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Thursday, May 17, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

Defense critical 
in success for ‘M’

With one out and a runner on sec-
ond in the 10th inning Sunday after-
noon, junior center fielder Jonathan 
Engelmann gathered a flyball on one 
hop off the wall and fired a perfect 
throw into relay man Jack Blomgren 
who then delivered a strike to cut 
down the potential go-ahead run at 
the plate.
Blomgren exhibited elite range 
at shortstop on the next ball in play, 
sliding to his right to keep a ball in 
the infield and prevent the runner 
scoring from second.
An inning later, Michigan had yet 
another defense-fueled win.
Defense, as much as anything, 
has been the driving factor in the 
Wolverines’ miraculous turnaround 
that has seen them go 28-5 since a 
4-11 start. In its 16 losses, Michigan 
has committed 2.3 errors per game, 
compared to 1.1 in wins.
“We’ve 
always 
talked 
about 
building a program off pitching and 
defense,” said Wolverines coach 
Erik Bakich. “That’s always been our 
calling card.”
This weekend, the gap between 
winning and losing defense was 
clearer than ever. On Friday, four 
errors — all in the Michigan infield 
— led to seven unearned runs and a 
lopsided 10-3 defeat.
“With (sophomore left-hander) 
Tommy (Henry)’s five-spot in the 
second, we had a double play ball and 
we didn’t even get an out,” Bakich 
said. “We dropped it and if we turn 
a double play there, maybe Tommy’s 
whole entire outing is different.
“I think it was a simple lack of 
execution and we just need to be bet-
ter tomorrow.”
They were— but only slightly, 
with three errors including two 
committed by the starting pitcher, 
freshman left-hander Ben Dragani, 
as they fell 10-4.
Sunday was an entirely different 
story, however, as web gem defense 
throughout the game helped the 
Wolverines jump out to a 4-2 lead.
Sophomore right fielder Christian 
Bullock saved extra bases in the sec-
ond with a leaping grab and made 
a sliding catch on a sinking liner in 
the sixth. In the seventh, junior sec-
ond baseman Ako Thomas made a 
spinning play to his left and fielded 

an awkward chopper to make two 
tough outs. Blomgren started the 
ninth with a highlight reel bare-
handed throw across the diamond.
“Pitching and defense were the 
critical factors today,” Bakich said. 
“Defense especially.”
But for all of the Wolverines’ 
defensive excellence through eight 
innings, their flaws shone through 
in a nearly catastrophic ninth, in 
which Illinois plated two runs to 
send the game to extra innings. The 
game-tying play came via a trio of 
defensive mistakes, continuing an 
all-too-familiar 
commonality 
in 
Michigan’s runs allowed.
A wild pitch with runners on first 
and second moved the tying run into 
scoring position. Later during that 
at-bat, junior left-hander William 
Tribucher looked to have induced 
a game-ending groundout to first 
but failed to cover the base, allow-
ing a run to score from third. The 
damage could have ended there, 
but freshman first baseman Jesse 
Franklin did not see left fielder 
Doran Turchin charging home from 
second until the scoreboard at Ray 
Fisher Stadium read 4-4.
“After playing defense so well the 
entire game, we had some miscues 
there in the ninth,” Bakich said. 
“Not covering first, mental mistake, 
allowing a guy to score from second 
on an infield hit.
“You can’t expect to beat very 
good teams and make those mis-
takes, especially late, so it cost us.”
The Wolverines have gone just 
2-4 in their two biggest series of Big 
Ten play— series losses to Illinois 
and Iowa. In those four losses they 
have committed 10 errors, leading to 
the multiple, avoidable losses.
Next weekend’s matchup against 
Purdue in West Lafayette, though, 
provides Michigan an opportunity 
for redemption. The third-place 
Boilermakers pose a formidable test, 
one the Wolverines likely need to ace 
to have a chance at their first Big Ten 
title in a decade.
“There’s no two ways around it. 
The defense we played today is the 
defense we’re gonna need to play if 
we’re gonna be a championship or a 
postseason team,” Bakich said.
“Because the defense we played 
the first two days is not gonna be 
conducive to playing deep into 
June.”

