The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, February 15, 2019 — 7

‘M’ set to take on ACC opponents 
UNC, Louisville over weekend

When the No. 17 Michigan 
softball team takes the field 
this weekend, it will see a pair 
of unfamiliar foes on the other 
side of the diamond.
The 
Wolverines 
(3-2) 
will travel to Chapel Hill, 
N.C. to participate in their 
fourth straight ACC/Big Ten 
Challenge. This year, they’ll 
take on Louisville (3-2) and 
North Carolina (2-2), who they 
haven’t faced since 2014 and 
2016, respectively.
Since 
those 
meetings, 
each program has evolved. 
At Louisville, longtime head 
coach Sandy Pearsall retired 
in 2018 after an 18-year stint. 
Despite the loss of its icon, 
the program hasn’t lost a step 
under the tutelage of first-year 
head coach Holly Aprile, who 
compiled a 271-234 record in 
ten seasons as Pittsburgh’s 
head coach. History will be 
on the Wolverines’ side when 
the teams clash on Friday and 
Saturday, as they have won 18 
of the 21 all-time meetings.
Meanwhile, 
two 
softball 
coaching 
legends 
— 
Michigan’s 
Carol Hutchins 
and 
North 
Carolina’s 
Donna 
Papa 
— will put 71 
combined years 
of 
experience 
to 
the 
test 
when the Wolverines square 
off against the Tar Heels on 
Friday and Sunday. Hutchins 
has established the upper-
hand thus far and will look to 
improve upon her 9-1 all-time 
record against North Carolina. 
The Tar Heels received four 
votes in this week’s USA 
Today/NFCA 
Coaches 
Poll 

after last weekend’s impressive 
showing in Mexico, where they 
captured a 4-0 victory against 
No. 9 South Carolina at the 
Puerto Vallarta Challenge.
The Wolverines have posted 
a 9-3 record in the ACC/
Big Ten Challenge over the 
last three years — a stretch 
highlighted by last season’s 
thrilling triumph over Florida 
State, the eventual national 
champion. In that game, then-
freshman 
pitcher 
Meghan 
Beaubien’s 
two-hit 
shutout 
propelled Michigan to a 1-0 
victory. If the Wolverines are 
to see similar success against 
this season’s ACC opponents, 
Hutchins 
will 
need 
solid 
innings from freshman pitcher 
Alex Storako — who recorded 
a 2.33 earned run average 
while amassing 18 strikeouts 
over 15 innings in Tampa last 
weekend.
Because Beaubien faced the 
same pressure early in her 
freshman year, Storako has 
looked to her for guidance.
“(Beaubien) 
is 
a 
great 
mentor,” Storako said. “It’s so 
exciting to have her. She has 

such great poise and is someone 
that anyone would love to look 
up to. She’s really pointed me 
in the right direction at times 
and I love having her on the 
pitching staff with me.”
As the weekend goes on, 
Hutchins hopes to find a 
resolution 
to 
her 
lineup’s 
biggest question mark: first 

base. Last weekend, senior 
Alex Sobczak and sophomore 
Taylor Bump split the first 
base duties, recording seven 
and eight at-bats, respectively. 
Before last weekend, Sobczak 
— who started 22 of the 
Wolverines’ 
57 
games 
last 
season — had started 41 games 
at catcher and two at third 
base, but none at first base.
On the other hand, Bump’s 
natural positions are third 
base and shortstop, meaning 
she is accustomed to playing 
defense on the other side of 
the infield. But with junior 
Madison Uden and sophomore 
Natalia Rodriguez in the fold, 
the lineup already has a pair of 
standouts opposite first base. 
Though Hutchins has decided 
to give Bump a shot at the first 
base job, only her performance 
can dictate whether or not she 
secures a full-time job.
The ACC/Big Ten Challenge 
will live up to its name by 
posing just that — a challenge, 
at least for Hutchins’ first base 
candidates.
Despite 
roughly 
equal 
opportunity, 
neither 
player 
recorded more 
than 
two 
hits and each 
struck out at 
least twice. If 
Sobczak 
and 
Bump 
don’t 
make the most 
of 
the 
next 
few 
games, 
Hutchins could 
start turning to 
other 
options 
as soon as the end of the 
weekend.
“First base is a hitting 
position, we all know, but 
you’ve got to be able to take 
care of the defense,” Hutchins 
said. “We’ve got to find a place 
for our best hitters. And first of 
all, I’ve got to figure out who 
the best hitters are.”

