W
Sports
8A - Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Michigan faces Chippewas in midweek game
F.
By LIZ NAGLE
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan coach Rich Maloney
talks the talk, but can the base-
ball team refrain from walking
the walks?
For the sec-
ond week in a CMU at
row, the Wol- Michigan
verines (0-3
Big Ten, 12-16 M U16;
overall) will Michigan 12-16
get a midweek
opportunity Whe a
to boost their 4:05P.M.y
record before
weekend con- Where: Ray
ference play, Fisher Stadim
but they'll only TV/Radio:
do so if they can MGoBlue.com
limit the "free-
bies."
Michigan's bullpen will either
lead the team to a much-needed
win or it will be the downfall of
today's matchup against Central
Michigan.
The Wolverines and Chippe-
was (12-16) are almost a mirror
image of one another in every
facet of the game:
Both teams will most like-
ly have young pitchers on the
mound.
Both teams are being piggy-
backed by their top three hitters.
And both teams carry identical
records.
In the balanced matchup,
Maloney is looking "to play the
game (the Wolverines) are capa-
ble of playing - good fundamen-
tal baseball."
At practice yesterday, volun-
teer coach Wayne Welton worked
to clean up those fundamentals,
'while pitching coach Steve Mer-
riman assessed the bullpen for
"Take one pitch at a time," he
said. "Take one at-bat at a time."
But that strategy requires a
productive batting order, some-
thing that has fallen soft and
silent in the last month of play.
The outfielders - Biondi,
freshman Will Drake and soph-
omore Michael O'Neill - have
carried the team. Each hits well
above a .300 average and they
combine for 108 hits and 68 runs.
But the trio can't keep the whole
team afloat on their own.
Even O'Neill has shown symp-
toms of the contagious slump
going around - in the last seven
games, he's gone just 5-for-27.
But Biondi picked up the slack
and still runs on a hot streak,
spearheading the Wolverines
with confidence and a .466 on-
base percentage.
Now he's just waiting for the
others to catch up.
"Baseball is a funny game,"
Biondi said. "You could go out
tomorrow and somebody that's
hitting .200 could go 4-for-4."
Similar to Michigan's lack of
hitting support, Central Michi-
gan's three best hitters also lug
the weight of the offense.
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily Middle infielder Jordan Dean
eclipses everyone with a .376
shman left-hand- batting average, 32 runs and 47
nik came out of hits.
aturday and Sun- When factoring in catcher
ly, in an attempt Arnold Williams and first base-
m's chances. man Nate Theunissen, the Chip-
just two hits, and pewa threesome stack up right
.a single run nor next to the Wolverines' batting
ined 11.2 innings. leaders.
iey was pleased "Hopefully we can catch fire,"
luction, he's now Maloney said. "We just haven't
gainst the Chip- been able to get over the top yet.
But I'm still optimistic that at
Maloney's game some point, something is going
to happen to spark this team."
Freshman left fielder Will Drake has a team-leading .333 batting average in his first season with the Michigan baseball team.
its potential contenders.
Though Maloney is still
uncertain of who the starting
hurler will be, he knows his bull-
pen will see a lot of action. It will
be a constant rotation with just a
couple innings for each reliever.
Central Michigan posted its
probable pitcher, left-hander
Matt Trowbridge, who has a 4.01
ERA and is looking to record his
fourth win. Meanwhile, Michi-
gan has limited options to pick
from.
Suffering a three-game series
sweep to Minnesota last week-
end, Michigan used up the
majority of its resources - the
pitching staff is looking slim.
Junior center fielder Patrick
Biondi expects freshman right-
hander James Bourque to throw
out the first pitch.
If Maloney is right and the
game comes down to a matter of
walks, Bourque may not be the
best candidate.
In his last 9.1 innings of work,
Bourque has given up 11 walks,
which contributed to the seven
earned runs on the stat sheet.
But there really isn't much of a
choice.
Because Maloney yanked red-
shirt junior left-hander Bobby
Brosnahan and junior right-
hander Ben Ballantine from the
mound in early innings against
the Golden Gophers, two poten-
tial midweek starters are no lon-
ger available.
Sophomore right-hander Alex
Lakatos and fre
er Trent Szkut
the bullpen on S
day, respective]
to revive the tea
Each gave up,
neither allowed
walk in a comb]
Though Malon
with their prod
shorthanded ai
pewas.
