The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
April 1, 2019 — 3B

Four home runs lift Michigan past 
Michigan State in 16-2 blowout win

On 
Saturday, 
Michigan’s 
offense put a dent in the Ray 
Fisher Stadium fence’s self-
esteem.
The Wolverines (19-7 overall, 
2-0 Big Ten) hit four home runs 
in their 16-2 victory over in-state 
rival Michigan State (4-20, 0-5).
The air show started in 
the first inning, when junior 
outfielder 
Jordan 
Brewer 
walked up to the plate with two 
outs. On the second pitch, he 
launched a long, arcing home 
run over the left-center fence 
as two Spartans stood to watch 
it — arms helplessly grasping the 
padded wall. It was 1-0 after the 
first inning, and Michigan never 
looked back.
The 
next 
inning, 
the 
Wolverines continued to flex 
their 
muscles; 
senior 
first-
baseman Jimmy Kerr launched 
a solo shot to right field that 
took three seconds to leave the 
field. In the bottom of the third 
Michigan’s offense put a team 
effort together to score four 
runs. 
Sophomore 
outfielder 
Jesse 
Franklin 
and 
junior 
designated 
hitter 
Dominic 
Clementi worked their way to 
second and third base.
Brewer came up to the plate, 
and in his second at-bat, he 
sent a long fly ball to right-
center field for a sacrifice fly. 
Senior outfielder Miles Lewis 
followed up with a double down 
the right-field line to score the 
Wolverines’ second run of the 
inning. Waiting patiently, Lewis 
trotted into home base after 
Kerr launched his second home 
run of the game to dead center, 
easily clearing the barrier 395 
feet away to put Michigan up, 
6-0.
After their first scoreless 
inning of the night in the fourth, 
the 
Wolverines 
posted 
five 
runs to extend the lead to 11-2, 

headlined by sophomore catcher 
Joe 
Donovan’s 
high-hanging 
pop-up that somehow made it 
over the left-center field fence 
for a three-run home run.
The 
offensive 
explosion, 
though, didn’t hide Michigan’s 
pitching struggles.
Beginning in the first inning, 
junior 
right-hander 
Karl 
Kauffman flirted with danger, 
putting a base-
runner 
on 
first 
and 
second 
in 
each of the first 
two innings only 
to 
have 
good 
defensive 
plays 
get him out of 
trouble.
In the second 
inning, 
for 
example, 
he 
walked Michigan 
State’s Reese Trahey, allowed 
a hard hit single against Casey 
Mayes and a long fly out from 
Adam Proctor that surely would 
have advanced Trahey to third if 
not for Brewer’s bullet of a throw 
from just in front of the right 
field warning track to third base 
for an impressive double play.
“What should be a normal 
play that would advance the 
runner from second to third and 
create a scoring opportunity for 
them,” said Michigan coach Erik 
Bakich. “For him to show off a 
really tremendous and accurate 
arm, that was a huge, big time 
momentum play.”
The defense couldn’t save 
Kauffmann in the fourth inning, 
though. Walking two batters 
and throwing two wild pitches, 
he allowed two runs. The next 
inning, Kauffmann threw one 
more wild pitch and allowed one 
more walk — the rain affecting 
his accuracy.
Kauffmann wasn’t the only 
one thrown off by the moisture. 
Freshman 
left-hand 
reliever 
Walker Cleveland had three 
wild-pitches and two walks, 

managing to avoid letting a run 
in in the seventh inning despite 
loading the bases.
“We have never done that 
before,” 
Bakich 
said. 
“That 
many wild pitches, that many 
spiked fastballs and curveballs. 
If it becomes a problem, we’ll 
address it. Otherwise we’ll just 
leave it at that.”
Yet the offense still couldn’t 
be 
slowed 
down.
“Kerr, 
a 
senior captain 
to 
go 
5-for-
5, 
with 
two 
doubles, 
two 
home runs and 
really 
spark 
our 
offense,” 
Bakich 
said. 
“It was great to 
see our offense 
click up and down the lineup and 
on the bench.”
It seemed every bat swung 
made contact — demoralizing 
the Spartans. It wasn’t just the 
fence that felt worthless.

