The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, April 9, 2019 — 7

Wolverines growing in mistakes

At the halfway point of its 
season, the No. 24 Michigan 
baseball team (22-8) is heating 
up at exactly the right time. 
It’s returned to the rankings. 
It took four of its first five Big 
Ten games and eight of its 
last 10 contests, a stretch that 
included a 1-0 pitchers’ duel 
victory against San Jose State, 
a 16-2 rout of Michigan State 
and a gritty come-from-behind 
series win over Minnesota last 
weekend. 
After 
a 
tough 
California 
swing where they saw their first 
four losses of the season and an 
even tougher trip to Texas — 
where they were swept by No. 
11 Texas Tech — the Wolverines 
are learning from their past 
mistakes.
Against the Red Raiders on 
March 21, it was the defense 
that had issues. Michigan gave 
up six hits and committed two 
errors, leading to six unearned 
Texas Tech runs in the fifth 
inning alone. The Red Raiders 
added another run in the bottom 
of the seventh on an error from 

sophomore catcher Joe Donovan 
and tacked on three more in the 
bottom of the eighth inning to 
take the game, 11-2. 
But 
since 
that 
trip, 
Michigan’s defense has been 
one of its strongest assets. The 
Wolverines’ 
average 
fielding 
percentage is .971, and their 
aggressive-mistakes 
mindset 
has resulted in some impressive 
plays, including several bare-
handers 
from 
sophomore 
shortstop Jack Blomgren and 
senior second baseman Ako 
Thomas. They turned three 
inning-ending 
double 
plays 
in Sunday’s 8-0 trouncing of 
Minnesota alone. 
“To be able to minimize 
(Minnesota’s) opportunities was 
a huge storyline this weekend,” 
said 
Michigan 
coach 
Erik 
Bakich. “It’s really just playing 
good defense. That’s something 
that helps us have a good day.”
In the Dodgertown Classic, it 
was the offense that could not 
produce. After a triumphant 7-5 
win over then-No. 2 UCLA on 
March 8, the lineup could not 
find a rhythm for the Wolverines 
as USC’s pitchers stifled their 
bats and Oklahoma State got 

clutch 
hits 
when 
Michigan 
could not.
Now, though, the Wolverines’ 
clutch hitting has helped them 
to more than a few victories. 
In their Big Ten opener against 
the Spartans, they scored the 
winning runs off two fifth-
inning doubles to break the game 
open. And in Saturday’s game 
against Minnesota, Michigan 
clinched the win on a two-out, 
two-run double from Thomas in 
the bottom of the seventh.
Overall, 
heading 
into 
a 
midweek series against a strong 
Indiana State team and an away 
weekend series against archrival 
Ohio State, Michigan seems to 
be peaking just when it needs to 
be. The ghosts of baseball games 
past have yet to return to haunt 
the Wolverines, and if Michigan 
can continue to grow from past 
mistakes, the team is looking 
increasingly tough to beat.
“The challenge is just to get 
better, to play our best baseball,” 
Bakich said. “I have total faith in 
our players. If we just come with 
that mentality of competing 
and effort and energy, and if we 
bring that from the first pitch, I 
think we’ll be in great shape.”

Schalet shows poise in comebacks

Coming into Sunday, Myles 
Schalet had not lost a doubles 
match since the end of February. 
Playing with freshman Andrew 
Fenty, the team leader in both 
singles and doubles wins, the 
duo was expected to set the 
stage for the Wolverines with a 
win over No. 15 Illinois.
Instead, Schalet and Fenty 
were the first to lose their match, 
giving up an early 
3-2 lead to lose, 
6-4. 
It 
wasn’t 
their best tennis, 
and the rest of 
the team followed 
suit, with poor 
doubles play by 
No. 20 Michigan 
(13-6 overall, 4-3 
Big Ten) giving 
the 
Fighting 
Illini (13-6, 7-0) 
an early lead from which the 
Wolverines were never able to 
come back.
This made winning singles 
matches all the more important. 