So, what'sl
plan?
Wagner, Driesenga showing experience beyond years
By GREG GARNO "We were all upset that we lost vice versa. Driesenga and Wagner we throw to avoid (soreness) and ,.
Daily Sports Writer that game, and (Michigan coach have pitched out of the bullpen for stay loose."
For a moment on Saturday, the
Michigan softball team saw all
that could go wrong as the result
* of a young pitching staff. Fortu-
nately, that moment didn't last
long.
In a three-game series against
Indiana, the 20th-ranked Wol-
verines (5-1 Big Ten, 21-10 overall)
struggled on the mound in their
split of the first two games but
rebounded nicely in a 7-2 victory
in the finale.
In Saturday's first game, fresh-
man left-hander Haylie Wagner
allowed two earned runs, prompt-
ing freshman right-hander Sara
Driesenga to come in for relief and
close the game.
"My pitches felt kind of flat,"
Wagner said.
But Driesenga felt just the
opposite.
"My drop ball was working
really well," Driesenga said.
The second game saw the
appearance of more than two
pitchers in a single game for the
first time since March, as Driesen-
ga allowed three runs and Wagner
allowed three more.
Carol Hutchins) said that we
didn't deserve to win that game,"
Diresenga said. "We just need to
do our part, and we didn't do it."
Sunday had a completely dif-
ferent outcome, though, as Wag-
ner didn't allow an earned run in
seven innings.
"I came into that game know-
ing yesterday was yesterday, and it
was a new day and a new game,"
Wagner said. "It was a day of com-
ing outand beingready to show my
coaches and my team that I can be
'that' pitcher and I can jump back
from something like that."
Over the weekend, Wagner
and Driesenga acted like veterans
capable of overcoming challeng-
es and coming back stronger at
times. Though Michigan relies on
more than pitching to win games,
Wagner and Driesenga collec-
tively showed how integral they
are to the rest of the team. After
the offense (fifth in the Big Ten),
combined for five runs on Satur-
day, the pitching staff was forced
to step up and control Indiana.
Saturday's games featured a
newly formed pattern, in which
Driesenga relieved Wagner and
much of the season. Often times,
Hutchins uses one to stop oppo-
nents from building momentum
off the other.
"That's what we do for each
other," Wagner said. "We know
that if one of us gets in a tough
situation, then we can come back
and fix it for each other."
Added Driesenga: "We're both
confident in each other. We both
want to finish for ourselves, but it's
good to have the ability to depend
on somebody else too."
Though the Wolverines worked
primarily with two pitchers last
year as well, they will still need
to be concerned about the num-
ber of innings the freshmen rack
up. Wagner and Driesenga have
combined for 204 innings pitched
through Sunday and will likely
pitch close to 400 by season's end.
Former Wolverine Jordan Tay-
lor and senior Stephanie Speier-
man combined for 364 innings by
the end last year's NCAA Super
Regional run.
For Driesenga, though, pain
hasn't been issue.
"I feel fine," Driesenga said.
"There's no soreness at all. Really,
Rotating the young pitchers
keeps them from remaining stiff
during the season. Hutchins and
pitching coach Jennifer Brun-
didge make sure each one of the
freshmen sees enough innings in
order to help them stay consistent
with their command.
Wagner and Driesenga will
continue working on consistency
and maintaining the "one pitch
at a time" mindset that has been
preached to them all season. Dri-
esenga described her season as
taking "two steps forward and
one step back," and the process of
being consistent will likely remain
like that for the season.
"It's about each pitch separate-
ly," Driesenga said. "You go about
it as if each pitch is your last pitch,
and then as soon as that pitch is
over, walk back to the end of the
circle and take a deep breath."
Balancing inexperience with
a high level of performance has
been a challenge for Hutchins this
season, but like her, the pitchers
have noted that winning will be a
team effort.
"I knew, even though I wasn't
throwing my best and that noth-
0
6
Freshman pitcher Sara Driesenga is splitting time on the mound for Michigan.
ing was working as well as I want- back out to prove something.
ed it to, that I had my defense to "We don't really have to prove
back me up,"Wagner said. anything," Driesenga said. "(The
As always, Wagner and Dries- media) always says you're expect-
enga will be excited to jump back ed to win, but really, we can't see
into action this weekend and work it like we're expected to win. We 0
past an up-and-down weekend. just need to focus on ourselves and
But don't tell them they're going play our game."
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