The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 — 7A

P

resence.
It’s what Michigan 
coach Carol Hutchins 
credits for 
the No. 21 
Michigan 
softball 
team’s stark 
pivot after 
a rough 
start to the 
season. It’s 
what has 
allowed the 
Wolverines 
to slowly 
claw their way back from fall-
ing out of the rankings for the 
first time in almost 20 years. It’s 
what has propelled Michigan to a 
15-game win streak.
But, there’s still one major 
test left to pass: Whether the 
Wolverines’ offense has the 
staying power for a serious post-
season run. 
Michigan dug itself into a 
tough spot as the season began. 

By the third week, it was on an 
unprecedented five-game losing 
streak. While consistent pitch-
ing by sophomore left-hander 
Meghan Beaubien and strong 
defense kept the Wolverines in 
most games, Michigan struggled 
at the plate. In the 23 games 
before coming home, the Wol-
verines averaged less than four 
runs per game with a collective 
batting average of .210.
When asked what accounted 
for the lack of offensive produc-
tion, Hutchins and the players 
have cited everything from 
a poor mentality to a lack of 
patience at the plate.
Whatever the cause, their 
offensive struggles didn’t fol-
low them home. But the pres-
ence did. When the Wolverines 
returned to Alumni Field for 
their home opener on March 14, 
the bats started swinging.
Michigan has faced weaker 
competition in the past month, 
not facing a ranked opponent 

since March 7. Still, the Wol-
verines’ offense is inarguably 
stronger.
Their hot-streak started with 
an 8-0 run-rule against Kent 
State in the home opener and 
hasn’t stopped since. Michigan 
has racked up almost nine runs 
per game on average — more 
than double that of the begin-
ning of the season — and is bat-
ting .370 in the 15 games since 
being home.
Offensive standouts have 
emerged in the Wolverines’ 
lineup. Senior outfielder Nata-
lie Peters’s batting average has 
soared from a .250 average to 
its current .340, and junior 
third baseman Madison Uden’s 
on-base percentage has been 
steadily climbing since her bat-
ting average also took a dip early 
in the season. They’ve been 
present at the plate, and they’re 
just a few of many examples.
“(Power hitting) means we’re 
swinging with better confi-

dence,” Hutchins said on March 
17. “If there’s anything that’s 
improved, it’s our presence and 
our confidence. We’ve been a 
talented team all along, but now 
we’re playing with the confi-
dence we need.”
Almost every player’s batting 
average has improved — even 
those who were hitting relative-
ly well early on in the season. 
Freshman outfielder Lexie Blair 
and senior first baseman Alex 
Sobczak have become integral 
to Michigan’s offense, adding 
power to the lineup as the sea-
son has progressed with four 
and seven home runs respec-
tively. 
While home runs were few 
and far between early in the 
season, the Wolverines have hit 
at least one ball out of the park 
in each of the past 10 games, 
largely due to Blair and Sobc-
zak.
But there are shortcomings.
Throughout the season, 

Michigan’s offense has often 
fallen into a pattern: score sev-
eral runs in one or two innings 
and leave the others scoreless. 
This was true in the Wolverines’ 
matchup against No. 5 Washing-
ton on March 3 and remained 
true in all three of Michigan’s 
games the Hoosiers this week-
end, to name a few. 
The Wolverines have made it 
clear they’ve found the offensive 
power to carry them through 
the rest of Big Ten play — a con-
ference in a historic downturn 
— but with the postseason less 
than a month away, that might 
not be enough.
The offense has left runs on 
the table in each contest so far. 
This weekend alone, Michigan 
left 19 runners stranded on base 
against Indiana. They struggled 
to bring home runners in scor-
ing position, faltering on at-bats 
that could have solidified a 
stronger lead.
This problem isn’t new.

“We’ve been very inconsis-
tent, and especially in our RBI 
production,” Hutchins said on 
March 9. “We need to get better. 
We need to have a productive 
set in those at-bats.”
Success in the postseason 
could hinge on response to 
adversity.
In the face of strong pitching 
in the seventh inning of the Sun-
day’s game against Indiana, the 
Wolverines stayed locked in at 
the plate with three consecutive 
producing at-bats that allowed 
Michigan to edge out the Hoo-
siers in a walk-off double.
“We’re playing for May — and 
I don’t mean the beginning of 
May,” Hutchins said. “We’re 
playing to get to the end of May. 
It’s going to be hard but the only 
chance we have is with a team 
like the seventh inning.”