Wolverine offense finding its swing

Last 
year, 
the 
Michigan 
baseball team lived and died by 
its offense. 
In the first 15 games of the 
season, a stretch over which 
the Wolverines went 4-11, the 
offense averaged just 4.5 runs 
per game; in eight of those 
games, Michigan scored three 
runs or fewer. Over the next 20 
games — in which the Wolverines 
went undefeated — they almost 
doubled that, averaging 8.4 runs 
per game and scoring 168 runs 
total over that stretch. 
When the offense struggled 
with consistency over the last 
third of the season and into the 
postseason, Michigan’s success 
cooled off, too, leading the 
Wolverines to a disappointing 
early exit in the Big Ten 
Tournament.
But this season, Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich is confident in 
his team’s offense.
“We have a lot of individual 
hitters that did a very good job of 
adding some size, some strength, 
and 
some 
explosiveness 
in 

the weight room, and that has 
translated with more bat speed 
and exit velocity amongst our 
hitters,” Bakich said. “It’s a little 
bit of an older team, so I see a 
group of kids who’ve had another 
birthday, who’ve gotten stronger, 
who’ve become more physical. 
So I would like to think we’re 
capable of hitting for more power 
this year.”
Now, his team, sitting at 19-7 
and 2-0 in the Big Ten, is starting 
to show why. 
Though 
the 
Wolverines’ 
offense struggled 
with consistency 
throughout 
much 
of 
the 
first 
third 
of 
the season, they 
showed 
flashes 
of 
potential 
recently: 
a 
12-2 
win 
over 
Binghamton, 
a 
9-1 victory over the Citadel and a 
7-5 defeat of No. 1 UCLA. 
But as the team heads into Big 
Ten play, it looks like Michigan’s 
offense is coming into its own. 
It exploded for 23 runs over 

Manhattan, scored 12 against 
Western Michigan and scored 
16 runs against both Stetson and 
Michigan State. 
“We’ve had a lot of great 
offensive 
performances,” 
Bakich said. “It’s great to see the 
contributions up and down the 
lineup and off the bench.”
The 
team’s 
rivalry 
series 
against 
the 
Spartans 
this 
weekend embodies the rhythm 
this offense is starting to find. In 
Friday’s game in East Lansing, 
Michigan 
cruised 
past 
Michigan 
State 
to a 6-3 win in its 
Big Ten opener. 
The Wolverines 
got on the board 
first with two 
runs in the third 
inning and added 
one 
more 
run 
in 
the 
fourth. 
Michigan 
State 
answered with two runs of its 
own in the bottom of the fourth, 
but Michigan was unshaken, 
adding two runs in the fifth and 
another in the eighth on its way 
to a comfortable victory.
Saturday’s contest was in 
Ann Arbor, and the Wolverines 
certainly seemed to channel 
the energy of the home crowd 
despite the steady rain as the 
offense erupted for 16 runs. 
Senior infielder Jimmy Kerr led 
the team, going 5-for-5 with two 
home runs, two doubles and a 
long single to right field.
“When you get a senior 
captain go 5-for-5 with two 
doubles and two home runs like 
that — it really just sparked our 
offense,” Bakich said. 
As the Wolverines head into 
some of their tougher matchups 
of the year — next weekend’s 
home series against Minnesota 
and an away series at rival Ohio 
State the following weekend — 
the offense is beginning to settle 
in at exactly the right time. 
If it can stay consistent in this 
rhythm, Michigan may not die by 
its offense anytime soon.

