Redshirt junior pitcher Benjamin Keizer had the baseball with a chance to send Michigan its first College World Series since 1984.
Keizer slammed the door shut on No. 1 UCLA in the winner-take-all game of the Super Regional Sunday, pitching two innings in relief of junior pitcher Tommy Henry. In his 33rd appearance of the season, Keizer helped Michigan advance to a place it had not been in many decades.
Even days after the victory over the Bruins, Keizer can’t begin to comprehend what this team has accomplished so far this season.
“It was unbelievable,” Keizer said Tuesday. “I can’t even put it into words. We were so excited, we were brought to tears because we were that excited. A lot of work has gone into it. Being able to see it finally pay off and see the seniors breakthrough and get that big win for them.
“The last three years have been tough, we haven’t really finished where we wanted to finish and being able to have that exclamation point and contribute to the Michigan legacy is really special.”
In the three seasons prior to 2019, the Wolverines missed the NCAA Tournament twice and did not make it out of their regional in 2017. Yet the ground was laid for this season’s run to the College World Series.
Keizer has been a key to Michigan’s pitching staff this season and has the single-season record for appearances. In his first two seasons, he barely played, pitching only 8.1 innings in 2017 and 2018 combined.
Coming to Michigan after his brother, Johnathan, was a walk-on for the football team, Keizer said U-M was his dream school. He’s now making the impact he said he wanted to make when he came to Ann Arbor. Even though he didn’t see the field often early in his career, he remained invested and has helped Michigan get to Omaha.
The Wolverines’ ride to the College World was due to their grit and toughness. Head coach Erik Bakich constantly refers to these characteristics as what defines this team.
That toughness was on display this past weekend in Michigan’s series over UCLA.
“It’s just something that can’t be taught,” Keizer said. “It’s in the makeup of us and that starts with the coaches’ recruiting. Tommy Henry coming out and battling illness and giving us absolutely everything he has. Jack Blomgren breaking his finger at second base. Asking the training staff to tape it up and run back out there. That’s something you can’t teach. It’s just a testament to the guys we have in that locker room.”
Henry had been battling both the flu and pneumonia ever since the team landed in California. He missed his start on Friday because he was in the hospital getting rehydrated, but was able to pitch on Sunday in the final game of the series.
His ability to pitch through his illness served as an inspiration for the rest of the team.
“When he gave us those seven innings, we knew we were going to do anything to pay the favor back and to finish it off for him,” Keizer said. “Doing that, that’s unreal. Giving us those seven innings was huge, so we just do what we could for him because we knew he was going to lay it all out there so we wanted to lay it all out there for him. It was a huge motivator for us.”
Although Michigan got past UCLA, another tough challenge awaits the Wolverines in their first game of the College World Series Saturday against Texas Tech. Earlier in the season, Michigan faced the Red Raiders in a three-game series and lost all three games.
Texas Tech won 11-2, 10-3 and 8-5, but Keizer said this is a different team than the one that struggled in March in Lubbock, Texas.
“That was a rough series for us, but that’s in the past,” Keizer said. “We use it to reflect on and learn from it. We’re a new team, we’ve been growing ever since that first game of the year, just trying to get better every day and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Since that game, Michigan finished second in the Big Ten and advanced past both the Regional and the Super Regional, where they were underdogs.
The Wolverines are making history and Keizer said they are taking it all in.
“It gives me chills,” Keizer said. “I still can’t even believe it. I’ll look at Twitter and Instagram and see all the videos of our celebration and seeing all the praise our coaches are getting and our teammates are getting, it’s still hard to believe. I still haven’t stopped smiling since it happened. It’s really good to see all that hard work pay off.”
