The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, March 20, 2019 — 7A

For ‘M,’ second bid means progress

The year was 2006.
In the midst of her fourth 
season as head coach of the St. 
John’s women’s basketball team, 
Kim Barnes Arico reached her 
first NCAA Tournament. She was 
thrilled just to be there.
The team headed to State 
College, Pa., for the first weekend 
of the tournament. Connecticut 
and its coach, Geno Auriemma, 
were there, too. At that point, 
Auriemma 
already 
had 
five 
championships under his belt. He 
would be named to the Basketball 
Hall of Fame later that year.
Though the two teams never 
faced each other that postseason, 
the coaches still crossed paths 
while in the city.
“I said to him, ‘You know, I’m so 
happy to be here,’ ” Barnes Arico 
told Inside Michigan Basketball 
Radio Show. “And he goes, ‘The 
easiest part is getting there. The 
hard part is staying there.’ ”
Back then, Barnes Arico didn’t 
fixate too much on Auriemma’s 
comments — she simply enjoyed 
the weekend and appreciated the 
work it took to get there. After 
all, Barnes Arico’s achievement 

marked a successful turnaround. 
The team hadn’t been to the 
tournament since 1988, and the 
season prior to her arrival, the Red 
Storm finished with an abysmal 
3-24 record, losing all of their 
conference games.
But now in her seventh season 
at the helm of the Michigan 
women’s basketball team (21-11 
overall, 11-7 Big Ten), Barnes Arico 
can contextualize Auriemma’s 
sentiment. 
On 
Monday, 
the 
Wolverines got a tournament bid 
for the second straight year — but 
it hasn’t always been that way.
“Here I am 10, 12 years later, 
15 years later, saying, ‘Oh my 
goodness. To stay there is really, 
really incredible,’ ” Barnes Arico 
said. “For our kids to be able to 
do what they’ve done the last 
few years is just a credit to them 
and what they’ve meant to our 
program and what they’ve brought 
to our program.”
This 
realization 
comes 
by 
looking at the program’s history. 
The team still holds a below 
.500 record of 605-698, and this 
season marks just the eighth time 
the Wolverines have made the 
tournament. They have yet to 
make it out of the second round.
Barnes 
Arico 
knows 
the 

difficulty in taking a team to the 
tournament year after year. She 
brought Michigan to the big stage 
in her first season as head coach, 
then missed out the following four 
times. That fourth season, the 
Wolverines finished third in the 
Big Ten and had 22 wins going into 
the Selection Show, but still didn’t 
make it.
Thus, receiving a bid for the 
second straight season is quite 
significant for the program as a 
whole. There’s still a ways left to 
go, but it shows valuable progress.
And 
Barnes 
Arico 
makes 
sure her team doesn’t take it for 
granted — that they recognize the 
team’s roots.
“Yeah, they’re kind of getting 
spoiled,” 
Barnes 
Arico 
said 
jokingly. “But we talk to them a 
lot about the past. It’s important 
to realize where our program was 
and where our program is now 
and where our program wants 
to be. And I think as coaches, we 
emphasize that a lot and we talk 
about that a lot.
“ … The players and the coaches 
that came before, they know really 
what it took to get to where we 
are now. And step-by-step, brick-
by-brick to build this, and to build 
really a program and not a team.”

Wolverines defeat Western, 12-6

In 
the 
Michigan 
baseball 
team’s second midweek game of 
the season on Tuesday, it hoped 
to avoid the same pitching follies 
against Western Michigan that it 
had in the first.
Initially, it wasn’t obvious if it 
could.
Sophomore right-hander Blake 
Beers had his second start of the 
season — in his first, he cruised 
through until the third inning 
before he began to struggle. A 
feeling of déjà vu spread through 
the stadium as he did so again.
After making a great play to 
snag a ground ball for the first out, 
Beers proceeded to walk a batter, 
allow a double and an RBI single 
before he hit Bronco Blake Dunn 
in the head to load the bases in his 
last act. 
Freshman left-hander Walker 
Cleveland 
came 
in, 
limiting 
Western Michigan to just two 
more runs after a single and a walk.
Despite the follies of the third 
inning, Michigan (14-4) trumped 
Western Michigan (6-13) 12-5, 
behind an explosive offense.
The 
Wolverines’ 
offensive 
onslaught began in the bottom of 
the first inning. Three walks by 
Broncos pitcher Jack Szott loaded 