A Crisis of Confidence

BASEBALL

MADISON — It was a long trek 
back to the bus.
The Michigan softball team 
was tired and defeated, and it was 
hard to blame the players. After 
all, it was 1 AM — a result of hours 
of rain delays that pushed the 
Wolverines’ game 
back until after 10 
PM —and every-
thing 
had 
gone 
wrong. 
Having 
swept the season 
series — including 
a run-rule victory 
in East Lansing — 
top-seed 
Michi-
gan was heavily 
favored over No. 
8 seed Michigan 
State in the Big Ten Tournament 
quarterfinals. But instead, it lost 
7-0 in a game even more one-sid-
ed than the score indicates.
And though the Wolverines’ 
season isn’t over, the loss felt 
foreboding. After all, an early 
conference 
tournament 
exit 
never bodes well for a team’s 
NCAA Tournament prospects.
Michigan 
coach 
Carol 
Hutchins stood outside, giving 
an interview.
“I’m sorry you came all the way 
out here to see that,” she said.
Those words said it all.
Behind her, the players filed 
onto the bus. Their faces were 
streaked with water — from the 
rain or from tears, it was impos-
sible to tell. They didn’t talk to 
each other. They were alone with 

their thoughts, and all that was 
left to do was load their suitcas-
es, hop on the bus and wonder, 
“What happened?”
The truth was, everything 
happened. It was a bad game at 
an inopportune time, yes. But 
more than that, it was a deterio-
ration of confidence that failed 
the Wolverines — the very con-
fidence that made 
them the team to 
beat in the first 
place.
It started with 
freshman 
left-
hander 
Meghan 
Beaubien. 
Ear-
lier in the season, 
when nothing else 
was working, she 
put Michigan on 
her back and kept 
the Wolverines in games they had 
no business being in. More than 
that, her tenacity never wavered 
— earning her the nickname 
“Beau-bot.” It didn’t matter how 
big the jam, she could get out of it.
Until Friday.
Even 
before 
the 
Spartans 
struck first — on a two-run sin-
gle by Lea Foerster — Beaubien 
pitched tentatively. She nibbled 
the zone, and Michigan State 
wouldn’t bite. And after the 
Spartans got on the board, it all 
spiraled downward. When she 
got into another jam in the top 
of the fifth, the “Beau-bot” was 
nowhere to be seen. Instead, she 
allowed two runs to score before 
Hutchins took mercy and pulled 
her with the bases loaded and 
still no one out.

It wasn’t just Beaubien. All 
pitchers have off-days, and this 
team is built to pick her up when 
she needed it. But at the plate 
things weren’t any better. The 
lineup at its best is a three-head-
ed monster: contact at the top, 
power in the middle and speed at 
the bottom. 
Against 
Michigan 
State, 
though, the Wolverines struck 
out 10 times. They had just three 
hits, all singles. The more dire 
the situation grew, the more 
Michigan pressed at the plate. 
The grinding at-bats from earlier 
in the season were gone. Instead, 
with two strikes came a sense of 
resignation.
“We talk a lot about trust (but) 
you’ve gotta really believe it,” 
Hutchins said. “And we have not 
shown that we do.”
In their finest moments, the 
Wolverines are full of confidence 
and swagger, always laughing 
and joking and cheering.
On Friday, they were quiet.
Michigan always expected a 
Big Ten Tournament champion-
ship. During the regular season, 
the Wolverines never doubted 
that they were capable.
But the postseason is a whole 
different battle, and Michigan’s 
confidence evaporated when it 
was most vital.
And as the Wolverines retreat-
ed to the bus after the game, the 
only thing left to do was pick up 
the pieces.
Gerson can be reached at 
amgerson@umich.edu or on Twit-
ter @cyan_sunshine.

FILE PHOTO / DAILY
The Michigan softball team fell to Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament and lost an asset along the way - its confdence

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

It was a bad 
game at an 
inopportune 
time

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer