The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
March 6, 2017 — 3B
Michigan wraps Spring Break trip with 2-1 finish
After scoring 43 runs in a 5-0
start to begin its West Coast
swing, the Michigan baseball
team found less luck at the plate
in the Dodgertown Classic in
Los Angeles. Despite managing
just seven runs combined against
UCLA, Southern California and
San Diego, the Wolverines (9-3)
took two out of three games in
the tournament due to dominant
starting pitching, timely hitting
and clutch performances from
their bullpen.
Rebounding from a 1-0 loss in
the opening game against UCLA
(5-5), the Wolverines won the
next two in solid fashion, beating
USC,
4-1,
on
Saturday
and
defeating San Diego on Sunday,
3-1. Michigan’s pitchers recorded
28 strikeouts in the three games
and allowed only one earned run
on a solo home run.
Friday night’s contest against
UCLA was billed as a pitcher’s
duel, with the Wolverines sending
their standout left-hander, junior
Oliver Jaskie, to the mound
against the Bruins’ ace Griffin
Canning. The matchup lived up
to the hype. Jaskie didn’t give
up a hit until the fourth inning
and compiled a final line of six
innings, six strikeouts and three
hits allowed.
However, Canning was even
sharper than Jaskie. Coming into
the game, Canning had recorded
20 strikeouts and gone 13 innings
without allowing a run. Against
the Wolverines’ normally potent
lineup, he hurled eight more
scoreless innings and struck out
12, giving up just three hits. He
grew sharper as the game went
along, retiring the last eight
batters he faced.
The tide seemed to turn in the
top of the ninth inning, however.
With Canning having thrown 114
pitches, UCLA turned to its relief
pitching. Michigan was able to put
two runners on base via walks,
but the Bruins’ bullpen escaped a
jam by forcing a groundout with
runners on the corner.
At this point, it appeared
the
Wolverines
had
gained
most of the momentum, their
bats liberated from Canning’s
dominating spell. But as soon as
they had gained that momentum,
it slipped away. UCLA second
baseman Chase Strumpf drove
a double into deep left field off
of freshman left-hander Tommy
Henry’s first pitch of the ninth
inning. The following at-bat, left
fielder Brett Stephens laid down a
bunt back to Henry, who decided
to take the high-risk, high-
reward route and tried to get
the out at third base. But the risk
proved fatal, as Henry’s throw
sailed past Lugbauer and pinch-
runner Jake Hirabayashi came
home with the game’s only run to
give the Bruins the walk-off win.
“It was a great game that came
down to the wire,” said senior
catcher Harrison Wenson. “We
couldn’t make a play at third
base, but we have a really gritty
team and we’re going win a lot of
games in extra and late innings.”
It appeared that Michigan’s
bats would have a good chance
of rebounding against USC (7-4),
which entered the contest with
an earned-run average of 6.50,
and they wasted little time in
doing so. Senior centerfielder
Johnny Slater brought home
sophomore right fielder Jonathan
Engelmann in the second inning
with a double. The next inning,
Wenson doubled in a run and
later crossed the plate himself on
a USC throwing error.
Meanwhile,
junior
right-
hander Ryan Nutof was in control
from the beginning, striking out
the side in the first inning and
retiring the first nine batters he
faced. Making effective use of
multiple pitches and attacking all
areas of the strike zone, he went
6.1 innings, striking out eight
while giving up just three hits
and one run.
“He did a really good job with
the level of his fastball being
down, being in, being out, and
throwing
his
curveball
and
his changeup,” said Michigan
coach Erik Bakich. “I liked his
body language, his demeanor –
everything he’s bringing to the
table mentally and physically.”
USC tacked on its only run
in the fifth inning with third
baseman
Adalberto
Carrillo’s
solo shot off of Nutof. But
Michigan responded right back
an inning later when sophomore
designated hitter Nick Poirier
ripped a liner into right-center
field. Not content with simply a
double, Poirier sprinted all the
way to third base, displaying the
aggressive baserunning that has
become one of the Wolverines’
hallmarks this season. With two
outs and Poirier still at third,
sophomore second baseman Ako
Thomas flicked a single to right
field to drive in Poirier and push
the Wolverines’ lead back to
three runs.