the bases, bringing an early visit 
to the mound by manager Billy 
Gernon to instill confidence in the 
pitcher.
Szott got his control back for 
senior infielder Blake Nelson, 
working his way back to a 2-2 
count before inducing a ground 
ball to third base, only to watch the 
ball bounce over his third baseman 
Jimmy Roche’s glove. Two runs 
scored on the error and Michigan 
had an early lead.
The lead was snuffed out when 
Beers let in three runs in the third.
The Wolverines, though, would 
not stay down. In the bottom of 
the third, they recaptured the lead 
with a well-timed hit-and-run 
that put both runners in a perfect 
position to go up 4-3 on Nelson’s 
single to left field.
From there on out, it was all 
Michigan. 
Cleveland 
clamped 
down 
on 
Western 
Michigan, 
ending the day with his first 
collegiate win and only one hit 
allowed.
“He’s only thrown a third of an 
inning all year and he came in and 
settled the game down for us,” said 
Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “The 
game was very much in question 
and I thought he did a great job of 
coming in and putting up zeros to 
let our offense separate and put the 
game in the bag for us.”

Added Cleveland: “The team 
played really well today. They had 
my back the whole way, the batters 
put in a ton of quality bats together 
and swing to put us out ahead.”
Despite his humility, Cleveland 
was all smiles. As soon as the 
interview was over, he quickly 
shuffled back into the locker room 
to text his parents the good news.
The offense had a field day — in 
the fourth inning, junior infielder 
Jordan Brewer launched a two-
run home run over the tall brick 
wall in left field to extend the lead 
to 6-3.
A 45-minute bottom of the sixth 
inning put the game firmly out of 
hand after the Wolverines scored 
five runs and go up 12-3, allowing 
Bakich to start putting in reserves.
“Playing time is one of those 
things that’s you’re fair but not 
equal,” Bakich said. “It’s great 
when you can get a wide margin 
in a game like that where everyone 
can get an opportunity or everyone 
can get an opportunity to get some 
reps. And those are precious, those 
are valuable, because not every 
game is like that.”
With a dominant offensive 
display and competent pitching, 
the last game of the five-game 
home stand ended up being no 
different than the games that 
preceded it.

Meghan Beaubien stymies Broncos in 3-0 win

For the second time in the last 
week, Faith Canfield used her 
leadoff at-bat to jump on a pitch 
over the heart of the plate. And 
for the second time in the last 
week, the senior second baseman 
clubbed the ball over the Alumni 
Field fence.
The home run was all the No. 
25 Michigan softball team needed 
to defeat in-state foe Western 
Michigan (7-12), 3-0.
Just two days removed from 
recording a pair of wins and a 
save in last weekend’s sweep 
of Kent State, sophomore left-
hander Meghan Beaubien picked 
up right where she left off. The 
reigning Big Ten Pitcher of the 
Year was locked in from the start, 
retiring the first two Broncos 
with emphatic punchouts and 
surrendering only one hit in the 
first four innings.
When the Wolverines (16-10) 
tacked on a pair of fifth-inning 
insurance runs, Beaubien didn’t 
even need them. She kept the 
Broncos off the scoreboard all 
afternoon, tallying a season-
high 13 strikeouts along the way. 
Beaubien finished with a four-hit 
shutout in her ninth complete 
game 
of 
the 
season.
“(Beaubien) 
is 
throwing with a 
clear mind,” said 
Michigan 
coach 
Carol 
Hutchins. 
“She’s 
throwing 
with 
conviction. 
Her speed is up, 
her changeup is 
on. It’s tough to 
be 
clear-minded 
when you’re a young kid, so part 
of it is a learning curve.”
When 
junior 
right 
fielder 
Haley Hoogenraad stepped up to 
the plate with the bases loaded 
and two outs, she had the chance 
to give Michigan a sizable early 
cushion. Hoogenraad dug into 
the batter’s box, let her bat rest on 
her shoulder and crouched into a 
formidable batting stance.
Unlike Canfield, who worked 
a full count before unleashing a 
big cut, Hoogenraad took a swing 

