With the Wolverines advancing at the College World Series, Michigan head coach Erik Bakich joined Jon Jansen’s podcast, “In the Trenches” this week.
So far in Omaha, U-M has defeated Texas Tech and Florida State and Bakich discussed his team’s run at the College World Series on the podcast.
“This is has been great,” Bakich said on the podcast. “I’m so excited for our players, for our University, for our fans. Every year for the last nine years, my wife would say, ‘What do you want to do for Father’s Day?’ For nine straight years, I wanted to spend it in Omaha. I told our team on Father’s Day, I just thanked them for the best Father’s Day gift ever because they are the ones who have taken us here.”
While Bakich has leaned on his players to get the team to this point, he has also used the help of some of the mentors he had as a coach. He talked with former Clemson coach Jack Leggett, Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin and Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
In the past few weeks, Bakich said he’s been on the phone with all three of those coaches to help him formulate a game plan.
That’s especially critical with how different the College World Series is from anything else.
“Just how the first couple of days of this event is one big party,” Bakich said. “It’s a carnival, it’s a festival. I think our players feel like they’re part tourists, part rock stars, and they’re only a small part baseball player because baseball is one thing you’re not really doing the first couple days here.”
Bakich said his players have done a good job with the transition back to being baseball players.
“The deeper you get in this tournament, the more storylines form,” Bakich said. “You’re getting pulled in a lot of directions answering questions about stories you haven’t talked about in the past. But when it gets down to baseball, you just have to keep the focus on baseball and how we play and how loose we are. That’s the biggest reason we are playing so well.”
Michigan’s run to the College World Series didn’t just start this season.
It began with the most recent recruiting classes that Bakich brought into Ann Arbor and also the failures of the beginning of last season.
“Our journey to Omaha and getting to this point started with our struggle at the beginning of last year,” Bakich said. “We would not be here without struggling to a 4-11 start last year. We started off that poorly, we had lost a bunch of players the year before to the draft, we had a new and inexperienced young team, we just faceplanted coming out of the gate … We were able to get back to some core beliefs and some fundamentals.
“I think our players, what we did, was put a laser focus on the minor details and talked about how there aren’t little things and everything is a big thing … Without that struggle we wouldn’t have sparked a 20 game rally.”
Bakich said the leadership on this year’s team learned from that experience and recognized that putting attention on small details helped the team. Those players held the team accountable and helped their teammates.
A key part of Michigan’s run in the College World Series has been junior pitcher Tommy Henry. Against Florida State, Henry pitched a complete game and shutout the Seminoles, only giving up three hits.
This was after another gem by Henry in the Super Regional elimination game against UCLA.
“For him, it’s about the eight letters across his chest and the block M on his hat,” Bakich said. “What we’re seeing these last couple of weeks is Tommy Henry opening up his chest and everyone getting to see the character, the makeup and the intangibles he has on the inside. It’s one thing to be a talented pitcher, it’s another thing to do it for your teammates.”
With the Wolverines victory Monday night, Michigan earned three days off before playing the winner of Texas Tech and Florida State Friday. In the time between games, Bakich said the team is keeping the same mindset it has had the entire NCAA Tournament.
“Every game we play from here on out is the steepest climb and the biggest challenge,” Bakich said. “The game requires our intense focus, but our team knows our recipe for success is us staying loose.”
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