8A — Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

From afar: Bastien’s success a family affair

By MATTHEW KIPNIS

Daily Sports Writer

Not once did Gary Bastien ask 

his son to follow in his footsteps.

Gary didn’t hang up decathlon 

trophies or jerseys from his days 
at the U.S. Olympic trials around 
the house. At no point did he brag 
about stories from the glory days. 
And he certainly never pushed 
his son, Steven, to be an athlete, 
run track or compete in the same 
event he did.

It just happened that way.
Steven, a junior at Michigan, 

didn’t start running to chase 
his father’s records, and he was 
always reminded that it wasn’t 
something he had to do. He did 
it because it was something he 
loved to do.

“He loves the sport in a 

different way than I do,” Gary 
said. “He is able to really have 
a perspective where this is fun 
for him, where I used to wrap 
my whole identity into my 
performance.”

Despite two career paths that 

feature almost identical skillsets, 
personal records and techniques, 
it has been the younger Bastien’s 
ability to love what he does and 
stay positive that has separated 
him from his father and the rest 
of the pack.

* * *

It was an ordinary day in 

Saline, Michigan when Gary 
Bastien realized that his son could 
be a star athlete. He was washing 
dishes as the neighborhood kids 
were playing on the backyard 
trampoline trying to dunk a Nerf 
ball into a hoop.

As he looked out the window, 

he could see the kids competing, 
trying to nail the perfect dunk. 
Soon, Gary looked up to see a 
five-year-old Steven fly into the 
air, do a front flip and dunk the 
ball with ease. As the other kids 
were jumping four feet away 
from the hoop, according to 
the elder Bastien, Steven was 

jumping from 14 feet.

“I remember thinking, ‘I don’t 

think I could have done that in 
my prime,’ and he was five,” Gary 
said. “It gets your attention as 
someone who was an athlete like 
I was.”

But Steven was just messing 

around with his friends. As 
always, he was just having fun.

* * *

When it came to track, Gary 

was hesitant to push Steven in 
the beginning. After the elder 
Bastien graduated from Eastern 
Michigan, he moved to Auburn, 
Alabama and saw fathers who 
came to every practice and stood 
behind their sons’ shoulders, 
telling them what to do. He didn’t 
want to become a helicopter 
father who forced his son to do 
what he did.

“I always told him, ‘You don’t 

have to do this,’ ” Gary said. “ 
‘Just because I did it doesn’t 
mean you have to match me or 
try to chase that. Do what you 
want to do.’ He just had a lot of 
natural inclination to want to do 
this stuff.”

Steven had a variety of sports to 

choose from — he played pickup 
basketball 
in 
the 
neighbors’ 

driveways and baseball with his 
uncle, a Michigan State graduate 
who played with former World 
Series hero Kirk Gibson. But he 
chose the same path and sport as 
his father. He even competed in 
the same event — the heptathlon.

“I definitely followed in his 

footsteps, but it wasn’t that I 
needed to do what Dad did,” 
Bastien said. “It just happened.”

As Steven approached middle 

school, he joined the Ann Arbor 
track club. Like his days playing 
in the backyard, it was mostly 
recreational. Most days, the team 
played capture the flag on the 
inside of the track, which would 
be its running workout for the 
day.

Even in high school, it was 

still just about the fun. As a 

freshman, Steven was small 
for his age — standing around 
5-foot-1, weighing 95 pounds — 
and his father had to warn him 
that there was a chance he might 
not grow any more. That didn’t 
deter Steven, as he maintained 
the belief that he could catch up 
to the competition.

“My dad always told me, ‘You 

will get faster one day. That’s 
what happened to me and both 
your uncles,’ ” Steven said. “I 
just believed it. I always told my 
friends that were faster than me, 
‘I am going to be just as fast as 
you,’ and they didn’t believe me. 
But it ended up happening.”

