Kornacki: Comeback Win a Microcosm of Fighter Culture Season
5/20/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2017
By Steve Kornacki
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The ninth and 10th innings of the regular-season finale said so much about this University of Michigan baseball team's defining resiliency.
The Wolverines hadn't scored and were down by one run with three outs to go. But they scrapped their way to the tying run, before closer Jackson Lamb worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam to force extra innings.
Then, with two outs in the top of the 10th, Jake Bivens, Johnny Slater and Michael Brdar each singled with two strikes on them to provide the go-ahead run in a 2-1 win over Michigan State. William Tribucher stranded the potential tying run at second base in a driving rain that developed in the bottom half of that inning, and No. 15 Michigan (42-13, 16-8 Big Ten) had itself a very special triumph Saturday afternoon (May 20) at McLane Stadium.
It was a victory rooted in the "fighter" culture Wolverine head coach Erik Bakich began building in the fall as a response to the way his team faded after last season's strong start.
"You see it in their play, emotion and energy," said Bakich. "They fight every single pitch even when the outlook isn't good. They find a way to make it happen, and this game was a microcosm of our team, of our training, of everything we've done since September first.
"It was actually a perfect script for this team: be down, be out, find a way, come back, make tough ABs, make tough pitches, tough plays and be as gritty as hell along the way. You wouldn't have that performance, and you wouldn't have that result without the culture and the foundation we have in place."
Michigan finished in second place in the Big Ten, one half game behind Nebraska (16-7-1), which it didn't face in the regular season. The Wolverines advanced to a 1:30 p.m. Wednesday (May 24) conference tournament opener with seventh-place Northwestern (24-28, 13-11), another first-time opponent this season.
"It doesn't get any easier from here on out," said Brdar, the tough-as-nails senior shortstop. "We have the Big Ten Tournament at (Bloomington) Indiana, and the games are going to be just like this -- one-run games. There will be a lot of challenges in the playoffs we have coming up, and proving that we can do it is important because if you haven't done it all year and get into those kinds of situations, you don't trust it.
"But we definitely trust that we're going to win, and we're going to come back because we trust the guy next to us, we trust the coaches. It was just a super game for us."
It never looked bleaker than in the bottom of the ninth.
Marty Bechina led off with a single, and first baseman Bivens picked up the ensuing bunt and opted to go for the force out at second. He probably had Bechina, too, but instead sailed his throw into center.
"That was an aggressive play," Bivens said. "But after the throw, I just had to focus on the next pitch."
That put runners on second and third, and Lamb issued an intentional walk to set up a potential double play at any base with the infield pulled in on the grass.
There was "no room for error," no room to breathe.
But Lamb took a deep breath and went at the task at hand. Zack McGuire hit a grounder that third baseman Jimmy Kerr came home with for the force out.
Then things got real interesting. Brandon Hughes hit a sky-high popup that second baseman Joe Pace went back on the outfield grass to locate. Right fielder Jonathan Engelmann sprinted toward the infield, making a diving catch and rolling on the grass before quickly coming up to show umpires he had the ball securely in his glove.
One out to go.
Bryce Kelley hit a grounder to Brdar, who fired to second for the force out to end the inning.
"At that point," said Lamb, "we knew we were going to win. We knew we'd just snatched momentum."
Bakich said: "Jackson Lamb does what he does best with no room for error. There's no stopping a guy with the right mindset. There's no fear in between his ears, and you better watch out for that guy.
"And that guy's name is Jackson Lamb. I'm really glad he's on this team."
Lamb (3-0) got the win and has now pitched 28 scoreless innings of relief with 28 strikeouts and 1.04 walks plus hits per inning pitched. He'd tied the school's single-season saves record with No. 12 in Friday night's (May 19) win over MSU in Ann Arbor.
The Wolverines rushed Lamb, who sprinted toward the dugout after getting the third out.
"That was awesome," said Bivens. "That just lifted us up."
The positive energy that began with Drew Lugbauer's leadoff single in the top of the ninth turned the switch. Lugbauer shouted and pointed to the dugout, where everyone jumped to the top step and roared back at him.
Ako Thomas, the spark plug leadoff man unable to play second base or hit with his injury, still has wheels that can be used, though. He pinch ran, moved to second on Miles Lewis' sacrifice bunt and stole third base.
"Ako stealing that base was huge," said Bakich.
Nick Poirier drove Thomas home to tie it with a hard grounder that first baseman McGuire knocked down and picked up to retire Poirier for the second out.
That opened the door for more heroics.
Brdar, who hit .571 in the three-game series the Wolverines took from the Spartans, went the other way with a single to right, and Bivens came around from second to slide and score what proved to be the winning run.
"Bivens, Slater and Brdar all had two strikes on them with two outs and willed themselves to put the barrel on the ball and find a way to get on," said Bakich. "It was Brdar's seventh hit in the last 24 hours. That guy is one of the best leaders I've seen in 16 years (as a major college assistant or head coach).
"He has one of the best winning mindsets I've ever been around and is a champion in every sense of the word."
Bakich credited his upperclassmen for setting the tone for the team on the field and holding everyone to high standards -- including in the classroom, where he noted that the team had its highest grade-point average in his five seasons as coach.
"This is a special group," Bakich said. "Special teams do special things, and that was something special there. We were dead in the water for eight innings, tied it in the ninth and won it in the 10th.
"These guys never stop fighting. They never stop believing. It's a true testament to one of the toughest, grittiest teams I've ever been a part of. There's no quit. I'm so proud of these guys. It's like being a proud parent. You just watch them play and have genuine excitement and emotion, and I'm so fired up for them."
Bivens said: "It's been awesome over the year, seeing guys grow up, and with that become tougher. We're showing up in big moments, and young guys feed off that. It's a culture Coach (Bakich) has done an awesome job with, and it's fun playing with this team. It's the best team I've been on."
That's high praise because Bivens played on the surprise Big Ten Tournament champions as a freshman in 2015.
"The one thing that stands out about this team is that we're tough, resilient," said Bivens.
Brdar said: "It starts with the chemistry we have. We love hanging out with each other off the field and enjoy the presence of each and every guy here, the coaches and the support staff. And then it's like we're hanging out on the baseball field. So, it's a special, special group built on toughness."
Lamb added: "In the fall, we just preached toughness, and there isn't a game that could be more of an example of toughness than this one."