Kizziah can be reached via 

email at Lkizziah@umich.edu 

or on Twitter @kizziahlane 

Is this offense ready for the postseason?

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Senior first baseman Alex Sobczak has added a punch to the middle of the lineup in her resurgent senior season.

LANE 
KIZZIAH

Michigan falls in extra innings

Willie Weiss stood on the 
mound with two outs. The 
freshman right-hander was close 
to finishing the top of the tenth 
inning and giving the Michigan 
baseball team another chance to 
beat Indiana State.
Instead, he let Jake Means 
grab a hold of his pitch and launch 
the ball over the left field fence to 
create an 8-7 lead.
They couldn’t come back, and 
Michigan dropped its second 
home game of the season, losing 
8-7 to the Sycamores due to the 
lack of a response in the last three 
innings.
For the first three innings, 
though, the same couldn’t be 
said. For every run Indiana State 
scored, the Wolverines had one of 
their own.
Despite 
freshman 
right-
hander Isaiah Paige letting in 
a patchwork run score via a 
single to go down one early, the 
Michigan offense had the young 
pitcher’s back. Two solo home 
runs to left field — one that 
scooped over the fence by leadoff 
sophomore 
designated 
hitter 
Jordan Nwogu and another by 
senior outfielder Miles Lewis 
that left the bat at 105 miles per 
hour — paved the way to put the 
Wolverines back on top.
“We’re capable,” said Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich. “We have a 
really good slugging percentage, 
we have a lot of capable hitters. 
We’re not a bunt type team, it’s 
hard to put on a bunt when we’ve 
got guys who can tie the game in 
one swing.”
But the Sycamore offense 
quickly caught up to Paige’s 
pitches. Starting the inning by 
hitting Chris Ayers — Indiana 
State’s No. 9 hitter — Paige 
subsequently allowed a long 
double to Clay Dungan, the ball 
bouncing off a diving sophomore 
center-fielder Jesse Franklin’s 
glove, to put runners on second 
and third.
One out later Paige’s day was 

over. On came freshman left-
hander Walker Cleveland who 
gave up an intentional walk, hit 
the second batter of the inning 
and allow a second double to 
center-field — this time leading to 
three runs to grab a 5-2 lead.
Michigan’s 
offense, 
again, 
had an answer. After Blomgren’s 
four-pitch walk to load the 
bases, sophomore catcher Joe 
Donovan hit a single through 
left field to score two runs and 
bring the game within one run. 
After a walk from senior second 
baseman Ako Thomas to load the 
bases once again, up came Nwogu 
— who had already launched a 
home run on the day and was on a 
hot streak. He walked to score the 
tying run — it was 5-5.
“Someone scores four, we 
put up three,” Bakich said. 
“Psychologically, just to tie it back 
up again and when you’re playing 
from a deficit… To get that two-
out rally after giving up a four 
spot, that was huge. Huge in that 
moment.”
In 
the 
sixth 
inning, 
the 
Wolverines’ turn struck first. 
Thomas hit his second double of 
the day, this one a leadoff double 

to left center field, putting him 
in position to trot home after 
Franklin launched a homer into 
center field.
Then, run by run, Indiana 
State grew back into the game. A 
leadoff double from CJ Huntley 
and a ground ball put a runner 
on third, afterward junior left-
hander Ben Keizer threw a wild 
pitch to score Huntley. In the 
eighth inning, the Sycamores 
manufactured another.
“We 
just 
came 
up 
short 
tonight,” Bakich said. “And I trust 
those guys that are pitching there 
at the end of the game, just some 
bad bounces, some balls that 
squeak through, some balls that 
got by and allowed them to move 
up and advance on the bases — 
the little things that cost us.”
The 
Wolverines 
had 
no 
response. And Indiana State 
was just getting started before 
leveling the go-ahead run in the 
10th inning.
“It comes down to a swing, a 
pitch, a play,” Bakich said. “They 
just made one more better pitch 
and had one better swing and 
did everything just one bit better 
than us tonight.”

