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.