Eventually Steven, like his 

uncles and father, blossomed into 
an elite athlete and came into 
his own. As soon as he started 
to hit his stride, he had to adjust 
to a new high school coach — his 
father accepted a job at Saline 
High School after working as 
a part-time coach at Eastern 
Michigan.

“Had I been coaching at 

Eastern, 
I 
wouldn’t 
have 

experienced that with him,” 
Gary Bastien said. “That was just 
a great time to be able to coach 
your son.”

Added his son: “Sometimes 

it was frustrating, because he 
would tell me I wasn’t doing 
something right. I would butt 
heads with my dad sometimes, 
but 
overall 
it 
was 
a 
cool 

experience.”

With his father’s help, Steven 

was able to win Mr. Track and 
Field for the state of Michigan 
and set personal records in 
nearly every event.

* * *

With college looming, Steven 

decided he wanted to get away 
from his hometown for the first 
time. For the first two years of 
his collegiate career, he attended 
Samford University in Alabama. 
Under coach Rod Tiffin, he 
improved his long jump, but his 
body quickly wore out.

“In that conference, I was 

doing so much,” Steven said. 
“My last outdoor season there, 
I went into the meet banged up 
from the rest of the season, but I 
did 14 events in two days. It was 
probably too much for my body to 
do all that.”

Unlike when he was younger, 

Steven wasn’t able to handle the 
sheer quantity of events. The 
fun he previously experienced 

couldn’t surpass the exhaustion. 
He 
decided 
he 
wanted 
to 

specialize more and focus on 
what he did best.

And in the back of his mind, 

Michigan 
had 
always 
been 

calling. Having grown up just 
outside Ann Arbor, that was 
where he wanted to be.

When 
former 
Wolverines 

runner Garrick Roemer called 
Steven to convince him to 
transfer, he was brought back 
to the days of playing in the 
backyard in Saline, where he and 
Roemer were childhood friends. 
Once Steven mentioned it to his 
father and they looked into it, a 
transfer made sense because of 
Michigan coach Jerry Clayton’s 
pedigree.

Steven envisioned the days of 

backyard basketball and Saline 
track and the fun days that lay 
ahead, but when Steven finally 
arrived on campus, his friend 
was no longer here. As Steven 
was taking his finals at the end 
of last year, Roemer passed away. 
Still, Clayton convinced him to 
stay.

“He is one of the best coaches 

in the world,” Gary said. “I know 
that because I threw against him 
when I coached at Eastern, but 

what Steven and I didn’t know 
is that he is not just a throwing 
coach. 
Steven 
will 
call 
me 

constantly and say, ‘You know 
what Coach Clayton told me 
about the high jump?’ and I will 
hang up the phone and I start 
walking through what he said, 
going, ‘You know, that makes 
sense, I didn’t know that.’ ”

And as helpful as Clayton’s 

wisdom has been on Steven’s 
running, he has been able to use 
it to cope with Roemer’s death as 
well.

“In order to be a decathlete, 

it’s just a different personality 
in order to be successful, and he 
seems to have that,” Clayton said. 
“You have to have that ability 
that when you do one event, and 
if things don’t go well you have to 
forget it and go to the next event, 
and he has that capacity.”

* * *

Since coming to Michigan, 

even despite the tremendous grief 
of dealing with a friend’s death, 
Bastien has competed like he did 
when he was a kid — carefree. 
Clayton has allowed him to focus 
on being a decathlete through 
more individual treatment and 
day-to-day instruction.

After a disappointing run at the 

Big Ten Indoor Championships 
this winter, Bastien came into 
the NCAA Championships with 
a different mindset. Before the 
race, he was nervous, but this 
time he decided to go in with the 
mentality to have fun, put it all on 
the line and take a few risks.

It paid off, as Bastien set the 

program record for most points 
in a heptathlon twice and became 
Michigan’s first All-American in 
the event.

