4B — Monday, April 16, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

 BUILDING CONTEMPORARIES: 
ART AND ECONOMIES 
 IN DETROIT

A Panel Discussion

Dive into a conversation about what current 

initiatives and leaders are contributing to 

the artistic ecosystem in Detroit today. 

Reception to follow.

Established through the generosity of Dr. Herbert Sloan, the annual 

Doris Sloan Memorial Program honors Doris Sloan, a long-time 

UMMA docent and the Sloan’s shared passion for art.

Lead support for Exercising the Eye: The Gertrude Kasle Collection 

is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, 

Michigan Medicine, and the University of Michigan CEW Frances 

and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund.

This program is co-sponsored by the Penny W. Stamps Speaker 

Series and the U-M Institute for the Humanities.

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 6:30 P.M. U-M MUSEUM OF ART

In conjunction with Exercising the Eye: The Gertrude Kasle Collection

Michigan sweeps doubleheader

Sometimes, a sweep is nice 

and easy.

Other times, the wins on the 

record conceal the less-than-
glamorous means it took to get 
there.

The latter was the case for 

the No. 17 Michigan softball 
team (10-1 Big Ten, 35-7 overall) 
on Friday when it swept a 
doubleheader against Rutgers 
(2-7, 17-21) with scores of 11-1 
and 9-2. Despite the lopsided 
numbers on the scoreboard, 
both games at times seemed as 
if they could slip away from the 
Wolverines.

It was evident from the start 

of the first game that freshman 
left-hander Meghan Beaubien 
didn’t have her best stuff. She 
allowed a double and a single 
in the first inning to put the 
Scarlet Knights on the board. 
Michigan was in an unfamiliar 
position: playing from behind.

“It’s kind of like getting in a 

fight,” said senior right-hander 
Tera Blanco. “You get punched 
first, well, what are you gonna 
do? You’re obviously gonna 
punch back. (So) that was kind 
of our mentality.”

The 
Wolverines 
didn’t 

take long to punch back, as 
sophomore 
third 
baseman 

Madison Uden hit a grand slam 
in the bottom of the frame to 
put Michigan up, 4-1.

From there, it was mostly 

smooth 
sailing. 
Beaubien 

settled in and the Wolverines 
kept tacking on runs. A two-
RBI double from senior first 
baseman Aidan Falk in the third 
and RBI singles from freshman 
shortstop 
Natalia 
Rodriguez 

and junior center fielder Natalie 
Peters extended the lead to 8-1 
when Blanco stepped up to the 
plate.

The 
first 
three 
pitches 

missed, but Michigan coach 
Carol Hutchins gave Blanco — 
who had already walked three 
times — the green light to 
swing. She did, and launched 
the ball out of the stadium for a 
three-run home run to end the 
game with the score 11-1.

“I told her before she got 

to bat, ‘Hey, if they put one in 
there, just hit it to the moon,’ 
” Falk said. “She hit it past the 
moon.”

The beginning of the second 

game was reminiscent of the 
first. Blanco didn’t have her 
best stuff. She got out of the 
inning with no damage done, 
but consistently fell behind in 
counts. The Wolverines got an 
early 3-0 advantage on a two-
run home run by Falk and a RBI 
single from Canfield, but the 
lead felt uncomfortable.

In the fourth, a double and a 

single cut Michigan’s lead to 3-1, 
and, while Blanco scored on a 
single from Uden in the bottom 
of the frame, she found herself 
in more trouble in the fifth.

A double, a walk and a 

single once again shaved the 
Wolverines’ margin to two. 
Then Blanco allowed another 
single to put runners on first 
and second with two outs and 
Rutgers’ best hitter, Rebecca 
Hall, coming to the plate. 
Hutchins opted to intentionally 
walk Hall instead of having her 
face the struggling Blanco.

“(We) were debating whether 

we were gonna walk her and 
then put in Meghan, whether 
we would change pitchers,” 
Hutchins said. “ … She’s their 
best player. She’s hitting .400, 

her stats are huge.

