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Wednesday, July 3, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

A tale of two seasons: Michigan baseball’s turning point

It was a turbulent season for 
the Michigan baseball team.
The 
Wolverines 
started 
8-0, and then a troublesome 
California trip brought them 
back to the ground with back-to-
back losses. They had a hand on 
the regular season Big Ten title 
and lost their hold in the final 
two weeks. And when they had 
a 13-game win streak, they were 
swept by Texas Tech — a series 
that was their biggest test of the 
season. 
On 
May 
22nd, 
it 
looked 
like their season was over — a 
disappointment. 
In 
big 
series, 
Michigan 
faltered against teams it was 
better against, limping toward 
Sunday wins to avoid being 
swept behind first team all-Big 
Ten pitcher Jeff Criswell. 
There was no chance the 
NCAA 
tournament 
selection 

committee 
would 
choose 
a 
defeated Wolverine side that had 
lost six of eight.
On 
May 
23rd, 
Michigan 
was born again. It made an 
underdog run to the National 
Championship series, proving 
doubters wrong until June 25th.
There’s no way to look back 
at the Wolverines’ season in any 
way other than two splits: before 
and after May 23rd. 
Before, it was similar to 2018: 
packed full of talent, but a team 
that fell victim to momentum. 
This year Michigan had the most 
players awarded honors by the 
Big Ten — three first team, one 
second team, four third team and 
one All-Freshman selection. 
Sophomore 
designed 
hitter 
Jordan Nwogu went on a streak 
of 20 games averaging a near .500 
on-base percentage. Criswell had 
a sub-0.50 earned-run average 
for the first half of the Big Ten 
season. The Wolverines were 
good, but when it mattered most 

they had lost all momentum. 
And then with what could 
have been their last pitch of 
their season in the Big Ten 
Tournament, Nwogu saved it 
with a double. It gave Michigan 
momentum, 
but 
even 
more 
importantly it gave them a belief 
they could overcome setbacks. 
A ninth inning collapse, extra 
innings mistakes — it didn’t 
matter because this team had 
figured out something it took 
them two years to learn: it was 
good. 
It could win. 
Jimmy Kerr hit seven of his 
15 home runs in the 16 games 
since May 23rd. Jack Blomgren 
played through a broken finger. 
Christan Bullock finally got a 
starting spot, producing for the 
bottom half of the lineup. 
A 
tale 
of 
two 
seasons, 
Michigan’s team 153 managed to 
show its true self in just a month, 
finishing as the third best team 
in Wolverine baseball history. 

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

Lack of pitching depth comes back to haunt Wolverines

OMAHA, Neb. – Pitching had 
been an issue for this Michigan 
team all season. Its No. 1 and No. 
2 starters, juniors Karl Kauffmann 
and Tommy Henry, have always 
been clear – and clearly good.
The rest of the pitching staff had 
been something of a question mark.
At the beginning of the season, 
the biggest question was who 
would fill the role of the No. 3 
starter 
with 
sophomore 
left-
hander Ben Dragani out for the 
season with an injury. Sophomore 
right-hander Jeff Criswell stepped 
nicely into that role, converting 
from a bullpen pitcher to a starter 
with marked success.
“You 
can 
see 
his 
growth; 
you can see his improvement,” 
Michigan coach Erik Bakich said of 
Criswell in March. “It’s been very 
impressive, and we’ve certainly 
needed it. Having a guy like Jeff on 
Sunday gives us a great chance to 
win or sweep every series that we 
play.”
From then on, the biggest 
question 
about 
this 
Michigan 
pitching staff had been its bullpen. 
As the season progressed, it 
became clearer and clearer that it 

lacked consistency and, to some 
extent, effectiveness. 
For a while, it looked as if 
Bakich had found a solution to 
that, scraping out wins on offense 
and taking advantage of the 
College World Series’ structure 
to 
alternate 
between 
starting 
Kauffmann and Henry. Criswell, 
in the meantime, came out of the 
bullpen for extended relief.
“We felt like he would better 
serve our team finishing the game 
off,” Bakich said. “It just kind of 
got to a point where we said: This 
really is a no-brainer. We need Jeff 
at the back end of the game.”
But in the College World Series 
final, a best-of-three affair, that 
strategy finally caught up to 
Bakich.
Game one went according to 
plan, with Henry tossing 8.1 strong 
innings. But Tuesday brought 
game two, and with it, trouble. 
Kauffmann, having pitched against 
Texas Tech on Friday, could not 
pitch again on such short rest. This 
left Bakich in a dilemma: should 
he pitch Criswell and have him 
unavailable for a potential game 
three, or should he use the pitch-
by-committee strategy and have 
both Kauffmann and Criswell for 
the final game?

Bakich chose the latter, starting 
freshman 
right-hander 
Isaiah 
Paige and using five other pitchers 
in relief in what became a 4-1 game 
two loss.
It was a bold strategy as it meant 
that everything would ride on 
game three. And when Kauffmann 
threw a solid first two innings 
Wednesday, it looked like it might 
pay off. But when he, on short rest, 
allowed three runs in the bottom of 
the third, and a walk to lead off the 
bottom of the fourth, Bakich sat 
him for Criswell, who went on to 
allow three more runs of his own. 
But Bakich had no choice other 
than to leave Criswell in. His 
bullpen was depleted from game 
two. Criswell settled down to an 
extent after the fourth, throwing 
two scoreless innings in the fifth 
and sixth before allowing one run 
in the bottom of the seventh as well 
as the eighth.
“Unfortunately, we issued a few 
too many free passes, especially 
with two outs, and then they 
capitalized and got the big two-out 
hit,” Bakich said. “Unfortunately, 
you give a team like that and an 
offense like that free passes, they’ll 
make you pay. And they made us 
pay.”
The damage was done. The 

Commodores had taken a lead and 
expanded it into a chasm. They 
would never surrender it.
Here, in game three of the 
College World Series finals, the 
Wolverines had to face the truth 
— their pitching staff lacked the 
depth it needed.
The seeds of a stronger and 
deeper pitching staff have been 
planted in players like Dragani, 
Paige, and sophomore southpaw 
Angelo Smith. And there’s plenty 

of evidence that Bakich and 
pitching coach Chris Fetter will be 
able to shape them into a unit that 
can bring the Wolverines back to 
Omaha.
But for now, Michigan’s pitchers 
were outmatched by a dangerous 
Vanderbilt lineup and an opposing 
pitching staff much deeper than 
its own. And if Bakich wants to 
cultivate a program that can get 
back to the biggest stage, it’s an 
issue he needs to fix.

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore designed hitter Jordan Nwogu had a breakout season as a sophomore

ZACHARY GOLDSMITH/Daily
Junior left-hander Tommy Henry was consistent throughout the Wolverines’ run.

