The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/480355
BY JOHN BORTON M ichigan's collection of road warriors came out of the non-conference baseball season 11-8 — certainly respectable, following a 2-5 start. That's not the standard, U-M head coach Erik Bakich stressed. Once the Wolverines hit the Flor- ida/South Carolina portion of their schedule, they reeled off eight straight victories, before dropping two of three at Kansas in the final weekend before Big Ten play began. The story on this team, Bakich said, has yet to be written. "We stumbled out of the gate," he said. "We wanted to get out of the gate strong, and that was disappoint- ing, to get off to such a slow start. "I'm proud of the way the guys re- sponded. It showed their toughness and their resiliency. We had a great spring break trip. We've shown some flashes of being a championship club, and we've shown some areas where we need to be a little more consis- tent." Certainly, they need to get healthier. Junior left-handed pitcher Evan Hill, at 6-5 and 190 pounds, was a Fresh- man All-American two seasons ago. He hasn't taken the mound yet this season for the Wolverines, due to a knee injury. "He is progressing very well," Ba- kich noted. "We expect his timeline is probably in the next month or so." Several others have missed time to injury as well, including junior infielder Travis Maezes, senior out- fielder Jackson Glines and senior go- to reliever Donnie Eaton. "There are a lot of guys who just need to get healthy," Bakich said. "We're working on that right now, where we're firing on all cylinders." It also takes northern teams a little longer to fire up going from indoor to outdoor baseball, Bakich indicated. There's a sorting out process when a team faces real competition on an outdoor field. For instance, sophomore infielder/ outfielder Carmen Benedetti — hit- ting .333 with a team-leading 21 RBI — didn't even appear in Michigan's first couple of games. "That's just what it takes some- times," Bakich said. "It takes playing Big Ten Contenders Health, Consistency Will Be Crucial For Erik Bakich's Crew