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4B - April 9, 2012

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com


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ADAM SCHNITZER/Daily
Fifth-year senior attackman Trevor Yeaiy tallied a hat trick on Saturday to put his season total at 20goals.
Mistakes haunt'M'

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Junior shortstop Amy Knapp doubled in three runs against Ohio State in a sweep over the weekend.
Patience at plate pays
off for Blue in, sweep

By NITAI LEVE game trying to stop a Delaware
For the Daily attack that consisted of many
short, quick passes that allowed
The Michigan lacrosse team the Blue Hens to control the
dropped to 1-10 with an 11-7 loss pace of the game.
to Delaware on Saturday, and Delaware was also helped by
more of the same problems were the mental mistakes of the Wol-
on display for the Wolverines. verines.
Michigan's inexperience Michigan botched many
showed, as it played most of opportunities to get the ball back
the game on defense due to its on defense, missing out on sev-
inability to get the loose balls. eral groundballs that would've
The Wolverines lost the allowed it to counterattack.
faceoff battle, 14-7, and picked On Delaware's second goal
up only 22 groundballs com- of the game, the Wolverines
pared to the Blue Hens' 39. They stopped a fast-break attempt,
were out-hustled and out-played only to turn the ball over and
through the entire contest. then fail to collect the ground-
"When you're getting out- ball. Delaware punished this
groundballed, you have a few mistake by netting a goal.
more turnovers, you're not clear- Michigan also struggled to
ing it as well, that stuff adds up," hold the ball while on offense,
said Michigan coach John Paul. compiling 17 turnovers. The
Michigan lost the first faceoff Blue Hens were able to get into
of the game and dropped back transition off a lot of those turn-
to defend. The trend continued overs and turn them into scoring
for much of the afternoon, and opportunities.
Michigan played most of the Paul attributed most of his

team's woes to their inexperi-
ence.
"We have a lot of guys play-
ing young, being asked to play
at a level that is a big step up for
them," Paul said.
"It's about getting used to
playing at this level, and it's
about executing at a higher
level."
The Wolverines have seen
a lot of production out of their
veteran players, with fifth-year
senior attackman Trevor Yealy
contributing a hat trick to put
him at 20 goals for the season.
Junior midfielder Willie Steen-
land also added two assists to
put him at 18 points for the sea-
son.
But the lack of possessions by
the Wolverines has tput a lot of
pressure on their attackers.
"At times, we forced it today,"
Yealy said. "We had some bad
turnovers, and that bit us. We
kindof rushed alotof our chanc-
es."

By COLLEEN THOMAS
Daily Sports Writer
COLUMBUS - With Michi-
gan leading 6-2 in the fourth
inning of Friday's game against
Ohio State, junior second base-
man Ashley Lane saw 11 pitches
before she took a power swing.
And after putting six balls in
foul territory, Lane's 12th pitch
of the at-bat soared over the left-
field fence.
Lane's three-run home run
extended the No. 20 Michigan
softball team's lead to seven, but
her long at-bat was even more
pleasing her coach.
"That was actually a fantas-
tic at-bat," said Michigan coach
Carol Hutchins. "(Lane) hung
in there. She only got a piece of
that ball, but she's got a lot of
power."
Patience was a virtue for the
Wolverines this weekend.
They took their time at the
plate throughout the weekend
sweep of Ohio State, forcing the
Buckeye pitchers to throw seven
or eight pitches per batter and
quickly rack up pitches. After
three innings on Friday, Ohio
State's Mikayla Endicott had
thrown 103 pitches to Michi-
gan batters, and during Satur-
day's second game, she threw 60
pitches in the first inning alone.
"(Endicott) was throwing a
lot of pitches, which bodes well
for us," Hutchins said after Fri-
day's 10-2 win. "I like that we
made her throw a lot. We did our
best when we had our patient
hitting."
Lane wasn't the only Wol-
verine who made Ohio State's
pitchers pay with patience at

the pla
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"Eve
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to wait
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Thet
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te. In the first inning of evident this weekend through
ay's second game, five its patience to wait for the right
an players drew walks. pitch to hit. Each player record-
tt was rattled, and the ed at least one hit over the three-
ines capitalized. game series, and seven of the 10
i the bases loaded, junior batters knocked one of Michi-
op Amy Knapp doubled, gan's season-high 16 hits into
in three runs and giving play in Saturday's game.
an a 4-0 lead after one "We have good hitters, one
through nine, so that's some-
Wolverines knocked in thing any pitcher's going to have
ore runs on five hits in to face when they're competing
cond game and forced against us," said senior third
tt to throw 153 pitches. baseman Stephanie Kirkpatrick.
uggled with her release, "We're all good hitters.
ng 61 balls and issuing six "The bottom of the order
wasn't always the bottom of the
order before they came here,
it's just (that) Michigan's a good
W di* u eprogram and you've got to fill
S 1 our the spats."
st when we While the Buckeye hurl-
ers were flustered in the circle,
our patient Michigan's pitchers
pattence and pise.
hitting" With the Wolverines up 4-0
in the third game of the series,
freshman lefty Haylie Wag-
ner hit two straight batters and
igh Endicott may not walked one, only to give up a
ven the Michigan batters grand slam to Ohio State's Eve-
ches they'd like to have lyn Carrillo to tie the game at
he Wolverines were able four in the first inning.
the count and force her But Wagner maintained her
w hitter-friendly pitches composure to complete the
the count. game, giving up just one more
ryone realizes there's run.
it swinging at bad pitch- Wagner wasn't worried about
d sophomore left fielder the blown lead and neither were
Sappingfield. "You need her teammates.
for your pitch and drive "In practice, our coaches
can definitely tell when always have us do a drill that
eing patient and just hit- 'We're down by three, we're
As we're waiting for. We down by five,' "Kirkpatrick said.
-plus hits a game when "(We do)thattogetustorelaxup
hat." at-bat and not panic, and it really
theme of "one-pitch soft- showed with our team when we
tat the team lives by was get down. Nobody stresses."


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