The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
April 8, 2019 — 3B

Watching their team down 
6-5 with two outs in the bottom 
of the seventh, the crowd started 
to clear, anticipating Michigan’s 
first loss in the Big Ten. But the 
Wolverines didn’t back down.
Facing a 3-2 count with two 
runners on base, senior MacKenzie 
Nemitz swung hard, finding a gap 
between center and right field that 
propelled the Wolverines to a 7-6 
walk-off victory over Indiana.
“It’s a great win,” said Michigan 
coach Carol Hutchins. “Hopefully 
we take confidence from it, we 
should take a lot of good things. 
But they should take our energy 
in the seventh inning that we had. 
We were all one heartbeat. Every 
kid in that dugout was on point. 
And that’s how you win big.” 
But this win was by no means 
pretty. 
On a gameday dedicated to her, 
senior first baseman Alex Sobczak 
made sure that her impact was 
felt right in the first inning. After 
an infield single by fellow senior 
Natalie Peters, Sobczak hit a high 
fly ball to center field. However, 
instead of making the catch to end 
the inning, the Hoosiers’ Taylor 
Lambert dropped the ball, giving 
an RBI double to Sobczak for the 
first run of the game. 
On the very next at-bat, Sobczak 
got help from another senior, this 
time Nemitz, who sent Sobczak 
home on a triple, giving Michigan 
an early 2-0 lead at the end of the 
first.
But after a silent second inning 
by both squads, Indiana came to 
life. After getting a runner on base 
on a perfectly executed bunt, the 
Hoosiers tied the game at two off 
a two-run homer to left field by 
Grayson Radcliffe.
Michigan, however, recovered 
with a home run of its own on the 
flip side of the third inning. And it 
was none other than the red-hot 
Sobczak who went yard. With 

freshman Lexie Blair sitting on 
second base off a two-out double, 
Sobczak drove a high-flying ball 
over the center field wall and was 
bombarded by her teammates at 
home plate as she rounded the 
bases for a second time today, 
putting the Wolverines back in the 
lead, 4-2.
In the top of the fourth, 
Hutchins, hoping to get four 
innings out of today’s starter, 
freshman 
right-hander 
Alex 
Storako, was forced to substitute 
her out for Beaubien in an attempt 
to limit Indiana’s hits. However, 
Beaubien could not find her All-
American form, giving up an RBI 
double to Katie Lacefield before 
hitting Juvia Davis and walking 
Taylor Lambert, which loaded the 
bases for Indiana with just one 
out. 
Then Radcliffe, who hit a home 
run earlier, drilled a single to 
left field. However, rather than 
scooping up the easy grounder, 
Blair took her eyes off the ball too 
early as the single rolled past her 
and turned into a bases-clearing 

triple, giving the Hoosiers a 6-4 
lead after the fourth.
And right when Beaubien, who 
threw for five strikeouts and no 
more runs the rest of the game, 
finally locked in, the Michigan 
offense could not string together 
a series of hits to spark any sort of 
comeback – until with one out in 
the seventh inning. 
Senior second baseman Faith 
Canfield took a solo shot straight 
to center field, reigniting a team 
and crowd that seemed to have 
lost all life. All of a sudden, Peters 
found herself as a tying runner 
with a shallow double down the 
left field line. 
After giving an intentional 
walk given to Sobczak, Nemitz 
made sure Michigan came out still 
standing at the top of the Big Ten.
“If 
our 
pitcher 
struggles, 
we need to come through,” 
Nemitz said. “If we struggle, our 
pitchers need to come through. 
We complement so well and the 
whole game, I had a weird inkling 
that we were going to get it done 
together. As a team.”

