
struggled 
to 
secure 
close 
games 
and 
mount 
comebacks 
against 
the 
likes of South 
Dakota 
and 
North Carolina 
has won 21 of its last 22 games. 
And though the Wolverines may 
not be ranked as highly as other 
Michigan teams of this past 
decade, this team is showing just 
as much heart, if not more, late in 
games.

“I think (the grit) came from 
the start of the season,” said 
freshman outfielder Lexie Blair. 
“We took those losses at the 
start of the season to make us 
tougher and just provide a bigger, 
stronger mentality toward our 
next games… We’ve faced so 
much adversity from the start, 
and that’s what we use to just get 
us through the season.”
With just seven games left 
before 
the 
postseason, 
the 
Wolverines are showing they can 
win on days when pitches aren’t 
finding the strike zone and bats 
are connecting with the ball. 
They’ve shown that they can 
win with their backs against the 
wall. And they’re playing with 
a toughness that few teams 
around the nation can rival. 
After Sunday’s win, Canfield 
summed up this mentality best:
“If they’re gonna throw a 
punch, we gotta throw a punch 
back.”

AKUL VIJAYVARGIYA
Daily Sports Writer

Lexie Blair has the potential to be 
the future of Michigan softball

Lexie Blair confidently stepped 
up to the plate for a fifth time 
on Sunday, needing a triple to 
complete the cycle.
Facing a 3-2 count, the freshman 
outfielder watched a yellow blur 
pass her rather than swinging for a 
chance at that elusive triple. It was 
a ball, allowing her to keep a 4-for-
4 hitting performance intact for a 
team-high 20th multi-hit outing on 
the year.
It’s this type of plate discipline 
and acumen in the batter’s box 
she’s displayed all season.
With seven games remaining in 
the regular season, Blair is hitting 
at a .418 clip, leading the next-best 
batter on the team by .040. She 
also leads the team in doubles (17) 
and RBIs (40) — both numbers 
better 
than 
second 
baseman 
Faith Canfield’s entire 2018 All-
American campaign. The last time 
a Michigan freshman was able 

to put together an All-American 
caliber season? Sierra Romero in 
2013 — she would later become 
the first four-time All-American in 
program history. 
Different years require different 
All-American 
standards, 
and 
Blair plays a very 
different position 
than Canfield and 
Romero. But what 
these stat lines do 
show is that Blair 
has the potential 
to be the future of 
Michigan softball.
After 
Sierra 
Romero’s 
graduation 
in 
2016, 
Canfield 
burst into the scene in style as 
a third team All-American and 
became someone Blair looked up 
to before she arrived in Ann Arbor
“Before I even came her, I 
grew up watching her over her 
years in Michigan,” Blair said on 

Mar. 9. “Finally seeing her as a 
senior, seeing her doing her thing, 
being consistent as she is, the past 
couple weekends have been really 
amazing.”
Now, Canfield is in the home 
stretch of her tenured career 
at 
Michigan. 
With just a few 
more 
games 
guaranteed, she, 
along with the 
other four seniors, 
will have to pass 
off a team driven 
by leadership and 
experience. 
The 
other 
returning 
starters for 2020 
besides Blair will 
be junior third baseman Madison 
Uden, sophomore shortstop Natalia 
Rodriguez and junior outfielder 
Haley Hoogenraad. They have 
done their job to support the top 
of the batting order, but none of 
them have produced significant 
numbers throughout this season 
like Blair.
Blair doesn’t just get the job 
done as the third batter in the 
lineup. She has one of the biggest 
personalities on the team — her 
walkup song is “Lose Control” by 
Missy Elliott. She has a handshake 
with Uden where she poses for 
Uden’s hand-camera. This energy 
and excitement Blair has brought 
to the Wolverines inspires Canfield 
just as much as Canfield has 
inspired her.
“(Blair’s) a stud,” Canfield said. 
“She just has so much confidence. 
The way she carries herself is just 
never too high, never too low. She 
just goes out there and works hard 
and gets the job done, which is 
awesome to look at. And even as a 
freshman, we can really rely on her 
which is really cool to see someone 
really take on that role as a leader 
so young.”
So it doesn’t really matter that 
Blair was one triple short of a cycle 
on Sunday, because she has three 
more years to achieve that. And 
when she does, the spotlight will 
shine straight on her, just like it has 
been on Canfield, Romero and the 
rest of the Michigan greats.