at the first offering she saw from 
Broncos’ starting pitcher Reily 
Galloway. The barrel of her bat 
wound up in front of the offspeed 
pitch, resulting in a soft ground 
ball down the third base line.
Despite putting four runners 
on base in their first crack at 
Galloway, the Wolverines only 
mustered one run from the threat. 
For returning players, the team’s 
failure to pull away brought back 
memories 
of 
last 
season’s 
shortcomings 
against Western 
Michigan.
Last 
May, 
the 
Broncos 
played 
spoiler 
when they made 
a 
late-season 
trip 
to 
Ann 
Arbor. 
Despite 
having 15 fewer 
victories than the Wolverines, 
Western 
Michigan 
amassed 
13 hits en route to an 8-2 win 
— its first against Michigan 
since 2012. The loss put a dent 
in the Wolverines’ postseason 
momentum.
This season, sophomore left-
hander Meghan Beaubien made 
sure it wouldn’t happen again.
Since her ERA reached a 
career-high 3.95 in a Feb. 22 loss 
to Stanford, Beaubien’s mark has 
gradually 
trended 
downward 

towards her 1.16 clip from a season 
ago. After Tuesday’s dominant 
showing, Beaubien will enter this 
weekend’s 
conference-opening 
slate with an ERA of 1.99.
“I think from the start of the 
year to now, my mental process 
has gotten a lot better,” Beaubien 
said. “Lately, I feel like it’s 
been really good, like this past 
weekend and today. For the most 
part, I have to forget last year 
and 
understand 
that 
it 
doesn’t 
matter and this is 
a completely new 
year. I just need 
to work hard and 
do my best and be 
what I can be this 
year to the best of 
my ability.”
After 
Canfield’s home 
run, 
Michigan’s 
offense remained dormant until 
the bottom of the fifth inning, 
when junior catcher Abby Skvarce 
made a pinch-hit appearance. 
With 
sophomore 
shortstop 
Natalia Rodriguez perched on 
second base after swiping her 
seventh bag of the season, Skvarce 
laced a ground ball under the glove 
of Western Michigan shortstop 
Brooke Wyman that trickled deep 
enough into left field for Hutchins 
to wave Rodriguez home.
The 
successful 
small-ball 

strategy allowed Michigan to pull 
away.
“It 
manufactured 
a 
run,” 
Hutchins 
said. 
“We 
weren’t 
swinging very well today, we 
were definitely not very offensive, 
so you have to find a way to 
manufacture runs. One of those 
is to steal their bases to put us in 
position. We get a pinch-hit single 
and it was a difference maker.”
Just one batter later, freshman 
left fielder Lexie 
Blair 
— 
who 
earned Big Ten 
Player 
of 
the 
Week 
honors 
last week after 
posting an .875 
batting 
average 
and eight RBI — 
poked a ground 
ball 
through 
the gap on the 
Broncos’ 
right 
side of the infield. As the ball 
made its way onto the right-field 
grass, senior center fielder Natalie 
Peters rounded third. The relay 
throw came in from Broncos’ 
outfielder Machenzie Swinehart, 
but not before Peters’ right hand 
grazed the edge of home plate 
on her slide under the catcher’s 
glove.
Though Peters’ slide put the 
game out of reach once and for all, 
it was Beaubien who kept Western 
Michigan at bay all along.

Defensive lapses costly

With a minute left in the 
first half, the Michigan men’s 
lacrosse team had spent twice as 
long down a man as No. 11 Notre 
Dame, trailed in shots taken by 
six, leaned on fifth-year senior 
Tommy Heidt’s five saves and 
won only two of the contest’s 13 
faceoffs.

