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Thursday, May 14, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS
Baseball thumps
Eastern by 15
By ZACH SHAW
Managing Sports Editor
No one in the stands Tuesday
evening would’ve guessed that
Eastern Michigan had beaten the
Michigan baseball team eight of
its last nine tries. Few would have
guessed that the same Wolverines
lost to the same
Eagles less than
a month ago.
On
a
cold,
windy
night,
Michigan (14-10
Big Ten, 32-21
overall)
hast-
ily
unseated
its
Washtenaw
County
rival,
pouring
on
17 runs in the
first four innings to cruise past the
Eagles (19-33).
With the 17-2 win and a 19-1 win
over Northwestern on Sunday, the
Wolverines have perfected their
blowout look.
“We took advantage of the free
passes that we got,” said Michigan
coach Erik Bakich. “With our offense,
if you get that many free passes, that
many walks, hit-by-pitches, errors,
you’re going to score. I didn’t think
we had an unbelievable day offen-
sively, but I thought what we strive
for, which is quality at-bats, we had
a lot of.
“Whether they were given to us
or earned, it’s still stringing together
quality at-bats together, and that was
a positive tonight.”
In total, Michigan hitters reached
base via 14 walks, 11 hits, four errors
and two hit-by-pitches. Sophomore
infielder Carmen Benedetti led the
way for the Wolverines, going 4-for-4
with three runs and
three RBI. Benedetti
now has 63 RBI, the
most by a Big Ten
player since 2010
and good for third in
the nation.
On the other side
of the ball, Michigan
used seven pitchers,
who combined to
allow just five hits,
eight strikeouts and
zero earned runs. With No. 13 Okla-
homa State coming to town on Thurs-
day, the committee — comprised
mostly of lesser-used bullpen arms
— gave some of the regular pitchers
much-needed rest.
“We had kind of scripted it out,
that that’s how we wanted the day
to go,” Bakich said. “We were hoping
that we would have a lead that was
expanded that we could do that. Get-
ting all of those guys some innings
pitched keeps everybody fresh for
Oklahoma State.
“It was good to get everybody
and inning or two, and everybody
Wolverines to begin shootout
with No. 13 Cowboys Thursday
By BEN FIDELMAN
Daily Sports Writer
Over its last two games, the
Michigan baseball team scored
an average of 2.25 runs per
inning, blowing out Northwest-
ern in a rubber game, 19-1, and
rolling over cross-town foe East-
ern Michigan, 17-2.
However, those two opponents
combine to have just three more
wins than the Wolverines (14-10
Big Ten, 32-21 overall) on the sea-
son. No. 13 Oklahoma State will
travel to Ann Arbor this week-
end to provide a tougher test.
The series pits the Big Ten’s top
offense and the Big 12’s leading
pitching staff against each other,
with high stakes for both sides.
As it stands, Michigan looks in
from the outside on the field of 64
teams that comprise the NCAA
Tournament. Sitting at 83 in the
Rating Percentage Index stand-
ings doesn’t look good for the
Wolverines, who enter their final
regular-season series. RPI takes
into account both win percent-
age and strength of schedule, so
a series win for Michigan over
a highly-ranked (15th in RPI)
opponent could help a late push
toward the tournament.
“We know we haven’t done
anything yet,” said Michigan
coach Erik Bakich. “We have a
challenge with a ranked Oklaho-
ma State team coming in, but we
just want to be playing our best
at the end of the year because of
the momentum that can create to
allow us to extend our season as
long as we can.
“The only way we’re going to
do that is to play well, train hard
and execute well. You want to be
playing your best baseball when it
means the most at the end of the
year.”
Michigan also has a chance
to qualify with an automatic bid
by winning the Big Ten Tourna-
ment, which begins in Minne-
apolis next Wednesday.
The Cowboys (14-8 Big 12,
32-16 overall) are a lock to make
the NCAA tournament, and at
this point are playing to improve
their seed, secure the opportu-
nity to host a Regional and keep
momentum rolling through to
the postseason.
Much of Oklahoma State’s
success this season has come
from its conference-best pitch-
ing staff. Carrying a combined
2.90 earned-run average, the
Cowboys are projected to cause
problems from the mound for
the Wolverines from the first to
ninth innings.
Pitchers
Michael
Freeman
and Remey Reed highlight the
staff, holding 1.16 and 0.92 ERAs,
respectively. Freeman anchors
the rotation, and Reed works pri-
marily from the bullpen.
On the weekend of May 1,
Michigan faced No. 16 Iowa and
its 2.84 ERA — similar to Okla-
homa State’s. Though the Wol-
verines lost two of three games
that weekend, they scorched the
Hawkeyes for an average of six
runs per game. Breaking through
with that offensive success will
prove to be key this weekend if
Michigan moves to pull the upset.
This will be just the sec-
ond series the Wolverines have
played against a ranked opponent
this season, but the lack of expe-
rience against top-flight teams
isn’t shaking the team’s confi-
dence. Sticking to the approach is
something the coaching staff has
preached all year, and there’s no
sense in deviating from that now.
“The mentality has really
been the same since September,
which is to just get better every
day,” Bakich said. “That’s all we
talk about, and there’s no secret.
Everyone has goals and everyone
wants to win championships, but
those things happen because of a
relentless attack on each day to
get better every day, and that’s
kind of how we approach it. Keep
pushing the program forward,
keep getting each individual play-
er a little better, and the whole
team will get better.”
The public test for that men-
tality will come Thursday eve-
ning, as Michigan and Oklahoma
State kick things off at Ray Fisher
Stadium. If the Wolverines want
to prove to outsiders that they
belong in the NCAA tournament,
there’s no time like the present.
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
The Michigan baseball team has outscored its opponents, 36-3 in its last two games
“We took
advantage of the
free passes that
we got.”
Good job. Don’t think too
much, just keep doing what you’re
doing.’ ”
But
Dries-
enga does much
more than supply
moral support for
Michigan. She’s
intimate with the
craft of pitching
as well as softball
in general, and as
such is a valuable resource for her
teammates during in-game sce-
narios.
When assistant coach Jen-
nifer Brundage is relaying sig-
nals and calling pitches during
games, Driesenga lends a valu-
able set of eyes to her pitching
comrades. She’s on guard for
lapses in fundamental mechan-
ics and stays
wary
of
potential tells
that
might
warn
oppo-
nents of what
pitch Wagner
or Betsa are
readying
to
deliver.
“I think I’ve definitely got-
ten closer with them over the
course of the year,” Driesenga
said. “I’ve been close with Hay-
lie (Wagner) because we’re in
the same class, and last year I
was close with Megan (Betsa)
too, but I think our relationships
have just developed because I
can watch them.”
Dedicated to her desire to
contribute and to see the Wol-
verines reach success, Dries-
enga has maintained a critical
role within the pitching staff
and developed a deepened bond
with the other two hurlers.
“If they’re struggling with
certain things, they ask me to
watch them warm up or watch
them pitch a little bit,” Dries-
enga said. “I think I’ve been
able to help with them in that
way and still just help them be
confident.”
DRIESENGA
From Page 9
“I think I’ve
been able to
help them.”