The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
March 25, 2019 — 3B

Ben Mason’s viability through versatility

Steve 
George 
paused 
long 
enough to make it clear he rejected 
the very premise of the question.
George 
coached 
now-
Michigan sophomore Ben Mason 
at Newtown High School. He 
granted Mason free reign to 
traverse the field at just about 
every position from wide receiver 
to running back, linebacker to 
defensive line. You name it, Mason 
did it. He watched Mason set the 
Connecticut state record for pick-
sixes.
So, 
asked 
last 
November 
whether perhaps Mason would 
have thrived at linebacker in a 
different era — in a bygone time 
where 
downhill, 
run-stopping 
linebackers were in vogue — 
George made his feelings known. 
Time period be damned.
“I mean, I don’t even know 
in a different era,” George said. 
“I think this era would be no 
different.”
At the time, Mason was in the 
midst of a breakout campaign 
at fullback, and the idea that 
a different position might suit 
him better seemed outlandish. 
The 
sophomore 
had 
tallied 
six touchdowns in just five 
weeks. He was emerging as 
a reliable staple of an offense 
with 
otherwise 
maddening 
inconsistency. 
His 
persona 
defined by brute physicality was 
increasingly endearing him to 
fans, who regularly greeted his 
presence on the field with hymns 
of excitement. In his own way, 
Mason was emerging as a star.
Fast forward four months and 
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 
is talking about Mason moving 
around positions, not as any sort 
of demotion, but rather quite the 
opposite. Harbaugh said last week 
he wants to get Mason on the field 
for 60 to 70 plays per game, rather 
than the roughly 20 to 25 he played 
last season. To do so, he’ll be 
operating all over the field rather 
than primarily at fullback. In his 

answer, Harbaugh listed running 
back, 
fullback, 
3-technique, 
linebacker, tight end and multiple 
special teams positions. And even 
that seemed more like an off-
the-cuff hypothetical than any 
exhaustive list.
Spotting Mason on the field 
next year will seemingly become 
a task akin to solving a Where’s 
Waldo puzzle.
“One day he’s on defense, the 
next day he’s on offense, the next 
day he’ll go to defense and so on, 
and rotate,” Harbaugh said. “… 
It’ll be a lot on his plate, we’ll see 
how he can handle it. I think he’s 
going to handle it really well.”
Harbaugh isn’t alone in holding 
that sentiment. Ask anyone about 
Mason’s skill set and there is a 
remarkably consistent trope.
“You can put him anywhere 
and he can work his tail off,” said 
junior VIPER Khaleke Hudson. 
“Anywhere he ends up, I feel like 
he’ll be great for the team and do 
his position really well.” 
New 
defensive 
line 
coach 
Shaun Nua added that Mason is 
“mentally tough, and (has) enough 
athletic ability to help us out on 
D-Line.” 

According to Harbaugh, Mason 
“could be a little bit undersized as 
an inside 3-technique. But with 
his speed and quickness, I don’t 
know who’s going to stop him.” 
Mason 
came 
to 
Michigan 
hoping 
 
to contribute as a linebacker in 
Don Brown’s aggressive scheme. 
In a conversation with The Daily 
last November, he attempted to list 
all the positions he had previously 
played and/or hoped to play — and 
struggled to do so. 
And yet, the staff’s decision 
begs the question of whether 
plugging Mason all over the 
field truly maximizes his value, 
or simply alleviates some depth 
concerns. At 3-technique, for 
example, Michigan lost Lawrence 
Marshall, Bryan Mone and Aubrey 
Solomon, who, it should be noted, 
weigh an average of 48 pounds 
more than Mason. At linebacker, 
the Wolverines lost Devin Bush, 
and are looking to a relatively 
inexperienced group to fill the 
massive void.
All 
the 
while, 
there’s 
uncertainty as to how actively new 
offensive coordinator Josh Gattis 
will deploy a fullback relative to 
Mason’s prior two seasons on 