Like many of the No. 23 
Michigan softball team’s series, 
the Wolverines’ bats started slow 
in this weekend’s matchup against 
Indiana.
In 
Friday 
and 
Saturday’s 
contests, the Wolverines failed to 
get on the board until the third 
inning in both games, registering 
just seven runs over two days. 
But, also like many of the 
Wolverines’ games, all Michigan 
needed was a spark.
While the Wolverines came 
out on top in all three games, it 
was close each game, beating the 
Hoosiers by three runs on Friday 
and one in each of the final two. 
In each game, the offense was 
sparked by a different player: junior 
third baseman Madison Uden’s 
home run on Friday, sophomore 
shortstop Natalia Rodriguez’s bunt 
on Saturday and Natalie Peters 
single on Sunday. 
After Peters reached first in the 
first inning of the series finale, a 

fire had been lit. One batter later, 
senior first baseman Alex Sobczak 
— the third of the power trio which 
had kept Michigan afloat earlier in 
the series — kept the streak going. 
Sobczak drilled a ball deep into 
center field for a double on which 
Peters reached home from first 
base.
This section of the lineup — from 
Peters to Sobczak — accounted for 
over half of the Wolverines’ runs 
this weekend. 
Senior 
designated 
player 
Mackenzie Nemitz extended this 
hot streak with 
her first triple 
of the season, 
sending Sobczak 
home 
and 
increasing 
the 
Wolverines’ lead 
to two. 
“Early in the 
game, we’re just 
trying to be on 
base,” 
Nemitz 
said. 
“I 
see 
(Michigan coach Carol Hutchins) 
waving me around and I’m like, ‘Is 
she sure?’ I even hesitated running 
around the bag for a second. It’s 
just about going hard the whole 
game. Don’t take any play off. Don’t 
take any at-bat off. It’s a fight.”
Blair returned to the plate in 
the bottom of the third, where she 
fired off a double to center field. 
Sobczak filed a ball to the same 
spot as her earlier at-bat, the only 
difference being this one cleared 
the center field wall for a two-run 
homer. 
The Wolverines struggled to 
keep this fire lit later as the game 
progressed, going through three 
innings with only one hit — a 
problem they’d struggled with all 
weekend. 
In both Friday and Saturday’s 
games, Michigan scored all of its 
runs between the third and fourth 
innings. While they continued 
to get runners on base, the 
Wolverines failed to get another 
runner all the way around the 

diamond for the remainder of each 
game. 
When asked what accounted 
for the offensive slowdowns, some 
players cited a lack of patience at 
the plate. Hutchins thought it had 
to do with something else entirely: 
mentality. 
“I didn’t think we swung well 
all weekend until the last inning,” 
Hutchins said. “Their pitchers 
knew how to keep us off balance 
but we didn’t adjust — we never 
adjusted.”
Sobczak, known for swinging 
early, 
thought 
Michigan 
was 
more patient facing 
Indiana’s pitchers 
in Sunday’s contest, 
though 
Hutchins 
disagreed. 
“They were so 
locked-in in the 
seventh and they 
were not locked-
in in quite a few 
innings,” Hutchins 
said. “We had a lot of bad at-bats. I 
did not agree with their assessment 
of their pitch selections at all. We 
gave away a lot of at-bats. We were 
sitting on pitches — meaning we 
were hunting for a specific pitch — 
and we were still mishitting them.”
Whether it was an issue of 
patience or a mental shift, the 
Wolverines made a change in the 
final inning, regaining momentum 
in a way they hadn’t been able to 
earlier in the series.
Down by two, senior second 
baseman Faith Canfield shot a 
ball out of the park, bringing the 
Hoosiers’ lead down to one. After 
Blair popped out to center field, 
Peters hit a double. Indiana right-
hander Tara Trainer intentionally 
walked Sobczak, putting two 
runners on base with Nemitz at 
the plate. 
With a walk-off double, Nemitz 
ended the game.
“It doesn’t matter when you 
score,” Hutchins said. “As long as 
the game doesn’t run out.” 

Walk-off

Mackenzie Nemitz’s walk-off double caps weekend sweep with thrilling comeback win, moving win streak to 15 

AKUL VIJAYVARGIYA
Daily Sports Writer

LANE KIZZIAH
Daily Sports Writer

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Senior designated player Mackenzie Nemitz hit a walk-off double to lift Michigan over the Hoosiers on Sunday.

Don’t take any 
play off. Don’t 
take any at-bat 
off.

