Kornacki: Lugbauer Locked In at the Dish
4/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 13, 2017
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan third baseman Drew Lugbauer's swing has become something special to watch.
The rhythm of his batting stroke is baseball ballet, flowing smoothly and purposefully from pitch to pitch. He's hitting the ball where it's pitched and often depositing it over outfield walls, cutting down significantly on strikeouts and getting his head on the ball time after time.
Lugbauer teed off on Oklahoma reliever Ryan Madden's fifth-inning fastball for a two-run home run to center field that gave Wolverine starter Oliver Jaskie a four-run lead en route to a 5-2 win Thursday (April 13) over the No. 18 Sooners.
It was the hit that put the No. 13 Wolverines in command of a big-time non-conference game that Jaskie and reliever Mac Lozer (five up and five down for the save) weren't about to relinquish.
The homer was Lugbauer's 10th of the season, and he ranks third in the Big Ten in that category. The clout also moved his RBI total up to a conference-leading 44.
His statistics over the last 11 games are staggering: .452 batting average, five homers, five doubles and 23 RBI. So, he's hit half of his homers and driven in a little more than half of his runs in those games that began March 28, a little more than two weeks ago.
"I feel pretty good right now," said Lugbauer. "It's a credit to our coaches, and I just got back to the basics and worked with everybody. The whole team is getting confident and I'm gaining confidence."
Michigan was 17-6 before Lugbauer got hot and is 10-1 since he began hitting rockets to all fields.
"What impresses me is that a lot of the home runs he's hit lately have been middle (of the field) and oppo," said Wolverine head coach Erik Bakich. "You see a lot of kids that have power, and it's pull power. They get enamored with the pull side of the field and they get pull happy. That's' when they miss-hit some balls, and he's doing a really nice job with (avoiding) that.
"If they throw it in to him, he'll turn on it. But he's doing a really nice job of using the whole field, and some of the big home runs that he's hit have been more to the middle or opposite side of the field -- which is hard to do, I don't care who you are."
Very few can replicate what Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera does in that regard.
"It's hard to have line-to-line power," said Bakich. "But that's why (Lugbauer's) the player that he is, and we certainly are benefiting from it because earlier in the year he was very pull oriented. He didn't have as much success and was maybe trying to hit for power.
"Now, he's letting it happen and taking what the pitchers give him, and he'll take his walks and take his base hit."
Lugbauer is tied for third in the Big Ten with 22 walks.
Bakich continued, "But if there's mistake (pitches), he's able to put good swings on them, and his slugging numbers are pretty good. He's understanding what pitchers are trying to do, and they are staying away from him, living away.
"He's been able to let the ball get deep. He's not leaving the zone; he's holding the zone and going after pitches he can drive. That's extremely important if you're a power hitter. He's swinging at the right pitches and is not missing them when he's getting them."
The spray chart for Lugbauer's homers is almost perfectly symmetrical: four to left or left-center, one to dead center, two to right-center and three pulled to right.
Lugbauer's batting average has climbed from .225 to .298 -- with nine singles to go with 10 extra-base hits during the 11-game stretch -- and he's gone from striking out just over once every three at-bats to once every seven at-bats.
"Right now he is obviously locked in," said Michigan first baseman Jake Bivens. "He's been working really hard to fix the issues he had earlier in the year, and right now he's hotter than anyone in the country, which is a testament to his work ethic and drive. Nothing can get by him at the plate. He's seeing the ball and hitting it -- and he's hitting rockets, too."
Bakich said Lugbauer's driving balls out at 110-115 mph, and that compares to what the very top hitters in the major leagues achieve. Though, they are using wooden bats as opposed to the aluminum used in college that create more explosiveness.
"We were able to track some exit velocity stuff," said Bakich, "and he's always a guy hitting it 110 or 115 miles per hour off the bat. His exit velo is really good, but he's not one of those guys with a long swing who is trying to lift the ball all the time. It's one thing to be a good hitter, and it's one thing to have good power, and he's doing both."
He expends the time and effort necessary to become a balanced hitter.
Lugbauer, a junior from Pleasant Valley, New York, is usually the first of a group of eight to 10 Wolverines who arrive about two-and-a-half hours before games for early batting practice.
"We're big on that routine," said Lugbauer. "Hitting early and being with the guys creates a fun, relaxed atmosphere. We all push and help each other. Everyone is expressing themselves and doing what they do best.
"We're attacking, and we're confident, and when we're down we know we can get back. If we get up, we're hungry for more. So, we're confident, humble and hungry. It's a good recipe for success."
Lugbauer, who also catches some and started at first base last season (.294, seven homers, 47 RBI), was a 21st-round draft pick by the Toronto Blue Jays out of high school but opted instead to attend Michigan.
"I talked to Coach Bakich and could see it was a team on the rise with a great coaching staff," said Lugbauer. "I felt like this was going to be my home and that I could develop better here."
He showed what a team player he was by moving from first to third, switching positions with Bivens, who required less throwing stress coming off Tommy John elbow surgery.
"The first time I ever saw (Lugbauer) he was playing shortstop in Marietta, Georgia, in a Perfect Game tournament in the summer," said Bakich. "I said, 'Who's that kid playing shortstop?' Then the next day he was catching, and so you knew the athleticism was good. He's very versatile, and he's a bigger-body kid (6-foot-3, 220 pounds), but he's still an athlete. He moves well and is agile for a big kid.
"He's just a baseball player, and he loves it. It means a lot to him. His care level is off-the-charts high. He's very good at baseball."