With 
Bastien 
comfortably 

under Clayton’s wing, the father 
who never wanted to push his son 
can finally take a step back. Gary 
Bastien watched his son become 
an All-American the same way he 
saw him dunk that basketball all 
those years ago — from afar.

Wolverines fall to MSU in Detroit

By ISAIAH ZEAVIN-MOSS

Daily Sports Writer

DETROIT — The Michigan 

baseball team was unable to 
continue its streak of success on 
Tuesday night, falling to Michi-
gan State, 4-2, in a close contest at 
Comerica Park.

The Wol-

verines (6-6 
Big 
Ten, 

21-15 over-
all) had won nine of their previ-
ous 11 games entering Tuesday, 
which presented Michigan with 
an opportunity to continue its 
rise in the Big Ten standings and 
to keep the season’s momentum 
alive.

On the mound for the Wol-

verines was junior left-hander 
Evan Hill, who had pitched just 
5.1 innings all season. He was 
looking to use Tuesday night’s 
game as another step on the road 
back to reclaiming his role in the 
weekend rotation, where he was 

regularly featured last season.

But Hill was rusty. Through his 

five innings of work, Hill allowed 
seven hits and three earned runs 
while striking out two.

“You can’t make mistakes to 

good hitters,” Hill said. “When 
you do, they make you pay. But, 
in general, I think my stuff is 
close to being where it was last 
year.”

Michigan coach Erik Bakich, 

though, did not think Hill’s per-
formance was the reason for his 
team’s defeat. Instead, he praised 
the junior pitcher for his off-the-
field contributions.

“I thought he pitched well 

enough for us to win,” Bakich 
said. “And it’s great to have him 
back, not only because he’s a great 
pitcher, but because of his leader-
ship, experience and physical tal-
ent. It’s a big lift for our team.”

In the fourth inning, Michigan 

State (4-5, 19-15) broke open the 
scoring, as shortstop Ryan Rich-
ardson hit a two-out RBI single.

But in just the next frame, the 

Wolverines 
responded. 
After 

senior catcher Kendall Patrick 
was hit by a pitch and junior sec-
ond baseman Jacob Cronenworth 
singled to right, the Wolverines 
were set up to do damage. Senior 
centerfielder 
Jackson 
Glines 

bunted both runners over, which 
brought up junior third baseman 
Travis Maezes.

Maezes, who is still not fully 

healthy — a strained oblique 
kept him out until April 1 — did 
not disappoint. He knocked a 
two-run single to right field, and 
Michigan led, 2-1.

The rally came to an abrupt 

end, though, when Maezes was 
thrown out at home trying to tag 
up on a flyout by junior left fielder 
Cody Bruder for the second out of 
the inning. The Wolverines did 
not score for the rest of the game.

That ended up being a crucial 

turning point in a game where 
scoring opportunities were hard 
to come by. Michigan State did 
not let Michigan forget it.

“I was taking a chance, I want-

ed to be aggressive,” Maezes said. 
“I tagged up; it didn’t work out. 
They made a good catch, a good 
throw, a good tag. I was looking 
to take advantage of an opportu-
nity. If he catches it, a two-out hit 
is a lot to ask.”

Added Bakich: “We had a guy 

with speed at third — you try to 
press the situation a little bit. The 
catcher made a nice pick on the 

short hop, and he made a nice tag. 
If that situation comes up again, 
we’re going to do the same thing, 
because that’s an opportunity to 
score.”

In the bottom of the fifth, the 

Spartans recaptured the lead. 
After getting a strike out with 
runners on second and third, Hill 
was one out away from escaping 
the jam. But first baseman Ryan 
Krill lined a double to right field 
that cleared the bases, and Michi-
gan State was up, 3-2.

In the seventh inning, Maezes 

came up to the plate with runners 
on first and third and only one 
out, and the Wolverines looked 
poised to strike back. But Maezes 
grounded into an inning-ending 
double play.