AKUL VIJAYVARGIYA
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Freshman outfielder Lexie Blair leads the team in batting average, doubles and runs-batted-in while the Wolverines have won 21 of their last 22 games.

There’s nothing 
sweeter than 
coming from 
behind to win...

(Lexie’s) a 
stud. She just 
has so much 
confidence.

Wildcat woes help Wolverines 
complete a weekend sweep at home

Eight runs.
That’s 
how 
many 
the 
Michigan baseball team scored 
off 
Northwestern 
mistakes 
this weekend. 
The Wolverines put runners 
on base with walks and hit-
by-pitches, 
advanced 
those 
runners on wild pitches and 
stolen bases and kept them 
alive on fielders’ choices and 
errors. In a weekend series that 
was closer than anticipated at 
times, much of the Wolverines’ 
success came when they were 
able to capitalize on their 
opponents’ mistakes.
“You 
take 
anything 
you 
can get, whether it’s a walk, 
or an error — anything,” said 
Michigan coach Erik Bakich. 
“You just try to do whatever 
you can to get on base and put 
pressure on the other team. 
It’s why there’s such a high 
importance of battling with 
two strikes, because when you 
put it in play, that’s what could 
happen. A guy 
could 
make 
an error, and 
you could get 
yourself 
on 
base. 
“And 
a 
lot of times, 
just 
being 
aggressive 
and 
putting 
pressure 
on 
the 
other 
team 
can 
force errors. So, just by being 
aggressive, we got some huge 
opportunities today.”
In Saturday’s 4-1 game, just 
two of Michigan’s four runs 
were earned. The first was 
from 
sophomore 
shortstop 
Jack Blomgren, who reached 
base on a walk before scoring 
on a throwing error from 
Wildcats 
second 
baseman 

Shawn Goosenberg. 
The first game of Sunday’s 
doubleheader saw more of 
the same. After advancing 
to 
second 
when 
Blomgren 
walked and moving to third on 
a fielders’ choice, sophomore 
designated 
hitter 
Jordan 
Nwogu scored on a fielding 
error from Northwestern third 
baseman Charlie Maxwell in 
the bottom of the first inning 
to 
put 
the 
Wolverines up, 
1-0. 
In 
the 
seventh inning, 
with the game 
tied at 2-2, the 
Wildcats’ errors 
again 
came 
back to haunt 
them. 
Junior 
centerfielder 
Christian 
Bullock walked 
to lead off the bottom of the 
inning. He then stole second 
and advanced to third base 
on a throwing error from 
Northwestern catcher Michael 
Trautwein before scoring the 
deciding run on a fielding error 
from Wildcats second baseman 
Alex Erro to bring the final 
score to 3-2. 
“It just feels great scoring 

runs for this team, for the 
University 
of 
Michigan,” 
Bullock said. “To score the 
winning run today, it was just 
amazing.”
In Sunday’s second game, 
a 10-1 rout, Michigan finally 
overpowered Northwestern to 
run away with the series. They 
beat up the Wildcat pitchers 
for 10 runs on 14 hits, including 
senior third baseman Blake 
Nelson’s first home run of the 
season and a three-run shot 
from 
junior 
center 
fielder 
Christian Bullock. Both home 
runs came in the bottom of the 
second inning; Bullock added 
an RBI on the day with a single 
in the bottom of the eighth that 
scored senior catcher Matthew 
Schmidt. 
As the team prepares for 
next weekend’s home series 
— another Big Ten matchup 
against a Rutgers team that’s 
won seven of its last 10 games 
and is fighting to stay in the 
race for the conference title — 
the Wolverines may not be able 
to rely as heavily on opponents’ 
mistakes.
But if they can keep finding 
ways on base — and ways to 
score — like they did this 
weekend, they’re looking like a 
tough team to beat.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore outfielder Jordan Nwogu leads the Wolverines in batting average.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore shortstop Jack Blomgren scored on a throwing error Saturday.

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

To score the 
winning run 
today, it was just 
amazing.