Cheer earns two national titles

Lis 
Tyzo-Depaulis 
stood 
near 
warm-ups 
at 
nationals, 
surrounded by Michigan’s Coed 
IA cheer team. The head assistant 
coach was streaming the Game 
Day IA award ceremony on her 
phone, waiting to see if the other 
half of the Wolverines’ team would 
be taking home a title from the 
NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and 
Dance Championship.
The Game Day team was in 
second place after the previous 
day’s preliminary round, 4.45 
points 
behind 
a 
Southern 
Methodist 
team 
that 
topped 
the charts with a 97.53. But a 
pristine routine on Friday left 
the squad questioning if they’d 
closed the gap for their first title 
in program history, while the 
Coed team huddled around Tyzo-
Depaulis’ phone waiting for the 
announcement. 
Meghan 
Mesojedec, 
a 
co-captain for the Coed IA team 
along with Deontay Walker, said 
it felt like it took about 30 seconds 
for the announcer to reveal the 
runner-up — which might seem 
like an eternity 
when 
you’re 
waiting 
on 
a 
potential national 
championship. 
“You 
had 
to wait for the 
‘s’,” 
Mesojedec 
said. “Once they 
said 
‘Southern,’ 
everyone 
was 
freaking out, they 
were so excited 
that they won.”
That national title for the Game 
Day team, captained by Alex 
Bourdeau, Paige Pichel and Joey 
Solomon, left the Coed squad 
pumped up as they headed into 
their second round. They couldn’t 
have been more ready for their 
final routine in Daytona, for more 
reasons than one.
There are two rounds in the 
NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer 
and Dance Championships — the 

preliminary and the final. In the 
preliminary, a fall or a bobble 
means a point deduction that can 
creep back in the final round. The 
past few years, that’s been the 
scenario for Michigan’s Coed IA 
team.
Not this year. 
“This year, at prelims, the entire 
routine hit,” Mesojedec said. “We 
were able to finish it with a clean 
hit, and we were just so excited 
to go out there and do it again on 
Friday.”
The Wolverines posted the best 
score 
in 
their 
category 
on 
Thursday with a 
97.57, edging out 
East 
Carolina. 
Another hit on 
Friday wouldn’t 
just mean a win 
in their category, 
either. It’d give 
Michigan 
its 
second national 
title in less than 
a few hours.
A 
flawless 
routine 
of 
tumbling passes, pyramids and 
choreography 
left 
the 
team 
celebrating louder than it had all 
night. It was exactly what it needed 
to cap off a lead over the Pirates. 
The Coed squad didn’t want to 
presume they’d won — but there 
was no doubt they’d just had one of 
the best performances of the night.
“You don’t want to assume 
necessarily, because you don’t 

want to jinx yourself, but we — I 
think we did,” Mesojedec said. “We 
just knew we put the best routine 
out there that we could have, and 
so we were just so excited at that 
point to get through awards and 
hear where we were. We were so 
happy with what we put out there 
that we thought it couldn’t be any 
less than a winning routine.”
The Coed’s final score of 98.0917 
earned the collective Michigan 
unit its second championship 
trophy of the night, marking 
a historical moment for the 
team. After splitting into the 
two categories early in the year, 
the squads began working on 
choreography and collaborating 
with the band and dance team 
to work out a Game Day routine. 
After the Peach Bowl, it had been 
full throttle, with each team 
practicing four days a week with 
lifts tacked on. 
Both 
had 
been 
working 
intensely for month, and the titles 
were the payoff. 
“It was so special for us to do 
this for us, and for Michigan,” 
Mesojedec said. “You love going 
to this school that you do, so to do 
it and to just have our school be so 
excited for us and our friends and 
other students be so excited for us 
— and our programs even, like the 
School of Information, the School 
of Kinesiology.
“It’s so cool to go to a school that 
appreciates us so much and we 
were so happy to win for them.”

LANEY BYLER
Daily Sports Writer

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore center fielder Jesse Franklin hit one of Michigan’s three homers.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
The Michigan cheer team earned two national titles this past weekend.

It was so 
special for us to 
do this... and for 
Michigan.