It 
didn’t 
matter. 
The 
Wolverines trailed the Fighting 
Irish by only a goal. Halftime, 
and the chance to regroup 
before the deciding 30 minutes, 
beckoned Michigan like a desert 
oasis.
But it proved to be a mirage. 
Notre Dame’s lead grew twice 
and left the Wolverines with 
a halftime task three times as 
big as they expected less than a 
minute before.
The Fighting Irish’s two goals 
came from Thomas McNamara 
and John Hallenbeck, making 
the score 7-4 and continuing a 
concerning trend. Late-period, 
momentum-shifting goals have 
plagued the Wolverines so far 
this season, and they’re not 
going without notice.
“It’s something that we’re 
really 
focusing 
on,” 
said 
Michigan coach Kevin Conry. “In 
that last minute of the quarter, 
those are really, really important 
times where fundamentals are 
the most important thing. And 
we weren’t very fundamental 
on that pick, and gave the guy 
just a little extra room. But we’re 
learning.”
Michigan’s 
two 
primary 
faceoff 
men, 
sophomore 
Connor Cronin and junior Matt 
Dellacroce, have been out with 
injuries, causing a faceoff-by-
committee approach. Between 
junior defenseman Finn Goonan, 
freshman midfielder Andrew 
Russell and senior defenseman 
Nick DeCaprio, the Wolverines 
went 4-for-24 from the X against 
the Irish. The lack of competency 
at the X has made maintaining 
possession more difficult and 
contributed to the Wolverines’ 
poorly-timed lapses on defense.
It took most of the third 
quarter for Michigan to come 

roaring back to tie it. Senior 
midfielder 
Justin 
Gibbons’ 
goal with 55 seconds left in 
third quarter seemed to have 
compensated for the Wolverines’ 
defensive gaffes, and the building 
momentum was a promising sign 
headed into the game’s final 15 
minutes.
But yet again, the final minute 
betrayed 
Michigan. 
Notre 
Dame’s Griffin Westlin sprinted 
through a fatigued Wolverine 
defense to reclaim the lead with 
1.4 seconds to play.
After 
leaning 
on 
offense 
and 
goaltending 
for 
three 
resilient 
quarters, 
Michigan 
fell asleep in its own end at 
the most inopportune times. 
A combination of fresh but 
inexperienced legs on the field 
and tired, experienced ones 
made errors on defense and took 
ill-advised penalties. The fourth 
quarter proved to be the most 
lopsided, as Notre Dame scored 
three unanswered goals — two 
within the first five minutes — to 
seal the victory.
“It’s hard when they go on a 
run and you’re deficient in the 
faceoff X,” Conry said. “That’s 
been one of the things that’s 
been plaguing us as this little 
stretch here continues. … I 
thought Notre Dame had a smart 
adjustment where they started to 
suck the life a little bit out of the 
ball and use the whole shot clock 
and that got our guys tired.”
The Wolverines have the 
offensive skill and ability to 
beat highly ranked opponents, 
but 
won’t 
until 
they 
play 
good enough defense to go 
on prolonged scoring runs of 
their own. No matter how big 
of an impact it had, injuries to 
Michigan’s faceoff men aren’t 
entirely to blame. And Conry 
knows it.
“When we could ride and 
create that tempo, it doesn’t 
really matter about our faceoff 
deficiencies,” 
Conry 
said. 
“Health is something we need 
to keep working on. We need to 
get some guys back, that’s for 
sure. But overall, our attention to 
detail and our fundamentals are 
something we will consistently 
focus on.”

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

KELSEY PEASE/Daily
Sophomore left-hander Meghan Beaubien struck out 13 Broncos on Tuesday as Michigan beat Western Michigan 3-0.

(Beaubien) is 
throwing with 
a clear mind. ... 
Her speed is up.

My mental 
process has 
gotten a lot 
better.

ROHAN KUMAR
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
The Michigan women’s basketball team will play in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Senior infielder Blake Nelson drove in two runs to help Michigan to a 12-6 win over Western Michigan on Tuesday.

MEN’S LACROSSE

OWEN SWANSON
Daily Sports Writer