SPORTS 11
Thursday, June 13, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Henry, four other Wolverines selected in 2019 MLB Draft
As the sun set in Corvallis
on Monday night, the Michigan
baseball team was celebrating —
they had just beat Creighton in
the NCAA Regional final game,
17-6, on the back of its potent
offense.
Then, they were given another
reason
to
celebrate:
within
minutes of each other, the two
junior
Michigan
aces
were
drafted.
Left-hander
Tommy
Henry
was
drafted
by
the
Arizona Diamondbacks with the
74th pick and right-hander Karl
Kauffmann went to the Colorado
Rockies at No. 77.
They were the first of five
Wolverine upperclassman to be
drafted. Next was Big Ten Player
of the Year junior outfielder
Jordan Brewer, who was No. 106
overall to the Houston Astros.
Then junior right-hander Jack
Weisenburger went to Oakland at
No. 614 and finally, senior infielder
Jimmy Kerr came in at No. 982,
drafted by the Detroit Tigers.
For Kauffmann and Henry,
being drafted was expected; both
had been impressive starters the
last two years and shutting down
opposing offenses.
Henry
watched
his
draft
stock skyrocket throughout the
first two months of the season.
He allowed just three runs in
his first five starts, including a
one-hit shutout at The Citadel,
where he threw just 88 pitches,
facing 27 batters and striking
out 13. Towards the end of the
season, though, he began to
falter. His earned-run average
nearly doubled after a string of
bad starts, where it eventually
finished
at
3.61,
eventually
pushing him from Friday starter
to Saturday starter — replaced by
the man picked three spots later.
Kauffmann, steady throughout
the year, ended with the lowest
ERA on the team at 2.62. He
wasn’t
a
strikeout
pitcher
like Henry, though. Instead,
Kauffmann would let his defense
do the work by inducing ground
ball after ground ball.
Weisenburger,
the
lone
member of the Michigan bullpen
to be drafted, did not put up
the impressive numbers that
Kauffmann and Henry did. With
just 29 innings of use this year
and 27.2 last year, Weisenburger
had a .6 walk-to-strikeout ratio
in his junior campaign and was
often the third or fourth arm to
come out of the bullpen.
This
year’s
breakout
performer for the Wolverines is
quite clearly the junior college
transfer Brewer. In his first
year of Division I baseball, the
outfielder stole the show. He
made astonishing diving catches
and key pick-off throws from
the warning track to keep games
close. In the batters box, he came
alive with a team-high slugging
percentage and batting average
of .612 and .349, respectively,
along with 23 steals.
Another standout from this
year, Kerr spent almost all
of his time at first base and
started every single game this
year. The regionals were a
snapshot of Kerr’s season for the
Wolverines: 4 home runs in four
games. In other words, Kerr was
clutch.
So as the rounds went by and
Michigan was preparing for
its clash against No. 1 UCLA,
players boarded the bus after
practice and went wild when
they heard the news that their
captain was drafted by the team
45 miles away.
KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer
Big game success: A look at how Michigan flipped the script
The
past
two
weeks,
the
Michigan
baseball
team
has
captured the attention of every
college baseball fan in the country
as it’s made a run to the College
World Series.
At first, though, it wasn’t even
clear the Wolverines would make
the tournament; they had barely
avoided an early exit from the Big
Ten Tournament with a walk-off
double from Jordan Nwogu, and
before that, they had relinquished
the Big Ten regular season title
in two straight series losses to
Indiana and Nebraska.
They weren’t playing well,
they were tight and showing a
weakness for big time games.
“You don’t play baseball well
when
you’re
stressed,”
said
Michigan coach Erik Bakich after
the series at Nebraska. “So we’re
going into this weekend loose,
confident and relaxed.”
It
was
a
common
thread
throughout their season that
big games were their weakness,
especially
in
April
after
disappointing series losses at
Ohio State, Texas Tech (who they
will play this Saturday) and in
California.
Until May 20, in a game against
No. 20 Illinois, it wasn’t clear
whether Michigan would show
up
in
the
big
moments.
Then there was
Nwogu’s big hit,
and the next day,
there was life in a
team that looked
despondent in the
days before.
The Wolverines
won
their
next
game
against
Maryland, almost
guaranteeing their spot in the
NCAA tournament.
Throughout the year, Michigan
beat itself more than anyone
else.
Errors,
walks
and
bad
baserunning would all converge
on
the
same
day
and
give
opponents easy victories. Four
errors, two hit-by-pitches and
three walks gifted a game to the
Hoosiers. Four errors and nine
walks resulted in an 11-2 loss to
the Red Raiders.
Even last Saturday against No. 1
UCLA in the Super Regionals, the
Wolverines had five crucial errors
and 10 walks while three of the
five Bruin runs were unearned.
But
for
the
most part in the
last two weeks,
Michigan
has
played lights out,
no longer weighed
down
by
self-
inflicted pressure.
It
has
gotten
the
clutch
hits
when it needed to
and hasn’t been
crushed by the big
time lights.
“What I’d like us to do better is
continue to trend upwards when
we have setbacks like this, to use
it as growth and fuel to better
our performance in the future,”
Bakich said after the series at
Ohio State. “If we’re going to be
the team that I think we’re going
to be, then we’re going to have to
play well when it means the most
and a rivalry series is one of those
weekends when it means the
most.”
Apparently
the
Wolverines
needed to see a clutch hit to believe
it and when Nwogu launched a
double against the Illini, they
bought in and have finally grown
to their true potential.
KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer
We’re going
to have to play
well when it
matters most ...
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Junior left-hander Tommy Henry was selected 74th overall in the 2019 MLB Draft.
CAMERON HUNT/Daily
Sophomore outfielder Jordan Nwogu hit a walkoff double in the Big Ten Tournament