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Sophomore left-hander Meghan Beaubien has mentored freshman Alex Storako, Michigan’s No. 2 starter.

Wolverines look to right penalties

Mel Pearson sat at the back of 
Yost Ice Arena after an October 
win again St. Lawrence, content 
with 
the 
Michigan 
hockey 
team’s victory.
But beyond that, he still had a 
goal in mind.
“We want to be the least 
(penalized) 
team 
in 
the 
country,” Pearson said. “ ... If 
we can do that, we continue to 
keep it three or under power 
plays 
a 
game, 
we’re going to be 
in good shape.”
But 
since 
Dec. 
30, 
the 
Wolverines 
have only had 
less than three 
penalties 
in 
a 
game 
once. 
Though 
that 
hasn’t 
always 
stopped 
Michigan 
from 
picking 
up 
wins, 
frustration 
penalties 
are an easy — and completely 
avoidable — way to tilt the 
balance of a game right into 
another team’s favor.
In the Wolverines’ 5-2 loss 
at Notre Dame on Tuesday, 
senior 
defenseman 
Joseph 
Cecconi 
helplessly 
watched 

a 
third-period 
shot 
from 
the blue line come to a halt 
in an empty crease, with no 
teammates there to clean it 
up. But shortly after watching 
that wasted opportunity, he got 
called for interference. Only 
a minute after that penalty 
ended, Cecconi sulked back to 
the box after hitting a Notre 
Dame player. And 36 seconds 
after Cecconi got out of the box 
for a second time, sophomore 
defenseman 
Quinn 
Hughes 
kept the seat warm with a 
slashing penalty 
of his own.
“You can get 
angry 
because 
they don’t give 
up much, and 
when they do 
give up much, 
you don’t score 
and you get a 
little 
angrier,” 
Cecconi 
said. 
“And 
it 
can 
slide out the wrong, but I felt 
like yesterday was one of the 
one times this season that it 
happened, usually we don’t 
take those.”
Frustration — and a feeling 
of unfairness — on both a micro 
and a macro-level isn’t anything 
new for the Wolverines. In 
games against Michigan State 

and 
Minnesota, 
they 
saw 
45-plus shot attempts yield to 
nothing but a loss.
And though Michigan has 
yet to replicate their 17-penalty 
weekend from Lake Superior 
State, 13 in two games against 
Minnesota recently and six 
against the Fighting Irish point 
to more than an abundance of 
necessary, commonplace fouls.
“When I mean selfish I mean 
— I don’t say that outward about 
the team, but they let their 
emotions get the best of them 
in that situation,” Pearson said. 
“When I say a selfish penalty 
I don’t mean protecting a goal 
or helping a teammate in some 
situation. It’s just a bad penalty.
“... We were playing a pretty 
good game. I think there were 
some non-calls against us on 
penalties. I think their guys 
were going down easy, we 
were playing strong, and I 
think that’s part of it. You get 
frustrated like Quinn at the end 
there. You can get slashed three 
times and they don’t call it, and 
then he says ‘OK, I’ll slash him 
back’ and they call it.”
If Michigan can tighten that 
up it may well stay alive longer 
than conventional logic might 
dictate. But if it doesn’t? It 
might find itself in a tight box 
come March. 