“ … We left her in because 

Tera has to be able to pitch 
herself 
out 
of 
jams, 
and 

sometimes we’ve taken her out, 
but tonight her offense was on 
and we’ve gotta be able to trust 
that her offense can make up 
anything that happens.”

Hutchins was right. After 

running a full count, Blanco 
came back to strike out the final 
batter swinging and minimize 
the damage. And in the bottom 
of the inning, her two-run 
single erased any memory of her 
struggles.

Michigan would add two 

more runs in the frame on a 
bases-loaded walk and a wild 
pitch and another in the sixth 
on a solo home run off the bat of 
Falk, and by then the score was 
9-2 and what was once a tense, 
dramatic contest was suddenly 
anything but.

“You can see the intensity 

go up and down in the lineup,” 
Hutchins said. “We get ahead 
in the game, we were 3-0, I 
thought we kinda coasted for a 
couple innings. … Then we — the 
game’s getting tight, and then I 
thought our intensity tightened 
itself up.”

Maybe, for a team used to 

near-effortless wins, a little 
adversity was just what the 
doctor ordered.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Senior first baseman Tera Blanco hit a game-winning homer on Friday. 

Strong pitching ignites 
‘M’ vs. Scarlet Knights

Coming 
into 
Friday’s 

doubleheader, the Michigan 
softball team had allowed only 
one run in seven home games 
this season.

But there were points in 

both games on Friday against 
Rutgers where it appeared 
as 
though 
the 
Wolverines 

were at risk of surrendering 
multiple runs in an inning — 
a rare occurrence for a team 
that had previously outscored 
opponents 
at 
home, 
46-1. 

Clutch pitching performances, 
though, 
prevented 
multiple 

runs from crossing the plate.

In the opening frame of 

the doubleheader’s front end, 
freshman left-hander Meghan 
Beaubien found herself in a 
jam. A walk, wild pitch and 
double gave Rutgers a 1-0 lead. 
Then a single put runners on 
the corners with only one out.

Despite giving up the early 

run, Beaubien remained even-
keeled — setting down the next 
two batters on a popout and 
groundout to junior second-
baseman Faith Canfield.

“They were on Meghan, that 

was the thing,” said Michigan 
coach Carol Hutchins. “But 
you can’t panic. … Honestly, 
it’s better if they score early, so 
that your team can get going.”

After stranding two runners 

in the first inning, Beaubien did 
not allow a hitter to reach base.

In the fifth inning of the 

doubleheader’s 
nightcap, 

senior 
right-hander 
Tera 

Blanco allowed two runners 
to reach base with one out and 
gave up an RBI single, cutting 
the Wolverines’ lead to 4-2. 
Michigan opted to intentionally 
walk infielder Rebecca Hall 
— who boasts a .391 batting 
average –– to load the bases.

The Wolverines and their 

lead looked vulnerable.

After getting ahead, 1-and-

2, Blanco ran the count full 
against 
freshman 
infielder 

Myah Moy. 

“Hutch just said, ‘Do what 

you’ve been doing’, ” said 
Blanco, “and (catcher Katie 
Alexander) 
was 
just 
like, 

‘Do you,’ and that’s just me 
attacking the zone and trusting 
my stuff and trusting my 
defense.”

Blanco wound up and fired 

the pitch past a swinging batter 
for the third out of the inning.

In both games, the Michigan 

offense — seemingly energized 
by 
the 
performances 
of 

Beaubien 
and 
Blanco 
— 

responded by putting up four 
runs in the bottom half of the 
inning.

“Sometimes kids don’t seem 

to have as intense of at-bats 
when 
they’re 
not 
behind,” 

Hutchins said, “but I thought 
we responded well.”

The runs came courtesy of 

a grand slam by junior third 
baseman Madison Uden in the 
first game, and a combination 
of a bases-loaded walk, a two-
RBI single by Blanco and a wild 
pitch that scored a run in the 
second game.

Both 
instances 
gave 
the 

Wolverines comfortable leads 
and sparked the offense for 
the remainder of the contest. 
The confidence exuded by the 
pitching staff spilled over to 
the offense in both games of the 
doubleheader.