In 35 years as the head coach 
of the Michigan softball team, 
Carol Hutchins has never lost to 
Rutgers. Entering the weekend, 
she had 15 victories in 15 tries 
dating back to 1983.
Over the weekend, Hutchins 
put her unblemished record on 
the line when the 23rd-ranked 
Wolverines (23-10 overall, 6-0 
Big Ten) traveled to Piscataway 
for a three-game set. Led by first-
year head coach and former SEC 
Player of the Year Kristen Butler, 
the new-look Scarlet Knights 
(16-17, 0-6) looked to tarnish 
Hutchins’ perfect mark against 
them.
No such dent was made. 
Michigan swept Rutgers on its 
own turf, outscoring the Scarlet 
Knights by a combined 18 runs 
in the process. The final scores 
of 10-2, 7-0 and 7-4 extended the 
Wolverines’ winning streak to 11 
games.
The 
journey 
to 
Rutgers 
marked Michigan’s first true 
road trip since the beginning of 
March, but the Wolverines aced 
the midseason road test, to say 
the least.
Despite playing its furthest 
conference series from Ann 
Arbor, Michigan didn’t need any 
time to settle in. The Wolverines 
plated a total of nine first-inning 
runs in the three games, giving 
sophomore left-hander Meghan 
Beaubien and freshman right-
hander Alex Storako comfortable 
cushions 
before 
they 
even 
stepped foot into the circle.
“Scoring those runs early on 
really sets the tone and really 
sets great energy for the entire 
game,” said freshman left fielder 
Lexie Blair. “We want to keep 
that energy. You never want to 
let up, and setting the tone in 
games at this level is huge. It 
really helps the energy in the 
dugout and for the team.”
While Blair reached base in all 
three of her first-inning at-bats, 
it was senior first baseman Alex 
Sobczak who stole the show. 
Batting in the cleanup spot, she 

recorded a pair of RBI singles 
and a three-run blast in her 
three first-inning at-bats.
Sobczak’s 
first-inning 
production only marked the 
beginning 
of 
a 
monstrous 
weekend. She amassed six hits 
in nine at-bats, including three 
home runs, nine RBI and five 
runs scored in the series. After 
starting the season on the bench, 
Sobczak is now batting .385 
with a team-high .708 slugging 
percentage and .535 on-base 
percentage. 
If 
the 
season 
ended 
today, 
her 
on-base 
plus 
slugging 
percentage 
(1.243) 
would 
be the highest 
the program has 
seen since 2016 
National 
Player 
of 
the 
Year 
Sierra 
Romero 
posted a 1.460 OPS in her senior 
campaign.
“I’m seeing the ball pretty 
well,” Sobczak said. “My mindset 
going into the box is ‘Try not to 
suck and hit the ball really hard,’ 
and it’s really working out. It’s 
about having the approach that 

it’s a new at-bat and really trying 
to hit it hard and be locked in. 
My hard work has been paying 
off.”
While Sobczak and the rest 
of Michigan’s offense continued 
to make good contact, Beaubien 
consistently 
stymied 
Rutgers 
in the circle. She picked up 
her 12th and 13th wins of the 
season during the series, but 
her scoreless inning streak was 
snapped at 32.1 consecutive 
frames when Scarlet Knights 
shortstop 
Jess 
Hughes 
launched a one-
out home run in 
the third inning 
of Friday’s game.
Beaubien’s 
response to the 
end of her streak? 
She brushed off 
the 
long 
ball 
by striking out 
the next batter 
before inducing a shallow pop fly 
to end the frame.
During the series, Beaubien 
pitched more than 12 of the 
19 total innings — a workload 
consistent with the rest of 2019. 
Despite the fact that Beaubien 
has hurled more than half of 

Michigan’s innings this season, 
Hutchins has no qualms about 
the ace’s longevity.
“(Beaubien) is as durable a 
pitcher as I’ve ever had on my 
staff,” Hutchins said. “Credit 
to her. She does everything you 
need to do because taking care of 
yourself is important. Whether 
it’s cold-tubbing or going to 
see the trainer, she does it all. 
She keeps herself fit — kudos to 
her because she is as durable a 
pitcher as there is in the NCAA.”
After 
leaving 
Piscataway 
with their sixth Big Ten win in 
as many tries, the Wolverines 
join No. 19 Minnesota and 
Northwestern as the last Big Ten 
teams with a perfect conference 
record through two weekends. 
Michigan — which has outscored 
opponents 96-10 during this 
11-game streak — is the hottest of 
the group.
Entering 
the 
weekend, 
Hutchins knew her team would 
have to play quality softball 
against a Rutgers team hungry to 
defeat the Wolverines. Twenty-
four runs, 34 hits and three 
wins later, the zero in Hutchins’ 
loss column against the Scarlet 
Knights remains intact.
18 tries, 18 victories.

