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.