The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
April 22, 2019 — 3B
McCallum wins national title as
Michigan finishes in fourth place
Anthony
McCallum
stood
at the end of the runway,
visualizing himself sticking his
Tsukahara double pike vault.
Five seconds later, he landed it,
for the final time in his Michigan
men’s gymnastics career, with
his feet glued to the floor.
All gymnasts strive for stuck
landings, and this time, it won
the senior his third national
title on vault with a score of
15.266 — just 0.434 below his
maximum score. In a sport
where even the smallest errors
incur deductions, that’s about as
good as it gets.
“It doesn’t feel real yet,”
McCallum said. “It just feels
really good to end it the way I
envisioned it to end. So many
other things could’ve happened.
It just feels good to make my
legacy even better than it was
before and finish off the way
that I wanted to.”
After winning the title on
vault both his freshman and
sophomore
years,
McCallum
missed the majority of the 2018
season with an injury. That year,
he scored just a 14.000 in the
qualifying round at the NCAA
Championships and failed to
advance to the vault final.
In
Friday’s
qualifying
session,
McCallum
again
marked a 14.000 after putting
his hands down when landing,
but he advanced to Saturday’s
final because the Wolverines
qualified as a team. Michigan
ultimately finished fourth of six
teams with a score of 406.354.
“Yesterday, he had trouble
with his vault,” said Michigan
coach Kurt Golder on Saturday.
“It’s just such a difficult vault,
but for him to stick it today —
you know, it’s the last vault he’ll
ever do for Michigan and he
sticks it and wins the national
title. Doesn’t get much better
than that.”
For the first time in his
NCAA Championships career,
McCallum competed alongside
his teammates in the final
round of competition. Until
Friday, the Wolverines had not
made it to the second day of the
championships as a team since
2015.
“It was really exciting being
with
the
team,”
McCallum
said. “In the past, the other
times that I’ve won, it was as
an individual. I really was just
thinking about the team and
that ended up bringing out the
best competition in myself.”
McCallum’s score propelled
Michigan to a score of 73.264
on the vault and made the
Wolverines just the second team
this season to score above 73.
But despite the high scores
on vault, Michigan couldn’t
overcome low scores on pommel
horse and high bar.
“Anytime you can (make it
to the Super Six), you’ve gotta
be happy,” Golder said. “Just
didn’t do quite what we were
capable of, and of course that’s
what you want in a national
championship.”
While the Wolverines didn’t
find much success as a team,
three of McCallum’s teammates
joined him as All-Americans
after placing in the top eight on
their respective events.
Fifth-year
senior
Marty
Strech earned a seventh-place
finish on the still rings for his
routine that he capped with
a stuck dismount. Michigan
competed
on
rings
in
the
second rotation on Saturday,
and Strech’s score of 14.300
remained in podium position
throughout the competition.
“(Strech is) just so clean,”
Golder said. “He doesn’t have a
great start value. There’s a lot of
guys with a higher start value,
but he executes so well that it
doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s
nice to see in a big championship
meet that he holds up pretty
well.”
Sophomores
Jacob
Moore
and Cameron Bock also earned
All-American honors. Moore
finished in third place on floor
exercise and Bock placed fourth
in the all-around.
Although Michigan earned
high scores from gymnasts
like McCallum and Moore, its
overall struggles in the team
competition left the Wolverines
scoring more than two points
below their season average.
But it was Michigan’s first trip
to the Super Six since 2015, and
for a program that’s won three
national titles this decade, it was
an important step toward being
a national contender again.
Offense leads Wolverines to sweep
Any good team needs players
to step up when others aren’t at
their best.
The No. 22 Michigan softball
team (33-11 overall, 15-1 Big Ten)
proved its mettle this weekend,
coming out ahead in all three
contests against Illinois (27-
17, 6-9) this weekend despite
uncharacteristically
poor
pitching.
The bats started slow in the
series. Friday’s game was low-
scoring on both sides, ending
with a final score of 2-1. The first
of these runs came in the first
inning when senior first baseman
Alex Sobczak fired a ball deep into
center field, driving in freshman
outfielder Lexie Blair from first.
Both
Sobczak
and
Blair
continued to be assets offensively
as the weekend continued. They
combined for nine hits over
the course of the weekend and
had back-to-back homers in the
fourth inning of Sunday’s game.
The energy picked up on
Saturday, when the Wolverines
edged out the Illini, 9-8. Two
runs in the first inning got the
ball rolling for Michigan, but it
lost the momentum, failing to
score another run until the fifth.
By then, the Wolverines faced a
four-run deficit. But they didn’t
let it faze them.
