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...