Wolverines dominate Minnesota, 8-0

With the bases loaded and an 
angry home crowd, it seemed 
like 
the 
Wolverines’ 
early 
success against Minnesota was 
about to stall. 
The mood in Ray Fisher 
Stadium had grown frustrated 
as the umpire called ball after 
ball on starting sophomore right-
hander Jeff Criswell’s pitching.
That quickly fizzled away, 
however, as a double play ended 
the fourth inning as a groundout 
from Minnesota’s Cole McDevitt 
was caught by senior Blake 
Nelson, flung to second and then 
to senior Jimmy Kerr at first to 
catch Jordan Kozicky.
This sharp fielding was on 
display throughout Michigan’s 
8-0 win in the final game of 
its weekend series against the 
Golden 
Gophers 
on 
Sunday 
afternoon. The Wolverines were 
eager to round out the series on 
a high note after hard-fought 
games Friday and Saturday that 
ended 4-6 and 5-3, respectively. 
They did that and more. The 
Wolverines’ scoring started early 
as sophomore Jesse Franklin 
fired off a home run to right 
field in the bottom of the first 
— foreshadowing a home run-
heavy day. Not to be outdone, 
Kerr launched another one to 
right field for Michigan’s first 
at-bat in the second. 
“I think we really just had the 

mindset of attacking them from 
the beginning,” Franklin said. 
“They’re a good team and after 
this weekend we wanted to get a 
series win.
“We were all ready to go. I 
just got up to bat sooner than the 
other guys.”
Clutch plays from Michigan, 
as well as reliable pitching from 
Criswell, prevented Minnesota 
from ever gaining any kind of 
foothold offensively. In the top 
of the second, Blomgren and 
Kerr combined to turn a ground 
out into an inning-ending double 
play. 
Criswell, 
meanwhile, 
excelled all day in detecting the 
Golden Gophers’ attempts to 
steal bases. 
“I thought Jeff (Criswell) 
had his best day today,” said 
Michigan coach Erik Bakich. 
“He did a really good job 
pitching us out of huge jams 
… they had plenty of scoring 
opportunities and to minimize 
those opportunities was a huge 
storyline this weekend.” 
Even 
when 
he 
didn’t, 
Michigan’s 
strong 
fielding 
stepped in. When Minnesota’s 
Drew 
Hmielewski 
slipped 
behind Criswell in the top of 
the third and sprinted toward 
second base, sophomore catcher 
Joe Donovan reacted instantly, 
firing the ball to senior Ako 
Thomas at second base to stop 
him in his tracks.
The Wolverines’ consistent 
defense was certainly integral to 

their win. 
“We played great defense,” 
Bakich said. “Those double plays 
were huge momentum plays, 
all three to end the inning in 
really high-leverage, high-traffic 
situations.”
The fifth inning showcased 
Minnesota’s 
difficulty 
in 
breaking 
through. 
Right-
hander 
Brett 
Schulze, 
who 
came from the bullpen in one of 
the team’s numerous pitching 
changes, cycled through nine of 
Michigan’s hitters and allowed a 
two-run homer from sophomore 
Jack Blomgren.
In the bottom of the seventh, 
the crowd erupted in cheers for 
Criswell as he was relieved by 
sophomore left-hander Angelo 
Smith. A close call with the 
bases loaded in the eighth was 
once again extinguished by a 
fast-paced 
Michigan 
double 
play to end the inning and keep 
Minnesota scoreless.
Two more runs from Donovan 
and Lewis brought the final 
score to 8-0 — a far cry from 
the close games on Friday and 
Saturday. 
“I didn’t really feel like 
we played too well Friday or 
yesterday,” Bakich said. “So our 
challenge going into today was 
really to have a complete game 
from a pitching, offensive, and 
defensive standpoint … to play 
championship-caliber baseball.
“Our guys responded to that 
challenge very well.”

