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Thursday, May 12, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

Wolverines receive awards

By ORION SANG

Summer Managing Sports Editor

The No. 2 Michigan softball 
team was well represented when 
the Big Ten Conference released 
its 2016 all-conference teams 
and announced the recipients 
of its four individual awards 
Wednesday.
Four 
Wolverines 
were 
nominated to the All-Big Ten First 
Team, four were named to the All-
Big Ten Second Team and three 
claimed an award of their own: 
senior second baseman Sierra 
Romero was named Big Ten Player 
of the Year, junior right-hander 
Megan Betsa won Big Ten Pitcher 
of the Year and coach Carol 
Hutchins was announced as the 
Big Ten Coach of the Year.
Romero, who won the award her 
freshman and sophomore years, 
has enjoyed a productive season 
both at the plate and in the field. 
She is hitting .488 this season with 
16 home runs and 71 runs batted-
in. With a .963 fielding percentage, 
Romero has commited just five 
errors while tallying 58 putouts and 
72 assists. This season, she has been 
honored as both the Big Ten Player 
of the Week and National Player of 
the Week, and is also a finalist for 
the Collegiate Player of the Year.
For Betsa, this marks the 
second consecutive year she has 
been named Big Ten Pitcher of 
the Year. The right-hander is 22-3 
with a 2.05 earned-run average, 
and she is also averaging the most 
strikeouts per seven innings in the 
nation with 11.8.

Hutchins’s 
nomination 
is 
the 16th of her storied career as 
Michigan’s head coach, and it 
comes during a season in which 
expectations were perhaps the 
highest they have ever been in Ann 
Arbor. The Wolverines returned 
most of their team from last 
season, which ended with a loss 
in Game 3 of the Women’s College 
World Series against No. 1 Florida.
But Hutchins has kept her team 
grounded all year, and even after a 
few early season losses, Michigan 
is playing like a championship 
contender. Michigan — which won 
the conference title for the ninth 
consecutive season — is currently 
on a 17-game winning streak and is 
poised to host an NCAA Regional 
as it enters the postseason.
Romero and Betsa were joined 
on the All-Big Ten First Team 
by senior center fielder Sierra 
Lawrence and senior right fielder 
Kelsey Susalla.
Lawrence, who has been named 
a finalist for Collegiate Player 
of the Year along with Romero, 
has been a steady presence atop 
the order for the Wolverines 
and boasts a batting average and 
on-base percentage both well 
above .400 alongside 10 home runs 
and 40 RBI.
Susalla’s nomination is the first 
of her career, and comes during a 
season in which she is hitting .364 
with 10 homers and 50 RBI. She 
has been a reliable hitter for the 
Wolverines in the middle of the 
lineup, having hit at both the No. 3 
and cleanup spots this season.
Meanwhile, sophomore first 

baseman Tera Blanco, sophomore 
catcher Aidan Falk, junior third 
baseman Lindsay Montemarano 
and 
fifth-year 
right-hander 
Sara Driesenga were tabbed as 
members of the second team.
Blanco, 
who 
has 
pitched 
occasionally, has had a breakout 
season at the plate, hitting .415 
with 10 home runs and 57 RBI. At 
first base, Blanco hasn’t made an 
error all year.
Falk has been steady behind the 
plate for her team after winning 
the starting job at catcher near 
the midway point of the season. 
She is hitting .321 with five home 
runs and 32 RBI.
In addition to the second team 
nomination, Montemarano was 
also named to the Big Ten All-
Defensive Team for her efforts 
manning the hot corner. In 
addition to her defense, the junior 
third baseman has also provided 
the Wolverines with some pop in 
her bat, slugging eight home runs 
among 16 extra-base hits.
After missing most of last 
season due to injury, Driesenga has 
come back strong in her final year 
to provide her team with a potent 
1-2 starting rotation. She boasts a 
gaudy 20-0 win-loss record, while 
also carrying a 2.26 ERA.
Michigan begins postseason 
play Friday at the Big Ten 
Tournament, as the Wolverines 
continue their journey back to 
Oklahoma City.
And the number of accolades 
earned Wednesday show just why 
Michigan is heavily favored to do 
so. 