This 
weekend, 
it 
didn’t 
matter who was on first for 
Rutgers — Lexie Blair had 
stolen second anyway.
Highlighting 
her 
killer 
weekend in Saturday’s 7-0 
victory against the Scarlet 
Knights, 
the 
freshman 
outfielder showed her speed 
in a sprint to second base and 
then third due to a throwing 
error. The run moved senior 
second 
baseman 
Faith 
Canfield to home plate in a 
play that could have kept Blair 
on first.
With 
her 
steal, 
Blair 
created the run that gave 
Michigan 
that 
lead 
early, 
and 
her 
=contributions 
to 
the 
Wolverines’ 
dominant 
series 
didn’t 
stop 
at 
that 
run. Blair led 
the 
Michigan 
offense 
all 
weekend, 
a 
common 
trend 
for 
the 
freshman.
“Scoring 
those runs early 
on in the inning 
really sets the 
tone and sets great energy for 
the entire game,” Blair said. 
“That’s a big deal.”
Blair 
emerged 
as 
an 
offensive presence early in 
the season, and that role 
hasn’t diminished as Michigan 
returned home for conference 
play. In fact, Big Ten play 
against Nebraska last weekend 
and now Rutgers has only 
solidified 
her 
leadership 
offensively: Blair leads the 
team with a batting average of 
.407 and 44 hits, trailing only 
Canfield in runs.
To start the weekend, Blair 
hit both a double and a home 
run to bring other runners 
home 
— 
the 
extra-base 
hits aside from senior first 
baseman Alex Sobczak’s blast 
to start the game. In addition 
to that figure, Blair scored two 

runs and drove in two runs in 
Saturday morning’s game and 
scored eight runs with four 
RBI on the weekend.
And her performance this 
weekend wasn’t an anomaly. 
For the past three weekends 
since the Wolverines began 
home play, Blair has anchored 
the offense with consistent 
and timely hits in almost 
every at-bat. That productivity 
has been vital for Michigan, 
having started the season 
12-10 on the road, a lower win 
percentage than in previous 
years.
“When she’s up there, you 
can always count on her. She 
doesn’t care what the count is, 
she puts a good bat on the ball 
regardless of whether there’s 
no strikes or two strikes,” 
said Michigan coach Carol 
Hutchins. 
“She’s 
a 
fearless hitter 
who’s 
not 
afraid to get 
behind, 
and 
she’s been very 
important 
to 
us.”
However, 
maintaining 
power hitting 
hasn’t 
always 
been 
as 
fluid 
for 
Blair, 
especially 
considering 
her 
inexperience at the collegiate 
level. 
While 
Blair 
started 
the season with nerves at 
the plate, her strong start to 
the season has calmed those 
nerves slightly.
“Because 
it’s 
a 
road 
game, you can get tired and 
jetlagged, but the coaches 
stayed on top of us and kept us 
in our system. We were good 
to go as if we were playing at 
home,” Blair said. “I felt great. 
I felt calm, relaxed and not 
getting too much in my head. 
Our intensity and energy level 
was good the whole weekend.”
Regardless of jitters, Lexie 
Blair delivered another big 
weekend at the plate. And that 
just might be the new normal 
for the Wolverines.

Scarlet Sweep
Led by Lexie Blair, Michigan sweeps Rutgers in Piscataway, extending undefeated mark against Scarlet Knights to 18

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

EVAN AARON/Daily
Senior first baseman Jimmy Kerr went 5-for-5 with two home runs and two doubles against the Spartans on Saturday.

It was great to 
see our offense 
click up and 
down the lineup.

We have a lot 
of individual 
hitters that did 
a very good job.

LILY FRIEDMAN
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore left-hander Megan Beaubien pitched a total of 12 of Michigan’s 19 innings played in this weekend’s series.

Scoring those 
runs early on ... 
really sets the 
tone.

(Beaubien) is 
as durable a 
pitcher as I’ve 
ever had...