But Schalet still looked sluggish 
at the beginning of his match 
and quickly fell behind, 2-5, in 
the first set. While some would 
have let a doubles loss and an 
early deficit get to their head and 
hurt their play for the rest of the 
match, Schalet is no stranger to 
these situations. Friday against 
Northwestern, he lost the first 
set and faced a match point 
down 3-5 in the second set and 
came back to win.
Sunday’s match ended in a 
similar fashion 
for 
Schalet. 
He went on to 
win 
the 
last 
five games of 
the 
first 
set 
and won the 
second set in 
a tiebreak to 
give Michigan 
its second and 
final 
singles 
point.
“I trust myself, and I always 
keep fighting and competing,” 
Schalet said. “I’m just trying to 
take care of my service game 
and get early leads when they 

are serving so I can get myself 
an opportunity to break.”
Schalet used the support of 
his teammates to get back into 
his match — and eventually 
win it. When he was down and 
noticeably upset with his play, 
his teammates continued to 
encourage him. Once Schalet 
turned it around and took 
the lead, the rest of the team 
rallied around him, and he did 
the same for them. While the 
Wolverines ended up losing, 
seeing their captain come back 
motivated 
them. 
Freshman 
Patrick Maloney, who was the 
only other player to win a match, 
played with a similar intensity.
“One of the ways I’m always 
able to get back is because of the 
way we play as a team,” Schalet 
said. 
“My 
teammates 
are 
always there, and we’re playing 
together. I’m not playing by 
myself out there, so that helps 
a lot.”
But while Schalet was able to 
bail himself out by improving 
his play as the match went on, he 
said he wanted to start matches 
playing his strongest tennis.

“I have to get better at 
starting 
matches 
better,” 
Schalet said. “I can’t rely on me 
coming back every time because 
a better player is just going to 
get on me.”
Added Michigan coach Adam 
Steinberg: “I think he needs to 
focus a little better through the 
match, but when he gets down 
he gives everything”
While Schalet was not playing 
at his best early on in matches 
this weekend, his ability to fight 
and his drive helped him put 
losses behind him and lead the 
team by doing what he does best 
— winning points.

‘M’ men’s tennis splits weekend

The doubles point proved to 
be the make-or-break factor for 
the No. 20 Michigan men’s tennis 
team in its weekend split.
On Friday, winning the doubles 
point set the tone early for a 5-2 
win over Northwestern.
But on Saturday, a doubles loss 
foreshadowed a 4-2 defeat to No. 
15 Illinois.
“The doubles point is so big 
and we need to play better,” said 
Michigan coach Adam Steinberg. 
“For us, we should take much more 
pride in our doubles. Our record in 
doubles should be better than it is.”
On Friday, the team clinched 
two out of the three doubles 
matches 
after 
impressive 
performances from the duos of 
freshman Andrew Fenty and 
senior Myles Schalet, and junior 
Connor Johnston and freshman 
Patrick Maloney.
With the crucial doubles point 
under its belt, Michigan proceeded 
to win four of six matches in 
the singles round. Sophomore 
Mattias Siimar impressed with a 
6-2, 6-3 straight-set outing over 
Northwestern’s Antonioni Fasano 
to propel the Wolverines to a win 
on Friday.
The second half of the home 
series against Illinois on Sunday 
was a different story.
The team of Fenty and Schalet, 
along with the team of sophomore 
Harrison 
Brown 
and 
Siimar 
dropped the first two matches, 
leaving 
the 
third 
unfinished 
and handing Illinois the doubles 
victory.
Steinberg felt that his squad 
did not execute well on first serve, 
an important aspect of doubles 
because it enables a team to hold 
serve most of the time during a 
match. 
Though the team trailed from 
the start, the competition was 
still close late. Michigan trailed by 
one point with a chance to tie and 
potentially win with Fenty and 
Johnston left to play.
Johnston would ultimately fall 
to Illinois’ Keenan Mayo in a close 
third set, clinching a 4-2 victory 
for the Illini. Illinois players 
stormed the court in joy, while 

the Wolverines looked on with 
noticeable disappointment.
“We just had leads everywhere. 
We threw them away up a set and 
a break at six, up a set and break at 
two,” Steinberg said. “We have to 
finish those.”
Siimar, Johnston and senior 
Gabe Tishman all held leads 
during their matches, but all 
eventually lost in three sets. It was 
a pattern that Steinberg felt derived 
from a mid-match mentality — a 
misguided one.
“I think they think about 
winning and that they don’t focus 
on the plan ahead, the task,” 
Steinberg said. “They get so results-
oriented when they’re ahead. It’s 
just the wrong thinking.”
Despite 
a 
disappointing 
afternoon, Michigan had strong 
showings 
from 
Schalet 
and 
Maloney, the team’s only two 
players to win in the singles round. 
Schalet’s day was particularly 
impressive, as he led a valiant 
comeback from down three games 
to win the first set and eventually 
the match in straight sets 7-5, 7-6 
(5). Steinberg said that he believed 
it was one of his better wins of 

