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.