Michigan pitcher goes distance, blanks ’Noles
OMAHA, Neb. — Jesse Franklin hit the second pitch of the game out of TD Ameritrade Park. With the performance Tommy Henry was about to give, that was all the offense Michigan needed.
Henry limited Florida State to three hits, and Franklin’s homer stood up in a 2-0 win Monday that put the Wolverines in control of Bracket 1 in their first appearance at the College World Series since 1984. The Wolverines (48-20) are 2-0 for the first time in six appearances since
1962 and need one more win Friday to reach the best-of-three finals next week.
“In the biggest game in Michigan baseball history in a long, long time, we got the best pitching performance in Tommy Henry’s career,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said. “He was the entire story line tonight. He gave us something magical. I don’t know if there is an adjective to describe how good Tommy was, but he was better than that.”
Henry (11-5) was efficient in his second shutout of the season and Michigan’s ninth. The junior left-hander mixed a slider and changeup with his fastball and threw 100 pitches, including 24 first-pitch strikes against the 32 batters he faced. He struck out 10, walked none and went to three-ball counts just twice, both times in the first inning.
The defense also was outstanding, with Christan Bullock making big plays in left field and second baseman Ako Thomas diving to rob Robby Martin of a hit in the ninth inning.
“Pure joy,” Henry said, describing his feeling after the last out. “I’m sure everyone was feeling the exact same way.”
The Seminoles (42-22), trying to win retiring coach Mike Martin’s first national championship in his 17th trip to Omaha, have scored only two runs in their last 26 innings, although they managed a 1-0 victory over Arkansas on Saturday. They failed to win their first two games at a
CWS for a 13th straight time since opening 2-0 in 1989.
Of the last 29 national champions, 24 won their first two games.
—Cody Masters’ first triple of the season drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, closer Taylor Floyd held off the Razorbacks in the ninth, and Texas Tech stayed alive in the College World Series.
The Red Raiders (45-19) were down three runs early against Arkansas before earning their 25th come-from-behind win this season, second-most in the nation. Arkansas (46-20) was ousted in two games a year after making it to the CWS finals.
The Razorbacks had two runners on with no outs in the ninth, but Floyd retired the top three batters in Arkansas’ order to end the game.
Masters’ winning hit came after Cody Scroggins (3-2) struck out Tech star Josh Jung but walked Cameron Warren with two outs. Masters then launched Scroggins’ low fastball into right center.
“I didn’t have many good at-bats before that,” Masters said, “and so whenever I was stepping on deck, just kind of took a deep breath, tried to forget everything and tried to come through for the squad that’s always come through for me when it mattered.”
Texas Tech 5, Arkansas 4