Michigan wound up taking 

both contests by scores of 11-2 
and 9-2.

“We just knew that we could 

come back with the bats,” said 
senior utility player Aidan Falk, 
“and that really didn’t scare us 
at all and we did, so that was all 
we needed.”

JORGE CAZARES
Daily Sports Writer

SOFTBALL
Rain showers can’t cool off red-hot Wolverines

Typically, baseball drama comes 

in the form of a walk-off hit, a major 
comeback or a strikeout late in a 
game. But this weekend, Michigan 
experienced 
something 
new: 

scheduling drama.

The Friday game, the first 

of a three-game series against 
Maryland (3-5 Big Ten, 16-19 
overall), saw no issues for the 
Wolverines in any way, as they 
beat down on the Terrapins in a 
10-4 win. With Saturday, though, 
new issues arose for the surging 
Wolverines (8-0, 21-11).

Even though the temperature 

was hovering around 70 degrees 
Thursday, Saturday’s combination 
of 
near-freezing 
temperatures 

and rain created unwelcoming 
playing conditions. The game was 
postponed until Sunday, setting up 
a doubleheader.

“We can’t control it so there’s 

no sense getting frustrated about 

it,” said Michigan coach Erik 
Bakich. “The weather, especially in 
Michigan, is just one of those things 
that you know that you’re gonna 
battle the elements here.”

Similar problems arose again 

on Sunday, though, and instead 
of playing the doubleheader, the 
Wolverines experienced a weather 
delay for over four hours before 
finally getting in only one weather-
shortened game. Maryland had to 
catch a flight home at 10:00 p.m. so 
the game, which ultimately began at 
5:18, was played with the stipulation 
that no new inning could begin after 
7:45 p.m.

Despite 
the 
massive 
delay, 

Michigan came out firing, as it put 
up four runs and batted through 
the lineup twice in just the first 
three innings. Ultimately a 6-3 
victory in eight innings brought the 
Wolverines’ win streak to 17. 

“Fortunately for us, we train 

outside in much worse, so when we 
have adverse conditions like today 
we can thrive in them,” Bakich said. 

“Our guys just didn’t seem phased. 
They didn’t seem phased by the 
delays, they didn’t seem phased by 
the conditions. If anything, they 
think it’s an advantage.”

Freshman 
left-hander 
Ben 

Dragani tossed six innings of 
two-run baseball, continuing his 
dominant stretch as a starter. 
Dragani, who is from Wisconsin, 
echoed his coach’s sentiments, 
adding that he is used to playing in 
poor conditions. 

“In Wisconsin, high school 

baseball isn’t (played in) the best 
weather,” Dragani said. “It’s raining, 
it’s cold, below freezing a lot. We had 
games a lot where it was snowing, 
so having those experiences really 
helped that factor like, you’ve done 
it before, it’s nothing new.”

Freshman first baseman Jesse 

Franklin also continued his recent 
success, as he went 3-for-4 with two 
doubles and a home run on Sunday 
after going 2-for-3 with a home run 
Friday.

Like Dragani, Franklin — who 

is from the state of Washington — 
played through unusual baseball 
weather during his high school 
career and was well prepared to 
play in games with conditions 
similar to Sunday.

“Today was just kinda of about 

making sure I stayed mentally 
ready to play,” Franklin said. “I’m 
kind of used to that from Seattle and 
high school ball, like all the time it’s 
raining and you don’t know if you’re 
gonna play all day.”

Bakich made sure to emphasize 

the weather did not have any impact 
on the team’s performance. Rather, 
it was waiting to play and being 
in the dark as to when the game 
would start that impacted the team. 
Michigan, though, was ready for the 
challenge and handled the situation 
well.

“We got ready, and then at game 

time at four o’clock it wasn’t ready 
and so we had to wait another hour 
and 15 minutes,” Bakich said. “So all 
of that is what the adversity was and 
I thought our guys responded well.”

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Michigan coach Erik Bakich emphasized that inclement weather didn’t affect his team’s performance at all in Michigan’s win against Maryland on Sunday.

BENNETT BRAMSON

Daily Sports Writer

