The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday March 10, 2020 — 7

Adversity shaping postseason for ‘M’

Juwan Howard’s first regular 
season as the Michigan men’s 
basketball coach featured no 
shortage of adversity.
Bad news began trickling in 
before the Wolverines even took 
the court for the first time in 
November. Less than two weeks 
before the season tipped off, 
freshman wing Franz Wagner 
fractured his wrist in practice.
The injury didn’t require 
surgery, but it forced him to 
miss 
Michigan’s 
first 
four 
games. Even when he joined the 
lineup, the lingering effects on 
his shooting wrist were evident 
in 
his 
29-percent 
3-point 
shooting clip through mid-
February.
The 
recovery 
period 
was 
particularly 
difficult 
for 
Wagner, 
who 
was 
simultaneously trying to adapt 
to the American college level 
after spending last season with 
German club Alba Berlin.
“The injury in October set 
him back with his stroke,” 
associate 
head 
coach 
Phil 
Martelli said on Feb. 22. “I 
think he’s a purer shooter than 
we’re seeing.”
Since then, Wagner has found 
his jump shot. He’s shooting 
42 percent from beyond the 
arc over the Wolverines’ last 
five games — a mark that has 
allowed him to become the 
team’s leading scorer over the 
same stretch.
But as Michigan worked 
through 
the 
adversity 
of 
Wagner’s 
injury, 
a 
second 
starter 
went 
down. 
Junior 
forward Isaiah Livers missed 
six 
games 
after 
landing 
awkwardly following a dunk 
attempt against Presbyterian on 
Dec. 21, and when he returned 
a month later, he reaggravated 
his groin on a near-identical 
play. His absence stretched 
over the Wolverines’ next three 
games before an ankle injury 
forced him to sit out a fourth.

Michigan has lost six of 
10 games against conference 
opponents without a healthy 
Livers.
“At 
some 
point, 
every 
team is going to go through 
(adversity),” 
Howard 
said 
Sunday. “It happened to us. I 
think we’ve learned a lot, and 
I think we’ve gotten better 
through the adversity. We’re 
going to forge ahead. … (I’m) 
praying to the basketball gods 
that we’ll continue to have good 
health.”
Adversity has taken forms 
besides injury, particularly at 
inopportune moments. Howard 
handed 
senior 
point 
guard 
Zavier Simpson a one-game 
suspension in January following 
a 3 a.m. traffic incident on 
Jan. 26. In late December, an 
illness held sophomore forward 
Brandon Johns Jr. out of a non-
conference tune-up.
Most recently, junior guard 
Eli Brooks’s broken nose kept 
him out of last week’s loss 
to Wisconsin. Without their 
ace perimeter defender, the 
Wolverines 
surrendered 
a 
season-worst 
11 
3-pointers. 
Before returning three days 
later, he had to overcome a sinus 
infection he claimed was even 
more painful than the fractured 
nose itself.
The only starter to suit up 
for every game of the regular 
season was senior center Jon 
Teske. The sum of the adversity 
was a 10-10 Big Ten record 

and a bottom-half finish in the 
conference standings.
“Most definitely not what 
we wanted,” sophomore guard 
David DeJulius said Sunday. 
“And I think that goes back 
to the history of Michigan 
basketball, especially with the 
last few years, just with how 
much success they’ve had. We 
just talked about how even the 
(2018) national championship 
team that won the Big Ten 
Tournament, they didn’t win 
the regular season, so now 
everyone’s zero-and-zero.
“We just gotta come out there 
with a new-season mindset.”
With the regular season 
now in the books, Michigan’s 
postseason mindset is bolstered 
by the experience of regular-
season adversity. It knows what 
it’s like to play short-handed 
and lose, and it knows what it’s 
like to win with everyone in the 
fold.
The Wolverines grew from 
the adversity, learning about 
themselves in moments that 
otherwise 
would’ve 
never 
presented 
themselves. 
Even 
through a miserable January 
that saw Michigan drop five 
consecutive games for the first 
time since 2015, young players 
such as Johns and DeJulius 
proved themselves as viable 
rotational pieces.
And in the postseason, the 
silver lining of regular-season 
roadblocks could make all the 
difference.

Rauch’s dedication leads to recovery

Two-and-a-half 
weeks 
ago, 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico 
laughed as she held out her hand, 
pretending it was in an icebox. She 
was acting out sophomore guard 
Danielle Rauch’s squats as she 
tried to prevent her left hand from 
sweating while staying in shape.
Rauch broke her hand a day 
before Michigan’s Feb. 6 matchup 
against Purdue and missed the 
game because of her surgery that 
day.
Bones take six to eight weeks to 
heal.
Last 
Thursday 
against 
Nebraska, Rauch returned after 
just four.
“She says she has a plan, we’ll 
see,” Barnes Arico said after a Feb. 
19 victory over Illinois. “I don’t 
know, I’m not getting excited about 
it.”
There wasn’t a lot to be excited 
about. It was the second injury in as 
many weeks after senior forward 
Kayla Robbins tore her ACL, and 
Rauch couldn’t do any hard labor 
for two weeks. But as one of the 
emotional leaders on the team, she 
was immediately determined to get 
back in the game.
“When I got my stitches out, 
I went right into conditioning,” 