the season, considering the deficit 
Schalet overcame.
Maloney also had a short, yet 
impressive, outing, beating his 
opponent 6-3, 6-2.
“He’s 
doing 
unbelievable,” 
Steinberg said. “You know, when 
you lose a doubles point you don’t 
want to go down 2-0, you want to 
get it one all, and he got us on the 
board so that was great for him.”
Still, Steinberg demonstrated 
some frustration with how his 
team started and finished the 
match.
“We do a great job when we’re 
down, but we don’t do a great job 
when we’re up,” Steinberg said. 
“It’s just glaring, it happens a lot 
to us. So we need to find a way to 
finish more.”
Schalet agreed with his coach 
and mentioned that changing the 
trajectory of their season starts 
with how the Wolverines train.
“When we play sets in practice 
and really make it like a match, not 
just going through the motions, it 
takes a lot of focus,” Schalet said. 
“When you are playing a good 
team like Illinois, they’re going to 
really fight when they’re down.”

CHRIS SULLIVAN
For The Daily

JACK KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Senior Myles Schalet clinched victories against both Northwestern and Illinois over the weekend as the Michigan men’s tennis team split matches.

Rowing sweeps weekend regatta

Over 
the 
weekend, 
the 
Michigan rowing team was 
dominant.
Michigan was so dominant, 
in fact, that none of its boats 
lost a race. The sixth-ranked 
Wolverines 
swept 
three 
ACC opponents — including 
two 
ranked 
teams 
— 
on 
Lake Monticello in Virginia. 
Michigan dispatched No. 10 
Virginia during morning races 
and defeated No. 17 Syracuse 
along with Duke during the 
afternoon session of racing. The 
wins provided a promising start 
to the spring season.
“Any time you can win races 
against really good programs 
like we raced today, that’s a 
good thing,” said Michigan 
coach Mark Rothstein. “We 
were pleased to be able to come 
away with some really good 
victories, and we’re excited to 
get faster, grow and improve.”
Both 
varsity 
eight 
boats 

contributed to the weekend’s 
highlights. The first varsity 
eight 
beat 
Virginia 
by 
7.3 
seconds with a time of 6:30.5, 
then came back and topped 
Syracuse by 4.3 seconds and 
Duke in the afternoon, timing 
6:26.5.
The second varsity eight boat 
also won both its 
races, 
although 
they were much 
closer than the 
first 
eight’s. 
After 
quickly 
beating 
the 
Cavaliers 
in 
6:36.0 
by 
4.7 
seconds, 
the 
Wolverines 
inched ahead of 
the Blue Devils 
in the afternoon race in 6:35.3, 
by a mere eight-tenths of a 
second.
Additionally, the first varsity 
four continued undefeated as it 
won by more than 10 seconds 
in the morning (7:18.6) and 
more than seven seconds in the 

afternoon (7:24.2).
The second varsity four also 
won both its races, with a close 
finish in 7:23.6 by 4.2 seconds 
and a comfortable win in 7:33.4 
by 11.8 seconds. The third varsity 
four won by relaxed margins 
as well, including the biggest 
win of the day — a 19.0-second 
victory against 
Virginia 
in 
7:29.2.
“Top 
to 
bottom all the 
boats really had 
bright 
spots,” 
Rothstein 
said. “They all 
showed 
some 
things 
that 
needed 
to 
be 
improved.
“We’re in a good spot, but the 
biggest thing that we are seeing 
right now is these athletes are 
excited to get back to practice. 
Regardless of times, regardless 
of race results, they want to get 
back to work and keep getting 
faster. That’s exciting to see.”

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan rowing team took down three ACC opponents in this past weekend’s regatta on Lake Monticello, Va.

MEGAN CHAPELLE
Daily Sports Writer

Top to bottom, 
all the boats 
really had 
bright spots.

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Sophomore shortstop Jack Blomgren made several impressive plays in the field during Michigan’s weekend series.

I trust myself 
and I always 
keep fighting 
and competing.

I can’t rely on 
me coming 
back every 
time.