‘M’ upset by CMU

Michigan comeback 
attempt falls short 
in 8-7 defeat

By ETHAN WOLFE

Summer Managing Sports Editor

After a 39-run outburst in its 
three-game sweep of Rutgers last 
weekend, the No. 19 Michigan 
baseball team looked poised to 
continue its momentum against 
Central Michigan — a bottom-
feeder in the Mid-American 
Conference.
But 
the 
Chippewas had 
other plans.
For the first 
six innings of 
Wednesday’s 
game, 
Central 
Michigan (8-10 
Mid-American 
Conference, 
16-33 
overall) 
dominated 
the 
Wolverines 
(12-5 Big Ten, 34-13), and hung 
on by a thread to secure an 8-7 
victory.
Through six frames, Central 
Michigan pitchers Dazon Cole 
and Colton Bradley combined to 
no-hit Michigan. Even with four 
walked batters and five batters 
hit-by-pitch, 
the 
Wolverines’ 
offense failed to make good 
contact at the plate until the 
seventh.
“You 
can’t 
take 
anyone 
lightly,” said Michigan coach 
Erik 
Bakich. 
“You 
have 
to 
run your fastest 
race no matter 
who 
you’re 
racing against. 
This 
was 
a 
humbling day.”
Michigan 
couldn’t 
find 
its way on the 
mound for most of the contest 
either.
In the Wolverines’ previous 
meeting March 29 — a 9-7 win 
that saw a late rally by the 
Chippewas — Central Michigan 
batters used a slew of early-
inning singles, a double and two 
wild pitches to tag Michigan 
pitchers for eight runs.
Wednesday, 
freshman 
left-
hander Will Tribucher, who 

tossed six innings of one-hit 
scoreless 
baseball 
against 
Eastern Michigan in his previous 
start, lasted just 2.1 innings and 
allowed five runs.
Down 8-1 heading into the 
seventh inning, the Wolverines 
chances at winning looked bleak.
But two walks and a single 
loaded the bases for freshman 
third baseman Jimmy Kerr, who 
was substituted into the game for 
fifth-year senior left fielder Matt 
Ramsay in the fifth. Kerr took 
advantage of the opportunity 
with a bases-clearing double to 
dig into the Chippewas’ lead, 
8-4. A sacrifice 
fly 
from 
junior catcher 
Harrison 
Wenson added 
another run for 
the Wolverines.
The following 
inning, a single 
by sophomore 
shortstop Jake 
Bivens and a 
fielder’s choice 
off the bat of Kerr scored two 
more runs to make it a one-run 
game.
“When you have runners on, 
you have to move up them up or 
do what you have to do to get 
them in,” Bakich said. “Jimmy 
was a great example of that. 
Coming off the bench to get four 
RBIs … that’s hard to do.”
In 
the 
ninth, 
Michigan 
got two runners on base, but 
three strikeouts stopped the 
Wolverines from scoring, and 
Central 
Michigan 
secured 
the 
win.
“There’s no 
moral victories 
for making it 
close,” Bakich 
said. “We had 
some 
scoring 
opportunities 
that we missed in those early 
innings, and we wouldn’t have 
been in this position if we took 
advantage of those.”
Being a non-conference game, 
the loss did not hurt Michigan’s 
chances in pursuing its first 
Big Ten title since 2008. But 
to accomplish this feat, it must 
prove that it can take care 
of 
business 
against 
weaker 
opponents.

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Junior right-hander Megan Betsa won Big Ten Pitcher of the year for the second consecutive season.

BASEBALL

“You have to run 
your fastest race 
no matter who 
you’re racing.”

“There’s no moral 
victories for 
making it close.”