Clutch hitting lifts ‘M’ past Gophers

Offense seemed like Michigan 
baseball’s weak spot.
Its starting pitchers were 
dominant, its relievers capable 
and its defense talented. Going 
into the season, the biggest 
question about Team 153 on 
paper was how much its lineup 
could produce when it mattered.
Against 
Minnesota 
this 
weekend, those questions were 
finally answered: This team can 
hit.
Clutch 
performances 
up 
and down the lineup made the 
difference in the Wolverines’ 
victories Saturday and Sunday 
over one of their toughest Big 
Ten competitors. In Saturday’s 
5-3 win over the Golden Gophers, 
senior second baseman Ako 
Thomas made the difference, 
launching a two-out double to 
score the winning two runs in 
the bottom of the seventh inning. 
On Sunday, it was sophomore 
center fielder Jesse Franklin. 
He homered off the first pitch 
he saw in the opening inning to 
put the first run on the board 
for Michigan. He later plated 
sophomore catcher Joe Donovan 
on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of 
the seventh inning to help the 
Wolverines to a comfortable 8-0 
victory.
“We had the mindset of 
attacking them right from the 
beginning,” Franklin said. “We 
were all ready to go as soon as 
we got up to bat. Everyone was 
just really focused. We’re good 
enough that when we’re focused, 
we can beat good teams like that 
8-0, so it was great to do that.”
Going 
into 
the 
weekend, 
Minnesota’s 
presented 
a 
formidable 
challenge. 
No. 
1 
starter Max Meyer came into his 
start Friday with an earned run 
average of 1.72. Their offense 
was hot off a 14-4 midweek 
win. Of the Big Ten competition 
Michigan has faced or will face 
this season, the Gophers might 
be the toughest.
In 
Friday’s 
game, 
that 
challenge appeared to be too 
much for the Wolverines. Though 
they got on the board first on a 

two-run homer from Franklin 
in the bottom of the first, they 
could not find a consistent spark, 
stranding nine runners on base 
and falling 6-4 as their ninth-
inning rally came up short.
Saturday’s game was a battle, 
but Michigan was eventually 
able to wear down the Gopher 
pitchers. After taking a 2-1 
lead off a two-run single from 
Franklin, the Wolverines tied 
the game at three on an opposite-
field home run 
from junior right 
fielder 
Jordan 
Brewer 
before 
taking the lead 
on 
Thomas’ 
double.
Sunday was a 
different 
story. 
Franklin’s home 
run sparked the 
offense, 
and 
it 
didn’t 
slow 
down for the rest of game. In 
the second inning, senior third 
baseman Jimmy Kerr hit his 
sixth home run of the year. Kerr 
also scored in the bottom of the 
fifth as sophomore shortstop 
Jack Blomgren knocked a blast of 
his own.
“Having our offense score in 
all but two innings, being able to 
keep a lot of pressure on them, 
we really just had a lot of quality 
at-bats,” said Michigan coach 
Erik Bakich. “When we get a ball 
to smash – something we can do 
damage with – it’s about taking 
advantage of the ball and getting 
a few home runs.”
But 
Michigan’s 
offensive 

success on this weekend wasn’t 
just limited to the long ball. In 
Saturday’s game, Michigan tied 
the contest in the bottom of the 
second inning off a two-run 
single from Franklin. On Sunday, 
Kerr, Franklin, and sophomore 
designated hitter Jordan Nwogu 
all notched RBI on smaller hits: 
a single for Kerr, a sacrifice fly 
for Franklin, and a double for 
Nwogu. 
Over 
the 
course 
of 
the 
weekend, 
the 
Wolverines 
came up with 
hits when they 
needed 
them 
most. A seventh-
inning go-ahead 
double 
to 
tie 
the 
series. 
A 
go-ahead 
home 
run to win a 
weekend 
series 
against a major 
conference competitor. Team 
153 is starting to look more and 
more like the serious competitor 
that Bakich described at the 
beginning of the season.
“You just want to try to 
put those competitive at-bats 
together, 
and 
string 
those 
quality at-bats together,” Bakich 
said. “When we’ve had our best 
scoring days, it’s when we’ve 
had quality at-bat after quality 
at-bat together, and getting a 
big hit that clears the bases. The 
mindset is always just continuing 
to improve and continuing to get 
better. That’s just where we are. 
We’ve just got to keep getting 
better.”

AIDAN WOUTAS
Daily Sports Writer

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Sophomore center fielder Jesse Franklin hit a home run on Sunday.

It was, 
‘Let’s play 
championship-
caliber baseball.’

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Sophomore right hander Jeff Criswell did not allow an earned run in 6.2 innings pitched in Sunday’s win. 