the team. Harbaugh voluntarily 
hinted the fullback position will 
de-emphasized — “used in short 
yardage and goal line situations 
predominantly” — as Gattis’ “Pro 
Spread” offense begins to take 
shape. Trying to shoehorn two-
back sets into a spread offense 
creates a square-peg, round-hole 
predicament.
Perhaps trying to theorize 
specifically how Mason will fit into 
the equation next season belies the 
point Harbaugh is making. When 
Harbaugh first called Mason 
after the spring of 2016 to ask 
what he thought about a move to 
fullback, Mason’s response was 
unequivocal.
“I said that I would do anything 
for the team and that I was excited 
to do it,” Mason recalled. “… I 
wanted to come in and make an 
impact no matter how I could do it 
— and I was going to find a way no 
matter what to come in and make 
an impact.”
That, above all else, is what 
defines him.
And as everything else changes 
around 
Ben 
Mason’s 
unique 
Michigan career, it appears that 
never will.

EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan fullback Ben Mason has shown his value to the Wolverines with the multiple positions he can play.

MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor

Wolverines complete 
sweep of Cornhuskers

What used to be Michigan’s 
kryptonite turned into its friend 
Sunday.
Senior 
outfielder 
Natalie 
Peters stepped up to bat with 
two outs and the bases loaded 
during the bottom of the second 
inning. But rather than leaving 
runners stranded on base like 
the Wolverines often do, Peters 
pounded a bases-clearing double 
to left field and drove in the 
first three runs that kickstarted 
Michigan’s 12-0 onslaught of the 
Nebraska Cornhuskers.
After a four-run second inning, 
the Wolverines showcased their 
power in the third. 
Senior 
designated 
hitter 
Mackenzie Nemitz led off the 
inning with a solo home run as 
Michigan 
celebrated 
“Kenzie 
Nemitz Day” at Alumni Field. 
“I was rounding third and 
I was like, ‘Please don’t wake 
up,’ because I thought it was a 
dream,” Nemitz said about the 
home run. “As I was rounding 
third and running into my team, 
I was like ‘This is real.’”
Right after her was junior 
third baseman Madison Uden 
who drove another home run 
to center field, her first of the 
year after going without a hit in 
Saturday’s game. 
But the Wolverines didn’t 
stop there. Senior outfielder 
Haley Hoogenraad made it three 
consecutive solo home runs for 
Michigan when she drove her 
first of the season as well down 
the left field line, putting the 
Wolverines up 7-0 after three 
innings.
“In each of the games (this 
series), it took us a while to get 
our timing,” said Michigan coach 
Carol Hutchins. “When we found 
our process, especially today, I 
felt that we had a lot of better 
at-bats and we connected.

“I say it every time. Hitting 
is contagious and if you get a 
few, then people feel looser and 
more confident… Our kids were 
definitely loose and having fun 
today.”
Michigan continued to step on 
the gas pedal during the bottom 
of the fourth inning, determined 
to finish the game on the five-
inning mercy rule.
Loading 
the 
bases 
with 
runners throughout the inning, 
Michigan found stability from 
the middle of its lineup as 
Nemitz, Uden, and Hoogenraad 
each had at least one run batted 
in, extending the lead up to 11.
Hutchins then decided to 
unleash the rest of her weapons, 
giving playing time to many of the 
bench players including junior 
catcher Abby Skvarce who added 
another RBI to her campaign. 
In the meantime, sophomore 
left-hander Meghan Beaubien 
continued her dominance of 
the Cornhuskers, pitching a 
perfect game going into the final 
inning. However, with two outs 
remaining, Beaubien gave up a 
double to Lindsey Walljasper, 
the other starting pitcher today. 
Beaubien 
still 
finished 
with 
seven strikeouts and no walks, 
completing the sweep of the 
Cornhuskers.
“I mean, (Beaubien) keeps 
us in the game,” Nemitz said. 
“We just have to produce for her 
so that’s what we did, and she 
owned it out there.”
Added Beaubien: “It was just a 
lot of fun. I think our dugout was 
having a lot of fun and we were 
hitting the ball really well and 
that kind of energy is contagious.”
With a seven-game winning 
streak and a perfect start to 
the young Big Ten season, 
the Wolverines seem to have 
found some momentum and 
quite possibly its identity, both 
offensively and defensively.

