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Thursday, July 18, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

After a season filled with questions, some answers for Michigan 

OMAHA, Neb. – For much of the 
season, there were questions swirling 
around the Michigan baseball team. 
Now, on the far side of an improbable 
ride that brought Team 153 to the 
finals of the College World Series – 
and on the far side of a crushing 8-2 
loss at the hands of No. 2 Vanderbilt 
– the answers to those questions are 
starting to become clear.
For a long time, there were 
serious doubts about whether any 
school from the Big Ten belongs 
in college baseball’s Top 25. They 
struggled 
with 
cold 
weather, 
struggled losing recruits to southern 
schools, struggled putting together 
consistently successful teams.
But this season has proven that 
that’s no longer the case. Michigan 
was in and out of the rankings all 
season. But this year has cemented 
the fact that the Big Ten is quickly 
becoming 
a 
relevant 
baseball 
conference again. Iowa, Minnesota, 
Indiana and Illinois all put together 
teams that looked as if they could 
threaten to make postseason runs. 
In a few years’ time, with continued 
improvement from programs that are 
investing more and more into being 
national contenders, the Big Ten is 
beginning to challenge the notion 

that only warm-weather schools can 
build baseball powerhouses.
Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan 
have been ranked this season — 
Illinois and Indiana for weeks at a 
time. They’ve all proven that they’ve 
earned those rankings.
So, yes, Big Ten baseball teams 
belong in the top 25.
At the very beginning of the 
season, it looked like Michigan might 
be that Big Ten team. The Wolverines 
were ranked – albeit in the last five of 
the top 25 – and started the season 
on an eight-game winning streak 
with sweeps of Binghamton and the 
Citadel. But after a rough California 
swing and a devastating three-
game sweep at the hands of No. 8 
Texas Tech, Michigan fell out of the 
rankings, phasing in and out for the 
rest of the season.
But this postseason run has made 
one thing clear: this wasn’t just a top-
25 team. It was a top-five team. This 
was a team that took down some of 
the best ballclubs in the country — the 
likes of UCLA and Texas Tech. This 
was a team that had the potential to 
be a national champion, a team that 
was one game away from that result, 
a team that was disappointed to finish 
second in the country.
So, yes, Michigan belongs in the 
top 25, at least.
At the beginning of the season, 

junior left-hander Tommy Henry 
looked untouchable, allowing no 
earned runs in four of his first five 
starts. But nagging bicep tendonitis 
rendered him inconsistent through 
much of the second half of the 
season, and it became unclear if he 
could show up for Michigan when it 
mattered.
But in the postseason, when 
his team needed him most, Henry 
became the backbone of the pitching 
staff. He threw a dominant, flu-ridden 
seven innings over UCLA to send his 
team to the College World Series, 
a masterpiece 100-pitch complete-
game shutout of Florida State, and a 
victory in Game 1 of the College World 
Series Final. He finished the season 
with a 3.27 earned-run average and 
a legacy of massive games on the 
collegiate sport’s highest level.
So, yes, Tommy Henry can pitch 
when it matters.
He can. He did.
In his first three years with the 
program that both his father and 
grandfather played for, senior first 
baseman Jimmy Kerr was a non-
starter who had his moments. He 
fought to live up to the legacy of his 
father and grandfather who both 
went to the College World Series with 
Michigan. But after an offseason 
spent hard at work lifting weights 
and putting on bulk, Kerr finally 

came into his own.
He hit a team-leading 15 home 
runs in his breakout senior season. 
Seven of those homers came in the 
NCAA Tournament. He started every 
game this past year and captained a 
team that made its first College World 
Series trip since his father’s playing 
days.
His father went to Omaha twice in 
the eighties. His grandfather was the 
backbone of the 1962 championship 
team.
It’s a tall legacy – but yes, Jimmy 
can live up to it.
He can. He did.
Above all, though, there was one 
question surrounding this ballclub: 

can Bakich build a powerhouse 
program at Michigan?
He’s certainly planted the seeds of 
one. This postseason run, this trip to 
Omaha, this appearance in the finals 
of the College World Series have 
proven that.
But can he get back here? Can he 
recruit well enough to replace the 
losses of seniors like Jimmy Kerr and 
Blake Nelson and draftees like Karl 
Kauffmann and Tommy Henry? Can 
he cultivate a winning culture and a 
consistently-winning program that 
bring future Michigan teams back to 
Omaha?
It’s time to find out.
But as of now, all signs point to yes.