“We stranded too many run-

ners on base tonight,” Bakich 
said. “But sometimes it’s just luck. 
You can hit the hardest ball of 
your life and somebody catches it, 
or you can get jammed and it falls 
in for a hit.”

Freshman right-hander Bryan 

Pall came in to pitch in the eighth 
inning. He surrendered a leadoff 
ground-rule double to third base-
man Mark Weist, who advanced 
to third on a sacrifice fly. Weist 
scored on a wild pitch, giving 
Michigan State a 4-2 lead.

In the ninth inning, the Wol-

verines went down in order.

After stranding nine runners 

on base, it was a game of missed 
opportunities for Michigan.

MICHIGAN
MSU 

2
3

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Evan Hill allowed seven hits and three earned runs in five innings pitched.

Comerica a field 
of dreams for ‘M’

By DANNY VARGOVICK

Daily Sports Writer

DETROIT — For a day, it was 

a field of dreams.

The MLB Opening Day logo 

on the grass was slightly faded, 
and the ivy on the fountain 
beyond the centerfield fence 
was still brown from the 
winter, but Comerica Park was 
a fantastic setting for a weekday 
game between in-state rivals 
Michigan 
and Michigan 
State.

Both 

teams 
have 

a 
number 

of 
players 

who 
hail 

from Detroit 
suburbs and 
grew 
up 

rooting 
for 

the Tigers. It 
was an opportunity for these 
players to play on the same 
field Miguel Cabrera and David 
Price took for Opening Day 
eight days earlier. It was a night 
to remember for these college 
players who, statistically, are 
unlikely to ever take the field 
for an MLB Opening Day 
themselves.

The game was scheduled at 

a neutral site because, for the 
second straight year, the two 
teams weren’t scheduled to 
play each other in conference 
play. Both head coaches said 
that it was a priority to play 
their in-state rivals in the 
non-conference 
season, 
but 

they struggled to agree on a 
location. 

Comerica Park made sense 

as a compromise for the single-
game showdown.

For 
the 
underclassman 

Wolverines, it was their first 
college game at a major league 
park and first college game 
against the Spartans.

Some of the older players 

on the team have had a little 
more 
experience 
in 
major 

league parks. Two years ago, 

the team played Northwestern 
at Wrigley Field, home of the 
Chicago Cubs; Seton Hall at Citi 
Field, home of the New York 
Mets; and multiple teams in the 
Big Ten Tournament at Target 
Field, home of the Minnesota 
Twins.

Comerica is one of the bigger 

venues in the major leagues, 
and it is substantially larger 
than the Wilpon Complex in 
Ann Arbor, providing different 

dimensions for 
hitters to deal 
with.

The fence at 

Wilpon is 312 
feet down the 
left field line, 
320 feet down 
the right field 
line and 395 
feet to center. 
Comerica 
is 

345 feet to left, 

330 feet to right and 420 feet to 
center.

Centerfield at Comerica is 

notorious for swallowing all 
but the longest Miguel Cabrera 
bombs to center and right-
center.

“That’s the goal — to hit 

line drives,” said junior third 
baseman Travis Maezes. “We 
as a team today hit too many fly 
balls. Growing up here, you see 
that it’s not an offensive park, so 
those are routine fly balls that 
everyone can catch.”

Junior left-hander Evan Hill 

also said that he tried to pitch 
to contact with the spacious 
outfield behind him.

The seats weren’t filled like 

they were for Opening Day 
last week, but the game still 
drew a substantial number of 
fans from both sides. It offered 
fans from the Detroit area an 
easier opportunity to reach the 
game than if it had been in East 
Lansing or Ann Arbor.

“It’s a dream for all of these 

guys to play at this level on a 
daily basis, and you get a taste 
of it,” said Michigan State coach 
Jake Boss.

BASEBALL

“It’s a dream for 
all these guys to 
play at this level 
on a daily basis.”

AMANDA ALLEN/Daily

Steven Bastien became Michigan’s first All-American in the heptathlon in this year’s NCAA Championships.