Wolverines’ lack of consistency proves costly

Over the course of Michigan’s 
young baseball season, junior 
left-hander Tommy Henry has 
established himself as the ace of 
the Wolverines’ rotation. He went 
undefeated over his first five starts, 
allowing just two runs to cross the 
plate over those 35 innings, both to 
No. 1 UCLA. He still came out of the 
day with a win, as the Wolverines 
went on to defeat the Bruins, 7-5.
Thursday, 
however, 
was 
a 
different story. Despite not allowing 
a single earned run, Henry took his 
first loss decision as the Wolverines 
fell to No. 19 Texas Tech, 11-2, in 
the first contest of a mistake-laden 
three-game series for Michigan 
this weekend.
Against some of their toughest 
competition of the season so far, 
the 23rd-ranked Wolverines could 
not find a rhythm, as the Red 
Raiders took all three games of 
the series. Though a 16-6 win over 
Stetson on Saturday night was a 
bright spot on the weekend, Texas 
Tech overpowered the Wolverines 
across the board in every contest 
this weekend.

“Texas Tech is just better than 
we are, and they outplayed us all 
weekend long,” Michigan coach 
Erik Bakich said. “They were better 
than us in all the phases of the game 
– offensively, defensively, on the 
mound and in the bullpen. They’re 
an elite program, and they’re the 
best team and the most complete 
team not only that we’ve seen this 
season, but one of the best teams 
I’ve seen in a long, long time.”
The beginning of Thursday’s 
game 
was 
a 
pitcher’s 
duel 
between Henry and Red Raiders 
right-hander Micah Dallas. The 
Wolverines put a run on the board 
in the top of the fourth inning, but 
Texas Tech answered by breaking 
the game open with six runs in the 
bottom of the fifth inning. They 
added a run in both the sixth and 
seventh innings and tacked on 
three more in the eighth en route to 
a comfortable victory.
Friday was more of the same. 
The Red Raiders were on the board 
first with a run in the first inning, 
but Michigan answered with runs 
in the fourth and fifth innings to 
jump out to a one-run lead. But 
fielding woes for the Wolverines 
helped Texas Tech to a five-run 

sixth inning. The Red Raiders went 
on to add three more in the seventh, 
and though the Wolverines were 
able to score a run in the eighth 
inning to bring the score to 10-3, 
they could not manage a comeback.
Michigan showed some fight in 
their first game on Saturday, the 
conclusion of the Texas Tech series. 
Though the Red Raiders were 
again the first to put a run on the 
board, the Wolverines answered 
with a four-run third inning to take 
the lead. The Red Raiders kept the 
game close, though, scoring two 
runs of their own in the bottom of 
the third. They later tied it, tacking 
on another run in the fourth. Both 
teams added a run in the fifth 
inning. But Texas Tech grabbed the 
lead with two runs in the seventh 
inning. And when they added 
another in the eighth off freshman 
right-hander Willie Weiss to bring 
the score to 8-5, Michigan could 
not come up with an answer.
“We couldn’t hold them down 
in the bullpen,” Bakich said. “They 
sped the game up on us defensively. 
They ran out one mid-to-upper-
nineties pitcher after another. And 
we weren’t able to handle it as well 
as we would’ve liked to. They were 

just better. We can’t make any 
excuses for that.”
The Wolverines flipped the 
script in Saturday’s second game, 
when they beat Stetson, 16-6. 
Every Michigan starter had at 
least one hit, including one home 
run from sophomore outfielder 
Jesse Franklin and two from 
junior outfielder Jordan Brewer. 
Michigan’s offense showed its 
explosive potential in the game – 
they had two four-run innings and 
a three-run inning. Still, though, 
its lack of offensive consistency 
coupled 
with 
defensive 
woes 
against 
an 
extremely-capable 
Red Raider offense led to a 
disappointing Texas swing for the 
Wolverines. 
“Growth is a big part of who 
we are as a program,” Bakich 
said. “I haven’t lost a single ounce 
of confidence in our team, and 
in what kind of team that we’re 
going to have this year. We’re on 
the right track. They’re ahead of 
us right now, but we’re getting 
there. I’m glad that we had this 
type of weekend now instead of in 
a regional where our season would 
be over. This was a very beneficial 
trip for us.”