In the fifth inning, a single
by
Blair
allowed
sophomore
shortstop Natalia Rodriguez to
score, and from there, the runs
kept coming. In the sixth inning,
junior third baseman Madison
Uden blasted a ball over the
center field wall, further chipping
away at Illinois’ lead. In the
seventh inning, a double hit down
the third base line by Canfield
sent two runners home, putting
Michigan one run ahead by the
game’s close.
“I think we’re just getting
better and we’re just fighting,”
said senior second baseman Faith
Canfield. “They’re going to throw
a punch, we’ve got to throw a
punch back. This weekend, we
trusted our ability to do that.”
“Saturday, we saw that (Illinois
pitcher) again and we made some
adjustments,”
said
Michigan
coach Carol Hutchins. “It made a
difference. You have to do what it
takes to win.”
By Sunday, the Wolverines’
offense virtually functioned as a
carousel, sending runners around
the bases one after the next in a
game that ended in a 16-5 victory.
Michigan took a commanding
lead in the first inning with
five runs, which included two
of the day’s six home runs —
by
senior
designated
player
Mackenzie Nemitz and junior
outfielder
Haley
Hoogenraad.
The Wolverines didn’t let up,
amassing a total of 17 hits by the
end of the contest.
“Our offense throughout the
weekend improved just within
the three games,” Blair said.
“That’s just from staying within
ourselves, knowing we can pick
each other up if someone can’t get
the job done.”
While the Wolverines’ hitting
improved as the weekend wore
on, the same couldn’t be said of
their pitching.
Friday, sophomore left-hander
Meghan Beaubien gave up just
three hits in seven innings, one
of which translated into a run.
Saturday’s game was a different
story. She entered in relief in the
sixth inning and gave up two
runs before pitching a scoreless
seventh.
The pitching staff as a whole
struggled in the second game.
Hutchins pulled freshman right-
hander Alex Storako after she
gave up three runs and loaded the
bases in the bottom of the third
inning. This has become standard
practice for Storako, who has
rarely gotten beyond the third
or fourth inning without being
substituted out.
Unlike past games, Storako
was switched back in less than
an inning later after sophomore
right-hander Schaefer gave up
three more runs and loaded the
bases in the fourth. This wouldn’t
be
Michigan’s
last
pitching
change. Hutchins opted to swap
Storako out again — this time for
Beaubien. Despite her struggles
in the sixth, Beaubien held off the
Illini in the seventh, preserving
the Wolverines’ narrow lead.
The
pitchers’
struggles
followed them into Sunday’s
game, in which Beaubien started
in the circle. She gave up five runs
before Storako came in for relief
in the last inning.
Luckily for the Wolverines,
the offense’s production kept
Michigan afloat.
“Our offense had our pitchers’
backs,” Hutchins said. “Some
days the hitters have to pick
up the pitchers and some days
the pitchers have to pick up the
hitters.”
From sprinter to marathon runner, Jeff Criswell grows into starting role
It’s a completely different
ballgame.
That’s what Michigan coach
Erik Bakich will say, what
pitching coach Chris Fetter
will say, what sophomore right-
hander Jeff Criswell will say
about transitioning from the
bullpen to a starting role.
“It’s going from the mindset
of being a sprinter to a marathon
runner,” Bakich said. “It’s a
totally different way of training,
a totally different mindset. You
go from an adrenaline junkie
who’s gonna go blow it out for
one inning to a guy who still
needs
to
have
his best stuff and
pitch with his
best intent, but
who has to do it
over six or seven
innings
every
time he goes out
there.”
That’s
the
challenge
that
Criswell
has
faced this season.
With
sophomore
left-hander
Ben Dragani injured, Criswell
was next up to fill the No. 3
spot in the Wolverines’ rotation
behind
junior
left-hander
Tommy Henry and junior right-
hander Karl Kauffman. His solid
performance out of the bullpen
last year — a 2.23 earned run
average and 32 strikeouts over
32.1 innings pitched — made
him the natural choice.
He hadn’t been a starter since
high school, though. Criswell
pitched in relief all of his
freshman year, and all of last
summer. He only threw more
than two innings once in his 24
outings and 32.1 total innings
last year.
But over his nine starts this
season, Criswell has virtually
erased all of those concerns. He
hasn’t allowed an earned run in
almost a month, since his March
23 start against No. 16 Texas
Tech. He struck out 12 batters
in Dodger Stadium against a
formidable
Oklahoma
State
squad on the tail end of a long
and difficult California swing.
So far, he’s given up just five
extra-base hits on the season
over 45.2 innings of work.
His pitches — what Fetter
called a “major-league” fastball,
and a changeup and slider that
are already strong — are looking
better than ever. And with the
work Criswell and Fetter have
been putting in, they’re just
continuing to get stronger.
