Perhaps more than any other athlete in any other sport, a baseball player relies on his experience. One year can be the difference between a pitcher who shows flashes of brilliance and one who wins 20 games, or a batter who hits .200 as a rookie and follows with a .295 average the next season.
As the Michigan baseball team prepares to open its season on the road against Alabama Friday night, it is relying on this philosophy.
"We're returning a lot of starters, and a lot of the freshman last year got to see some playing time," second baseman and team captain Kirk Beermann said. "They should be ready. It only really takes one year at the college level to be able to step in as a sophomore."
The Wolverines will be counting on their young pitching staff to start them off with some wins. Like the timeless adage says, good pitching beats good hitting.
Unfortunately, the Crimson Tide apparently have both. They are currently 5-0, after demolishing Marshall, 8-2, 17-4 and 16-0. They followed the sweep with two wins over Louisiana Tech.
Nonetheless, it will be up to Michigan pitchers Brian Steinbach, Luke Bonner and Ryan Kelley to shut Alabama down this weekend.
"We have some good young arms," Michigan baseball coach Geoff Zahn said. "We went with four freshman last year, and they're sophomores now. You hope that they've matured some, and they've seen some battle action.
"We're still a very young team, but that's going to be the heart of our pitching staff. Our mainstay on the pitching staff is going to be Brian Steinbach."
Steinbach will start the weekend series, with Bonner and Kelley pitching on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. This weekend's closer will be sophomore J.J. Putz.
Also strong for Michigan will be its hitters, mainly outfielders Jason Alcaraz and Derek Besco.
"(Alcaraz) can hit with anybody in the country," third team All-Big Ten third baseman Mike Cervenak said. "He's one of the best. Derek Besco looks really good this year, too, so he should be driving in runs. We look strong all the way through the lineup with our hitters."
On a team loaded with young players, Zahn will be counting on Beermann, Michigan's most experienced member, to provide leadership.
"(Beermann) is kind of the anchor of the team," Zahn said. "He's our only regular senior, and he's been a very steady player for us."
Although he knows that he may be the team's foundation, Beermann does not think that he will have to worry about motivation.
"I don't think this year I'll have to do a whole lot, because everybody's pretty much team oriented," he said. "Everybody's focused and has one goal and that's winning. I don't think I'll have to do too much, maybe just calm down a few of the newer guys."
Alabama has an advantage over the Wolverines, in terms of warm-weather conditioning. Due to the cold, Michigan has been forced inside for the majority of its practices. Plus, the Crimson Tide have played five games already, whereas the Wolverines have played none.
"Getting the arm in shape isn't the problem," Zahn said. "It's the game experience. It's trying to read the ball coming of the bat, if you're an outfielder or an infielder. That takes a little bit of time.
"When guys have been outside, reading the ball off the bat live and all those things - they've been doing it for a month, and we haven't been doing it."
In respect to the season as a whole, Michigan has high expectations, but it knows that nothing will come easily.
"Certainly, nobody scares us," Zahn said. "We know we're young. We know that we've got to improve. That's part of our philosophy that we're going to improve from the first day through the last day, and we'll take our chances on how far we can go."
MARGARET MYERS/Daily
While Michigan pitcher Matt Herr has yet to trade in his hockey skates for baseball spikes, the rest of his teammates will be facing Alabama on the Crimson Tide's home field.