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February 15, 2019 - Image 7

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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.

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