“On any one day, you’ll see
three pitches from Jeff that
could be at the highest level,”
Fetter said.
Criswell has gone at least
five innings in all but two of his
starts. The two exceptions: 4.2
innings against the Red Raiders
— easily among the toughest
competition
Michigan
has
faced
this
season
—
and
two innings in a
midweek
game
against Toledo.
As
the
season has gone
on,
Criswell
has
grown
increasingly
comfortable
going later into games. Over
his first four starts, he only
went six innings once. In the
five starts since, he’s made it
almost seven full innings twice.
Now, Criswell and Fetter are
looking to bring that to eight
and eventually maybe even nine.
The
Sunday
after
that
Wednesday start against the
Rockets,
Criswell
went
6.2
innings against a Minnesota
team
that
is
among
the
Wolverines’ biggest competition
in the Big Ten. With the series
tied at the game apiece, the
Wolverines needed a win to
take the home series and keep
up their momentum in one of
the toughest stretches of their
schedule. Criswell held the
Golden Gophers to three hits
and no runs while striking out
eight — on three days’ rest.
A week later, he took the
mound at Ohio State as the
Wolverines tried to stave off
a sweep by their archrivals.
Again,
Criswell
went
6.2
innings, striking out four and
not allowing a single extra-base
hit as Michigan went on to win,
6-2, in what Fetter called his
best outing of the season.
“With Minnesota and Ohio
State, you can see his growth;
you can see his improvement,”
Bakich said. “It’s been very
impressive, and
we’ve certainly
needed
it.
Having a guy
like
Jeff
on
Sunday gives us
a great chance
to win or sweep
every
series
that we play.”
But
transitioning
from a one-or-
two-inning reliever to a six-or-
seven-inning
starter
doesn’t
happen overnight, even for a
player with starting experience.
Criswell and Fetter have been
working
on
extending
the
pitcher’s outings — and keeping
his pitches up over longer
stretches — since August.
They’ve
smoothed
out
Criswell’s delivery, streamlined
his motion, and put an emphasis
on delivering power from the
legs — changes targeted at
delivering the same pitches but
using less energy.
“Because he’s using his legs
more, and because
he’s more efficient
in what he’s doing
delivery-wise,
he’s able to go
much deeper in
the game,” Fetter
said. “He’s still
showing the same
stuff he had last
year in one-inning
stints,
but
he’s
able to maintain
that now for six, seven innings.”
The
bigger
challenge
for
Criswell has been adopting the
mindset of a starter. After a year
in a closing role, the adjustment
back to longer outings was
tough, not just physically, but
mentally.
“The biggest thing with Jeff
was trying to convince him,
‘Hey, you’re still a closer in your
mentality. We’re just gonna
close out the first inning, and
then the second inning, close
out the third inning, and keep
that up and not look at the
long picture about trying to go
deep into a game and conserve
energy,’” Fetter said. “You’re
still using the same amount
of energy, the same amount of
force. You’re just trying to close
out each inning now instead of
just one.”
Henry and Kauffmann, both
of whom started last year as
well, have also helped Criswell
make the transition. A converted
closer,
Criswell’s
adjustment
centered around mentality more
than anything else.
“It
was
definitely
very
different for me, but Coach
Fetter, Tommy Henry and Karl
Kauffmann have all been huge
in helping me along,” Criswell
said. “Karl and Tommy both
have a couple more years of
experience than I do in the
starting role, and those guys
have been absolutely great to
me. With their help, and the
work I’ve done with Coach
Fetter, it’s just been really good
for me.”
As the Wolverines head into
the final stretch of their season,
having Criswell dominate like
this in that Sunday-starter role
is more important than ever.
The Big Ten race is tightening
up, with Nebraska, Indiana and
Iowa all looking like strong
contenders.
But if Criswell can keep
up this improvement — and
Bakich and Fetter have both
expressed
every
confidence
that he can — the Wolverines
have the potential to be serious
competitors for the conference
title too, and maybe even a
postseason run.
“I’m ready to go,” Criswell
said. “We’re excited to continue
into Big Ten play, and we know
that we’ve got some work to do,
but we’re going to be ready for
the next couple weeks to come.
I’m excited.”
ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore right-hander Jeff Criswell transitioned from the bullpen to the starting rotation this season, spurred by help from pitching coach Chris Fetter.
You’re just
trying to close
out each inning
now.
... you can see
his growth and
you can see his
improvement.
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Senior Anthony McCallum won the national title on vault, scoring 15.266.
LANE KIZZIAH
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior second baseman Faith Canfield had a two-run double on Saturday.