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

Michigan players find new challenge in Cape Cod Baseball League

CAPE COD, Mass. — Jesse 
Franklin smacked a single, then 
motored into second on the throw 
home.
Waiting for him there was none 
other than Jack Blomgren. Reunited 
briefly with his Michigan teammate, 
Franklin took the opportunity to 
mess around with Blomgren.
Franklin and Blomgren are two 
of three Wolverines who headed 
to Cape Cod for summer ball after 
their second-place finish in the 
College World Series. Franklin plays 
outfield for the Brewster Whitecaps, 
Blomgren is an infielder with the 
Wareham Gatemen and left-hander 
Angelo Smith pitches for the Orleans 
Firebirds.
The Cape Cod Baseball League, a 
summer league for college baseball 
players, is in some ways a far cry from 
Ray Fisher Stadium. Players trade in 
their dorms for host families, joining 

a team of high-level players from all 
over the country. Sometimes, they 
play against their own teammates.
The fields harken back to the old 
days of baseball. Many are located at 
high schools. Some still don’t have 
lights. All have real grass, not the 
turf to which Michigan players are 
accustomed, and players on the home 
team must tend to the field after 
games. The sounds are different, too 
— the “crack” of wood bats replacing 
the “clink” of aluminum ones. But in 
the end, it’s still the same game.
“It’s awesome,” Franklin — who 
also spent last summer with the 
Whitecaps — told The Daily. “It’s a 
good shot to get a lot better, play with 
really good players, meet different 
guys from around the country and 
guys I’ve played against and just kind 
of share in baseball.”
The College World Series threw 
a wrench into the Wolverines’ plans 
this year. Michigan wasn’t expected 
to even make it to Super Regionals, 
so coaches expected to have them 

right away. Instead, the Wolverines 
didn’t come until halfway through 
the season.
Franklin was in Ann Arbor for two 
days after the final game, then went 
home for a week before flying out to 
the Cape. He didn’t appear in a game 
until July 9, the 23rd of 44 games 
for Brewster. Smith and Blomgren 
didn’t play their first games until 
July 11 and 12, respectively.
And there’s another element of 
collateral 
damage. 
Right-hander 
Jeff Criswell and outfielder Jordan 
Nwogu were also slated to come 
to the Cape, but Criswell decided 
to eschew it for the USA Baseball 
Collegiate 
National 
Team 
and 
Nwogu stayed home to rest a quad 
injury he suffered against Vanderbilt. 
Still, the coaches are happy to have 
them — better late than never.
“I’m always gonna have Michigan 
kids,” said Whitecaps manager 
Jamie Shevchik. “Their coaches do 
things the right way, I have a great 
relationship with the Michigan 

coaching staff. … Some of these 
programs, their coaches do a great 
job of understanding where they are 
and what the Cape Cod means to 
them.”
The Cape League is a little more 
relaxed 
than 
NCAA 
baseball. 
Instead of the bright lights and the 
pressure and the cheering fans like 
the College World Series or a home 
Michigan game, contests have an 
intimate feel. Little kids come on 
the field asking for autographs 
afterwards. In some ways, that’s a 
good thing, but it comes with its own 
challenges.
“There’s no coaches here or 
academic advisers or people like that 
looking out for me,” Franklin said. 
“I’ve gotta be responsible for myself 
and warm up correctly and work out 
by myself and eat the right things 
and do things in my best interest.”
Many players struggle at first 
on the Cape, whether because of 
the new wood bats, playing against 
different competition or simply 

the adjustment of being in a new 
place. That’s certainly been true of 
Franklin, Blomgren and Smith so 
far. Franklin is hitting .273 with a 
.360 on-base percentage, but all of 
his hits have been singles. Blomgren 
is 1-for-5 with four strikeouts in 
two games. Smith had a scoreless 
2.1-inning appearance in a loss, but 
then allowed two runs and two 
walks and committed an error in just 
0.2 innings in his next.
But no matter their final stats, 
playing in the Cape League will help 
each player improve against top-
notch competition and get used to 
the way things are done in the pros 
— whether that be wood bats, the 
challenges of self-starting or playing 
games almost every day. Ultimately, 
that’s the most important part.
“Just the opportunity to get better 
every day,” Franklin said. “You get 
to play so often and it’s always a 
challenge out here, so it feels like I’m 
getting better and that’s what I want 
to do the most.”

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach Juwan Howard has two more scholarship spots left for the 2019-