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

‘M’ earns sixth-straight 
Big Ten Championship

The 
Michigan 
women’s 
gymnastics team has dominated the 
Big Ten in women’s gymnastics this 
year, going 9-0 against conference 
opponents. On Saturday, it was more 
of the same. 
The Wolverines capped off a 
successful year of conference play 
with a strong performance at the Big 
Ten Championships at Rec Hall in 
State College. They came away with 
two gymnasts tied for the all-around 
award as well as the program’s sixth 
consecutive Big Ten trophy.
“It’s awesome,” said Michigan 
coach Bev Plocki. “There’s been a lot 
going on and this team has refused 
to let anything get in the way of their 
goals and they’ve overcome a lot.”
The two Michigan gymnasts 
tied for the all-around award were 
freshman Natalie Wojcik and senior 
Olivia Karas. They each scored a 
total 39.600, and they also shared 
the award with Minnesota’s Lexy 
Ramler.
Karas 
and 
Wojcik’s 
scores, 
combined with the rest of the team’s 
performances, gave the Wolverines 
their total score of 197.400, nearly 
a full point ahead of second place 
Illinois.
Michigan started the meet on 
the balance beam. Though it’s one of 
the more difficult events to get high 
scores, the Wolverines led the meet 
with a combined score of 49.300 at 
the end of the first session.
Wojcik and Karas tied for the 
high score, each earning a 9.900. 
They were followed by sophomore 
Lauren 
Farley 
with 
a 
9.875, 
freshman Maddie Mariani with a 
9.825, as well as juniors Lexi Funk 
and Maddy Osman, who both had 
scores of 9.800. The team had a bye 
for the next event and took a break 
while other teams began with their 
respective events.
Soon enough, the Wolverines 
were back in action on the floor 
exercise.
On floor, Wojcik had the high 
score for the team with an impressive 
9.950. She was followed by Karas 
with a 9.925 and senior Emma 

McLean with a 9.900. McLean and 
Karas are the sole seniors on the 
squad, and there was no better way 
to end their Big Ten careers than 
with a championship.
“I am speechless,” McLean said. 
“I am so proud of my teammates and 
the battles we’ve overcome, and we 
stuck together through all of it. We 
really just gave it everything we had 
from the fall to now and no matter 
what we kept pounding.”
Michigan was rounded out in 
scoring by freshmen Abby Brenner 
and Abby Heiskell, with scores 
of 9.850 and 9.825, respectively. 
Brenner and Heiskell, along with 
Wojcik and Mariani, were integral 
to the team throughout the season 
and have high expectations for the 
coming years.
The team was on vault next, 
where Wojcik had earned a perfect 
score of 10 earlier in February. There 
was no perfect score Saturday, but 
the Wolverines still had the highest 
vault scores of the meet. McLean 
had the high score of the event with 
a 9.900.
Wojcik and Karas each had a 
9.875. Brenner earned herself a 
9.825 and they were rounded out 
by Heiskell and sophomore Anne 
Maxim, each with a score of 9.800.
The final event of the meet for 
Michigan was the uneven bars. 
Brenner and Karas had the high 
scores of 9.900. Mariani and Wojcik 
each had a score of 9.875, and 
Maxim and Heiskell both earned 
a 9.825. With the conclusion of the 
uneven bars, the scores were added 
and the Wolverines were crowned 
champions.
The Big Ten Championship isn’t 
the end for Michigan, though.
“I think we can build on our 
momentum 
(into 
the 
NCAA 
championship) we’ve been creating 
all season,” said McLean. “We’re 
still climbing uphill and we haven’t 
reached our best yet. That’s what 
we’re looking for and hopefully, 
we put it together at the right time. 
I know we will. I know there’s 
exciting things waiting for us.”

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
The Michigan baseball team struggled to find consistency in its trip to Texas, finishing 1-3 in games against No. 19 Texas Tech and Stetson.

WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS

JAMES HILL
Daily Sports Writer

Read the full story online at 
MichiganDaily.com

SOFTBALL

AKUL VIJAYVARGIYA
Daily Sports Writer