Different mindsets define Michigan, 
Binghamton ahead of Opening Day

Erik Bakich sees a lot of 
benefits to practicing outside 
in the wintertime. Even in 
Michigan.
“We’re trying to get as 
many 
reps 
outside 
as 
we 
possibly can,” the Michigan 
baseball 
coach 
said 
after 
another practice in 33-degree 
weather last Thursday. “So 
even on nights like tonight 
where it’s probably too cold 
to scrimmage, it’s still great 
weather to get out and do some 
team defense, get some swings, 
things like that.”
That said, the Wolverines 
will be more than happy to 
exchange Ann Arbor’s erratic, 
often-freezing 
weather 
for 
the sunny warmth of Port St. 
Lucie, Fla. when they play 
their opening series of the 
season 
against 
Binghamton 
this weekend.
Expectations are high for 
Michigan. 
The 
Wolverines 
had a promising 2018 season 
and advanced to their sixth 
straight Big Ten Conference 
tournament. On Wednesday, 
the team was selected second 
in the 2019 Big Ten Preseason 
Coaches 
Poll, 
behind 
Minnesota. 
Furthermore, 
they are the only team in the 
conference to be featured in 
every national top-25 ranking, 
coming as high as No. 17 
according to D1Baseball.com. 
This fact is by no means lost 
on the Bearcats.
“(Michigan) seems to be very 
deep in a lot of different areas,” 
said Binghamton coach Tim 
Sinicki in a phone interview. 
“And I think the country is 
recognizing that with very 
nice early season rankings for 
them. 
“We expect to see as good of 
a team as we’ve ever opened up 
with.”
Sinicki’s 
evaluation 
is 

probably 
correct. 
Michigan 
will arrive confidently in the 
Sunshine State with much of 
last 
year’s 
high-performing 
offense 
returning 
to 
the 
diamond, now with another 
year under their belts. 
“I see a group of kids who’ve 
had another birthday, who’ve 
gotten 
stronger, 
who’ve 
become more physical,” Bakich 
said. “I would like to think 
we’re capable of hitting for 
more power this year.”
This, 
paired 
with 
improvements on the mound, 
has the Wolverines poised for 
a successful opening weekend. 
But the Bearcats have made 
their own improvements in the 
offseason.
In Binghamton, Michigan 
will 
find 
a 
determined 
opponent with an appetite 
for a comeback. The Bearcats’ 
2018 season was more than 
disappointing. 
After 
back-
to-back seasons winning the 
regular 
season 
conference 
title and a No. 1 ranking in 
America East in the preseason, 
they 
posted 
a 
lackluster 
18-30-1 record and sat out the 
postseason.
“Last year we struggled 
offensively,” 
Sinicki 
said. 
“We had a great group of 
seniors who had won some 
championships in their time 

here, but for one reason or 
another we couldn’t get things 
going and we struggled to 
score runs.”
Burned by that experience, 
Binghamton 
is 
now 
approaching things with a 
different mindset.
“This year we’re hoping 
to have a bit of a different 
philosophy,” 
Sinicki 
said. 
“We’ve moved some guys and 
are looking to play a bit more 
aggressive baseball.”
Michigan 
will 
have 
to 
contend with a reinvigorated 
Bearcat defense and a deep 
pitching 
staff. 
In 
addition 
to 
reliable 
pitchers 
Nick 
Gallagher and Reid VanScoter, 
Binghamton sophomore Ben 
Anderson — who posted an 
impressive 1.60 ERA in 2018 
— will move into the starting 
rotation on Saturday.
This weekend will be the 
first-ever matchup between the 
Wolverines and the Bearcats. 
They approach their inaugural 
meeting with different states 
of mind. But with everyone 
accustomed to the bitter cold 
of the Midwest and Northeast, 
both teams will be sure to 
enjoy the Florida sunshine.
“Just like Michigan,” Sinicki 
said, “we’ve got more than our 
fair share of weather issues in 
Binghamton.” 

AIDAN WOUTAS
Daily Sports Writer

CAMERON HUNT/Daily
Michigan coach Erik Bakich will take his team to Florida this weekend.

RIAN RATNAVALE
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior defenseman Joseph Cecconi took two penalties in Michigan’s 5-2 loss at Notre Dame on Tuesday.

First of all, I’ve 
got to figure out 
who our best 
hitters are.

(Beaubien) is 
such a great 
mentor. It’s so 
exciting.

They let their 
emotions get the 
best of them in 
that situation.