The Trojans refused to go
down
easily,
but
Michigan’s
bullpen was up to the task.
With two outs in the seventh
inning and the bases loaded for
USC, senior right-hander Keith
Lehmann battled back from a 3-0
count to record an inning-ending
strikeout of pinch-hitter John
Thomas. An inning later, senior
right-hander Jackson Lamb took
the mound against the dangerous
Carrillo with two outs and two
men on base for the Trojans.
Lamb came through with a
strikeout to extinguish the threat
and then retired the side in the
ninth inning, sealing the victory
and earning his second save of
the season in the process.
“(Lamb) pitches with a lot of
passion and conviction,” Bakich
said. “His mindset is a good fit
for the closer role, and he likes
being in those situations. He can
pitch extended if we need him to,
or he can go into an adrenaline
situation and get one out if we
need him to. That’s just being
an older guy, having experience,
toughness and grit.”
At first, it looked like Sunday’s
tournament finale against San
Diego (6-3) in Dodger Stadium
would follow a different trend
from the previous two matchups.
Michigan struck in the bottom
of the first inning on a Wenson
single for an early 1-0 lead, and
the Toreros got multiple hits off
of junior left-hander Michael
Hendrickson in each of the first
two innings, though they were
unable to score.
After
the
second
inning,
however, Hendrickson began to
dominate, retiring 12 straight
batters at one point. But with the
bases empty and two outs in the
sixth, the Toreros began a rally,
putting two runners aboard with
a single and a walk and plating
the tying run due to a throwing
error by senior shortstop Michael
Brdar.
Just as they had against USC,
though, the Wolverines showed
their resilience in the bottom
half of the inning, spearheaded
again by Poirier, who drew a one-
out walk to set up the bottom of
the order. Engelmann and Slater
hit back-to-back singles to drive
Poirier home, and a wild pitch
allowed Engelmann to cross the
plate, giving Michigan all the
insurance it would need.
“Our guys are fighters,” Bakich
said. “We want to win every
inning – if they score one, we want
to score two, and if they score two,
we want to score three. There’s no
question we can take a punch.”
Junior
right-hander
Alec
Rennard entered the game in
the sixth inning in relief of
Hendrickson. After walking his
first batter, Rennard recorded
a strikeout to end the frame,
and wouldn’t let another hitter
reach base until the ninth inning.
By then, it was too late for the
Toreros, as Rennard finished off
the win and picked up his first
save of the season.
WOMEN’S TRACK
AND FIELD
‘M’ earns
lackluster
seventh-
place spot
With
its
seventh-place
finish
at
the
Big
Ten
Championship this weekend,
the Michigan women’s track
and field team produced a
disappointing
performance,
well
below
expectations.
Having won the tournament
last year, coach James Henry
was not pleased with his
team’s result.
“It was nowhere near what
we were looking for,” Henry
said.
The Wolverines scored just
54 points, finishing far behind
Penn State, which won the
competition with 96.5 points.
Senior
Erin
Finn
and
redshirt junior Gina Sereno,
two of the program’s most
prolific runners, spearheaded
the team’s outing of few
positives.
Finn won a pair of third-
place finishes in the 5,000-
meter run and the 3,000-meter
run, after winning both races
last season.
Sereno, on the other hand,
was able to give Michigan
a victory in the individual
category with her win in
the
3,000-meter
run,
an
improvement over her fourth-
place finish in the event last
season. It was her third Big
Ten title and her first indoors.
The redshirt junior further
added to the Wolverines point
total by setting a career-best
time in the 5,000-meter run,
placing sixth.
However, by far Michigan’s
most
encouraging
and
exciting performance at the
tournament
was
freshman
Jade Harrison’s fourth-place
result in the 400-meter run.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., native
broke two school records over
the course of the weekend,
finishing her second run with a
time of 52.84 seconds.
“I knew I was going to be
on the traveling team, but I
definitely didn’t know that I
would be doing as well as I am
doing right now (at the start of
the season),” Harrison said.
Despite the few standout
individual
performances,
the Wolverines were clearly
disappointed
with
their
seventh-place finish.
“It wasn’t Michigan track
individual, it was Michigan
women’s track team,” Henry
said.
Michigan
will
need
to
quickly evaluate and reflect
on its performance at the
Big Ten Championships and
focus on the upcoming NCAA
Championships.
Sereno
and
Finn
will
be competing in the meet
as
individuals,
and
while
Harrison failed to qualify in
the individual category, she is
expected to compete as part
of the Wolverines’ distance
medley relay team, which
qualified for nationals for the
15th consecutive year. Senior
Jamie
Morrissey,
junior
Jaimie Phelan and Sereno will
also compete as part of the
DMR team.
Henry said the team needs
to do the unexpected when it
competes. The coach praised
Harrison for being one of
Michigan’s few runners who
was able to do that during the
Big Ten Championship.
“You have to be willing to
work hard when things do
not go your way,” Henry said.
“You have to be willing to take
bad and make great from it.”
CHRISTIAN NEUBACHER
Daily Sports Writer
“It was
nowhere near
what we were
looking for.”
SOFTBALL
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
Cartwright breaks
school record, wins
title at Big Ten meet
As a team, the Michigan men’s
track and field finished seventh
out of 12 teams in the Big Ten
Indoor
Championships,
but
as individuals, the Wolverines
put up a handful of impressive
performances.
Redshirt
junior
Grant
Cartwright won the weight
throw event with a school-record
mark, and while those highlights
didn’t prevail throughout the
team, they did provide bright
spots.
“(It was) everything that I
could have ever dreamed of
happening in a competition,”
Cartwright said. “It was just an
incredible feeling. ... Since I’ve
been 5 years old and doing sports,
that was probably the favorite
moment I’ve ever had.”
Cartwright
had
started
the
competition
with
an
underwhelming
performance
in the shot put — good for 10th
place — but was
able to bounce
back with his
record-breaking
performance
the next day.
In
addition
to Cartwright’s
performance,
redshirt
sophomore Joe Ellis finished
right behind him with a second-
place
finish
in
the
weight
throw, ensuring that the two
Wolverines will compete in the
NCAA Indoor Championships
next weekend.
Ellis’ performance in the
weight throw comes a few
weeks after he set the program’s
record in the weight throw of
22.11 meters, a record which
Cartwright surpassed with his
23.219-meter throw in Ohio.
“I suspected some big things,
but
who
would
have
ever
expected (this)?” said Michigan
coach Jerry Clayton.
Cartwright
and
Ellis
will be joined in the NCAA
Championships
by
fifth-year
seniors
Steven
Bastien
and
Ned Willig, giving Michigan
its largest group of athletes
competing since 2013.
Other
solid
performances
by the Wolverines included
sophomore Taylor McLaughlin’s
sixth-place finish in both the
400-meter
and
200-meter
races, and a sixth-place mark in
the 5,000-meter race by junior
Aaron Baumgarten, who fell less
than one second short of third
place.
Despite a handful of good
individual
performances
at
the Big Ten Championship,
Michigan
was
disappointed
with its seventh-place finish.
However,
Clayton
was
encouraged by Cartwright and
Ellis and stressed a thorough
reassessment
of
the
team’s
performances as they prepare for
the outdoor Pac-
12/Big
Ten
Challenge
in
three weeks.
For now, the
Wolverines
counted
on
positive
chemistry
between
the athletes, exemplified by
Cartwright and Ellis.
“We’re
literally
brothers,”
Cartwright
said.
“We
do
everything together. Without
Joe, I don’t know where I’d be as
an athlete.”
As they turn the page and
focus on the NCAA Indoor
Championships,
Cartwright
said he’s looking forward to the
tournament despite the absence
of many of his teammates and
hopes to improve on the already-
remarkable feat he accomplished
over the weekend.
Offensive struggles plague ‘M’
Despite finishing the Judi
Garman Classic and Spring
Break
with
a
13-5
victory
Saturday
over
Long
Beach
State, Michigan coach Carol
Hutchins didn’t mince words
when describing her team’s
performance.
“Our heart is not yet beating
as one,” Hutchins said.
Her dissatisfaction centered
around an offense that remained
inconsistent
in
the
early
season. In the first four games
of the tournament, before the
blowout win against Long Beach
State, the Wolverines (12-6-1)
managed just four runs and 18
hits combined.
While
Michigan
managed
to win two of those games, the
struggles hint at a broader trend
through the first few weekends
of the season. In eight games
against ranked opponents, the
Wolverines have averaged just
1.9 runs per game, winning just
two of them.
A dropoff from last year’s
team, an offensive juggernaut
that averaged more than seven
runs per game and finished
near the top of the national
rankings
in
the
category,
seemed inevitable, especially
given the reliance on young
talent. But Hutchins believes
the struggles that plagued her
team this weekend often stem
from a mental struggle rather
than a physical one.
“We’ve got a lot of kids who
can really swing bats. We have
some kids that can swing well,
and when we’re on, we’re all
on — we’re very contagious,”
Hutchins said. “And when we’re
off, we’re all off. So in my mind
(the struggles) are from the
neck up. We need to get a little
bit tougher. We need to get feisty
and fight. We’re going to have to
fight for what we want, and to
be a good offense they’re going
to have to fight to be a good
offense.”
Michigan struggled to hit in
the tournament opener against
No. 20 Arizona State, scoring
just two runs, one off a passed
ball in the bottom of the first
inning. But that was all the
help senior right-hander Megan
Betsa needed.
She turned in one of the best
performances of her career,
notching
a
complete-game
shutout and allowing just two
hits en route to her fourth win
of the season. Her 16 strikeouts
matched a career high and
vaulted her to a tie for first in
the country in strikeouts on the
season with 94.
Perhaps most notably, Betsa,
who has focused on limiting
walks and pitch counts early
in the season,
walked only one
batter and faced
a total of just 25
hitters
in
her
seven innings.
“I
think
she
has
been
consistent
and she’s been
efficient,”
Hutchins
said.
“…We just need
her to do her
part.”
But after scoring a run on
an RBI double by sophomore
catcher Katie Alexander in the
sixth inning against Arizona
State,
the
Wolverines
went
19 innings — spanning three
different
games
—
without
scoring, and they could not
overcome the low output like
they did against the Sun Devils.
Michigan
stranded
10
runners in a 4-0 loss against No.
7 UCLA in its Thursday nightcap
and produced a season-low two
hits the next day against Baylor.
Despite a strong outing, another
Herculean effort for Betsa was
not in the cards, as she allowed
a leadoff homer in the top of
the seventh inning to break the
scoreless tie. The Bears would
tally three more runs in the
inning to win, 4-0.
The next game against Cal
State Fullerton looked to be
more of the same, as the two
teams took a 0-0 stalemate
into
the
fifth
inning.
But
with a runner on in the fifth,
sophomore
second
baseman
Faith Canfield notched her
second hit of the day — this
one a home run over the left-
field fence to end the scoring
drought at 19 innings. The
go-ahead homer went down
as the game-winner, as junior
right-hander
Tera
Blanco
would team up with Betsa for
a four-hit shutout and a much-
needed victory.
For Canfield, the home run
was her fourth on the season,
passing her season total of three
last year. And with positive
takeaways few and far between
offensively,
Canfield’s
newfound power
could prove to
be a saving grace
as
Michigan
heads
toward
conference play.
“It was nice
that I was able
to help the team
out,
because
we did need it,”
Canfield
said.
“But I think we just need to keep
pushing through it, everyone’s
going to come around when it’s
time.”
Added Hutchins: “I think
they were just relieved, like ‘Oh
good, we got a run finally.’ It
was the first run we’d scored in
about 20 innings. I think we’re
very tight — our swings are
tight, our minds are tight and
that’s why we’re not performing
to our capability.”
While
the
win,
coupled
with a 13-run outburst against
Long Beach State may ease a
few concerns, it will do little
to answer the questions about
offensive performance against
quality opponents.
And with the most difficult
part
of
the
non-conference
schedule
behind
them,
the
Wolverines may have to wait
to settle those worries until it
matters most, as they might not
play another ranked opponent
until the postseason in May.
MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Writer
“In my mind
(the struggles)
are from the
neck up.”
CHRISTIAN NEUBACHER
Daily Sports Writer
“It was just
an incredible
feeling.”
JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Writer
ELIZABETH XIONG/Daily
Ryan Nutof turned in one of Michigan’s three strong pitching outings this weekend.