College baseball is a game heavily reliant on experience and maturity — the ability to remain level-headed in volatile situations. It takes time to develop those qualities. So, apart from the rare breakout freshman star, newly matriculated players rarely see consistent time on the field.
At least, that’s how Michigan coach Tracy Smith would prefer it. But bad injury luck in the outfield left him no choice. Freshman center fielder AJ Garcia and freshman center fielder Alfredo Velazquez are two of those young players that Smith had been carouseling in the outfield, but neither have been trusted to take consistent at-bats.
“From an injury standpoint and what we’re searching for personnel wise, I would say it forced our hand from a coaching standpoint to play guys, quote unquote, ‘before they’re ready,’ ” Smith said Sunday. “But we don’t really have a choice at this point given our roster and injuries.”
After a leg injury to sophomore right fielder Greg Pace Jr. forced defensive downgrades and a finger injury to sophomore center fielder Jonathan Kim sidelined a prolific middle-of-the-order bat, Smith’s outfield had a lot of question marks and few answers.
The Wolverines patched their holes in the outfield by making a slew of substitutions each game. When their depth runs thin, they use a pinch hitter at the plate and promptly take him out in favor of a better defensive outfielder, and they repeat this process until the game comes to a close. This works in the short-term, but cycling through players constantly during a game is not conducive to stability.
Ideally, Michigan would like to have an outfielder who is serviceable in both the batter’s box and out in the field. Instead, it has a short list of options mainly consisting of freshmen who haven’t proved that they can hit at the level that Smith desires.
“We don’t have a true veteran center fielder,” Smith said March 15. “We’ve got some guys that can play pretty good defense, but right now they’re not close to being a Division I hitter.”
But this weekend against Penn State, Garcia stepped up big for Michigan. Prior to this weekend’s series, he proved to be a capable center fielder, but had yet to show much prowess in the batter’s box. Entering play on Friday, Garcia had logged just four at-bats on the season and collected only one hit, a single to center.
Despite his few prior chances to show his worth, he got the start in center field for all three games of the series against the Nittany Lions, and he didn’t let it slip through his fingers.
He was quiet in the first game offensively, drawing a walk and striking out in his two at-bats, but he played a clean center field and swiped a base after his walk in the second inning. The quiet yet composed performance earned him another start in the second game. He found slightly more success in a similarly error-free outing, as he was hit by a pitch and collected a bunt single, showing off his speed.
Finally, Garcia broke out in the series finale. In his first plate appearance, he laced a single to center field and promptly swiped second base, gaining his second steal of the series. In the seventh inning, Garcia once again squared to bunt. As the ball bounced off his bat and rolled slowly down the lip of the grass, all the Penn State defense could do was hope that a gust of wind pushed it foul. But no gust came, and Garcia found himself at first base, uncontested.
Garcia’s bunt single was the catalyst of a nine-run seventh inning which propelled the Wolverines to a win and its series victory.
“He didn’t just blend in this weekend, like not look bad,” Smith said of Garcia Sunday. “He actually really advanced the needle towards winning, like he was a factor.”
He capped off his productive outing on Sunday with a high pop fly to shallow left. It got lost in the sun and dropped into the grass in front of a confused left fielder as Garcia hustled into second for a double, cementing his breakout 3-for-4 day.
When Michigan needed someone to step up, it called Garcia’s number. And despite his freshman tag, he answered the call, contributing to winning baseball.