(photo by Craig Jackson, @leftfieldlounge)
OMAHA, Neb. – Junior lefty Tommy Henry has the Wolverines one win away from their first national title in 57 years.
Henry had his second impressive start in Omaha as Michigan posted a 7-4 victory over No. 2 Vanderbilt in Game 1 of the Championship Series of the 2019 College World Series in front of 24,707 fans at TD Ameritrade Park.
The Wolverines (50-20) are one win away from a national championship, which would be their first since 1962.
Following up his three-hit shutout of Florida State, Henry (12-5) worked 8.1 innings against the Commodores (57-12) with seven hits, four runs, three earned runs, one walk and eight strikeouts. He had 10 groundball outs and five flyball outs.
“I thought another gutsy performance by Tommy Henry,” UM head coach Erik Bakich said. “To pitch into the ninth inning tonight, just an incredible performance. And that’s what we needed. We needed a guy to put the team on his back, so to speak. He’s been a great captain, great leader, an inspiration to a lot of younger pitchers about what hard work looks like, and showing up here tonight.”
A second-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Henry has allowed 10 hits and 1 walk in 17.1 innings at the CWS with 18 strikeouts.
“Coach [Chris] Fetter drew up a really good game plan tonight,” Henry said, “and the two of us just tried to execute it as best we could. That’s a really talented lineup 1 through 9, as good as it gets, so there’s no breaks, no lapses throughout that entire lineup. And we just tried to do our best to keep them as off-balance as we possibly could, throw the kitchen sink at them and see what happens. And the defense made a lot of good plays tonight on hard-hit balls, so it worked out.”
In four NCAA tourney starts, Henry is 3-0 with a 2.27 ERA. In 31.2 innings, he has surrendered 22 hits with eight walks and 31 punchouts.
“The difference was certainly Tommy Henry,” VU skipper Tim Corbin said. “You have to give that kid a lot of credit. He threw a lot of strikes. He minimized damage when he had to. When he found himself in a little bit of trouble, he was able to negate our offense. He did a really good job. He didn’t allow many base runners, and as I said, he forced the action with his fastball and his off-speed stuff. He made it very difficult on us, and they played some pretty good defense.”
UM started the scoring in the top of the first. Jordan Nwogu drew a leadoff walk. Jesse Franklin singled to center and Par DeMarco threw out Nwogu at third. Franklin took second on the throw. Jordan Brewer doubled into the right field corner, plating Franklin with the first run. With two away, Blake Nelson singled through the left side, bringing home Brewer to make it 2-0. The Wolverines have scored in the first innings in all four of their CWS contests.
“It’s the name of the game in sport,” Bakich said,
“score first and get a lead and expand a lead or get a lead and keep a
lead. It just opens up the offense a little bit when guys are playing in a lead
in any sport. There’s some confidence there. There’s some mental freedom there.”
The Wolverines expanded their lead in the second. Jack Blomgren and Joe Donovan
walked before a double to left by Ako Thomas brought home Blomgren, making it
3-0. A groundout by Franklin
knocked in Donovan, giving UM a 4-0 advantage.
VU cut into the lead in the bottom of the second. Philip Clarke had a leadoff single and moved to third on a two-out base hit by Harrison Ray. A single to right by Ty Duvall drove in Clarke with the first run. Ray went to third on the hit and scored on a passed ball as the Commodores trailed 4-2.
JJ Bleday blasted a homer over the bullpen in right in the bottom of the sixth, his 27th of the season, as VU pulled within one at 4-3.
VU starter Drake Fellows (13-2) left after 5.2 innings with seven hits, four runs, four walks and six strikeouts.
“It really just came down to throwing strikes,” Fellows said. “I couldn’t find the strike zone really well the first couple innings and got in some hitters’ counts and predictable counts, and they were just jumping on the fastball and jumping on the pitches they thought were coming in predictable counts.”
UM extended its lead in the seventh. Brewer beat out an infield bouncer with one away. After a pair of strikeouts and a flyout his first three times up, Jimmy Kerr crushed a homer to right, his 15th of the season, as the Wolverines went up 6-3.
Donovan had a leadoff homer in the top of the eighth, his ninth, as UM extended its lead to 7-3.
In the bottom of the frame, Austin Martin drew a leadoff walk. With one away, Ethan Paul singled to right and Martin tried to advance to third. Brewer threw a strike to third to nail Martin for the second out.
“I don’t think I’ve yelled that loud on the baseball field in a long time,” Henry said. “How big of a spot it was, how tough of a throw it was, and how easy he made it look was awesome. Honestly, when I saw the guy rounding second base, in my head I was saying eat it, eat it, eat it, but you’ve got to trust Brewer’s arm, and he let it show. So it was a huge moment, a huge momentum swing.”
The Commodores tallied their final run in the ninth as DeMarco had a leadoff double and came home on a sacrifice fly by Ray to make it 7-4.
Jeff Criswell recorded the final two outs for Michigan to secure the victory. And he could get the start on Tuesday for the Wolverines.
“He could, yeah,” Bakich said. “I’ve got to
talk to the coaches. He threw nine pitches, so that’s what he did against UCLA.
He pitched an inning and started the next day, so he’s certainly capable. We
could go Criswell or we could do a committee.”
Vanderbilt is expected to start freshman Kumar Rocker.
“He’s pitched a lot of baseball games,” Corbin said. “I think age is really not going to be the factor right now. I think the biggest part of him is he’s been on the mound before and he’s got confidence in himself. But he’s going to have to pitch well against this team.”