After his team’s season-opening series against Mississippi Valley State, UIC baseball coach Mike Dee passed out index cards to his players as a reminder of what they needed to do to be successful.
While first baseman Jeff Boehm wouldn’t reveal what his card read, it’s a pretty safe assumption that the word “hitter” was somewhere to be found in the text.
In four games against the host Delta Devils, the Mount Carmel graduate batted .615 with eight hits in 13 at-bats. Boehm also added three home runs, 13 RBI and six runs scored. The Lansing resident’s slugging percentage for the weekend was 1.385, while his on-base percentage checked in at .762.
“Coach Dee gave us the cards with our identities as a hitter,” Boehm said. “If you’re a bunter, then you should bunt. If you’re a power guy, then you hit for power. If you’re a base-hit guy, then you get base hits.
“The cards say who we are and to win as a team, we have to be who we are. The coaches reminded us of our identities through those cards.”
For his efforts, Boehm was named the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball News and was also the Horizon League Batter of the Week for the period ending Feb. 15.
“This is something that five years from now, I’ll be able to look back upon as a memorable moment in my life,” Boehm said. “This gives me confidence now to go forward and be ready for the next weekend (series).
“I’m not thinking about the past. It was a long weekend and I just have to keep a good head on my shoulders. There are a lot of weekends in the season.”
Boehm’s top performance against Mississippi Valley State came in the first game of the series as the Flames garnered a 24-5 victory. Boehm tallied six RBI, three runs and three walks. He also anchored UIC’s 10-run second inning with a three-run double. Boehm added a two-run homer in the seventh.
“The key has been my coaches,” Boehm said. “I was struggling in the fall and the winter and I wasn’t doing what I thought I could do.
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“But the coaches knew that I worked hard in the offseason and they trusted what I could do. They just trusted what I had done over the break.
“(Assistant) Coach (Sean) McDermott was always there during the extra work to help me with my swing and Coach Dee settled me down. I have a football player’s mentality and sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s a bad thing.
“Coach Dee just told me to go out there and have fun. He told me to trust what I can do and I went out there and had a good weekend.”
Boehm, who transferred to UIC from Kentucky prior to the 2014 season, earned a spot on the All-Horizon League first team last season. He was voted to the 2015 Preseason All-Horizon League Team and was chosen the Preseason Player of the Year in the Horizon League by Baseball America.
“My strength as a hitter is my presence,” Boehm said. “I hear that from other people that I have good presence at the plate. When pitchers are precise, they tend to make mistakes.
“I also know my identity and why I’m in that (No. 5) hole in the batting order. I’m not there to hit ground balls. I’m there to hit balls in the air with backspin to left-center and right-center.”
V for victory
Augustana’s Ethan Benoit (Marist) was named the CCIW’s Wrestler of the Week for the period ending Jan. 14.
A sophomore 197-pounder, the Oak Lawn resident went 3-0 at the National Duals. Benoit pinned ninth-ranked Ryan Michaelis of St. John’s at 3:13 and Luther’s Taylor Walls at 3:14. Benoit also won by injury default over Johnson & Wales’ Andrew Cavanna at 3:00 to raise his record at the time to 15-5.
Mike Walsh is a freelance writer.