Rauch said. “I had a strength 
and conditioning plan with our 
strength coach. Every single day 
we had something, whether that’s 
on-court sprints, on the treadmill, 
in the weight room, just doing 
everything I can to keep my wind 
up.”
Her hard work kept her fit, 
but then came her shooting and 
handling.
As the backup point guard, 
she’s crucial to giving sophomore 
guard Amy Dilk rest, and her 
return would mean Dilk didn’t 
have to play 38 minutes every game 
anymore — if she could keep up her 
handles.
“I just kind of worked on it every 
day,” Rauch said. “Kept working 
on it, worked on it until I felt 
comfortable enough and was able 
to practice this week.”
Against Nebraska last Thursday, 
Rauch debuted her new look: Black 
tape around the middle of her hand, 
snaking up to wrap her middle two 
fingers. She was warming up, four 
weeks after breaking her hand and 
requiring surgery.
After spending four weeks 
sitting toward the end of the bench, 
when it came time to find her 
spot she looked to sit closer to the 
coaches, eager to tell them she was 
ready to play. Except that chair was 
now sophomore forward Emily 

Kiser’s. An awkward half second 
where both looked at the chair 
later, Rauch moved to the end of 
the bench.
She only sat for nine minutes 
before entering the game. 
Rauch played 22 minutes in the 
Big Ten Tournament, the seventh-
most on the team. She wasn’t the 
biggest contributor on the court, 
but her contributions have always 
been as an emotional voice and 
leader more than anything else.
She scored just two points 
all weekend. They came from a 
jumper at the corner of the key on 
Saturday, when Ohio State left her 
unmanned, not respecting her shot. 
She stopped her movement across 
the court, as if suddenly becoming 
aware of her space, and pulled up. 
The two points tied the game at 47 
early in the fourth quarter, capping 
off a massive comeback before the 
Buckeyes pulled back away.
“She was a kid that was playing 
30 minutes before she hurt that 
hand, and now she’s trying to 
just get back in to give us a couple 
minutes here and there to maybe 
give Amy a break,” Barnes Arico 
said. “I don’t think she’s 100 
percent.”
There are two weeks before 
Michigan plays its next game. By 
then, Rauch’s new look might be a 
bare hand.

Errors plague Wolverines in LA

In a weekend with little 
offensive 
production, 
the 
Michigan softball team looked 
toward its defense to hold 
games together, and scrape by 
with wins. For Michigan coach 
Carol Hutchins, it didn’t do the 
job.
“Defense 
is 
led 
by 
the 
pitching,” 
Hutchins 
said. 
“When the pitchers are on, it 
makes our defense a lot easier. 
But I think in general we had 
opportunities a lot of times for 
outs that we didn’t make. Very 
passive and very tentative. Very 
unsure on the field.”
“I think our pitchers have 
set a really good tone. But our 
defense and offense need to pick 
up on it. Trust the pitchers, but 
have a little trust in themselves. 
I don’t think our defense was 
as good as it has been, but it’s 
definitely holding its own.”
The errors only compounded 
on the struggle the Wolverines 
faced 
at 
the 
UCLA/LBSU 
Invitational. Going 2-2 on the 
weekend, in what should’ve 
been 
a 
more 
successful 
weekend, 
the 
errors 
only 
added to the long list of things 
Michigan needs to work on.
For 
senior 
center 
fielder 
Haley Hoogenraad, the defense 
seemed fine.
“I 
think, 
personally, 
defense can win you games,” 
Hoogenraad said. “So, honestly, 
we are a pretty solid defensive 
team. There haven’t been a 
lot of times where we just fall 
apart in the field. We usually 
make good throws and good 
plays. So I think it’s important 
for us to keep up that consistent 
defensive play, but I also think 
we do a really nice job of it.”
The 
discrepancy 
between 
the two, coach and player, is 
bound to happen. Hutchins 
admitted she had spent four 
hours watching film before 
calling for her phone interview. 
It’s a different perspective, a 
different angle.
But in a weekend series 
that showcased the gaps in 
the Wolverines’ offense, the 

discrepancy 
between 
player 
and 
coach 
highlighted 
the 
importance of strong Michigan 
defense, 
something 
lacking 
over the weekend. 
As Hutchins said, defense 
starts 
with 
pitching. 
And 
starting 
against 
Boston 
University and closing against 
UCLA and Central Flordia, 
right 
hander 
Alex 
Storako 
played her typical, consistent 
game — with the exception of 
two errors.
The first came on Friday, 
against 
Boston 
University, 
when, in the top of the first, a 
ball was hit back to Storako. 
Bobbling it, she tried to flip it 
to first base, but missed and 
allowed the batter on base. 
It ended up being a minor 
error as both of the subsequent 
batters struck-out, but an error 
nonetheless.
Storako’s 
second 
error 
proved 
to 
be 
much 
more 
damaging for the Wolverines, as 
it ended Friday’s game against 
UCF, 
3-2, 
in 
extra innings. 
It 
followed 
an error from 
sophomore 
catcher 
Hannah 
Carson 
when 
she overthrew 
second 
base, 
allowing 
a 
stealing 
runner to take 
third.
The next batter up, Storako 
let go of a wild pitch, which 
forced Carson out of position 
to try and block, and provided 
UCF with a chance to score, 
which they took.
Storako had just six wild 
pitches in her 20 games last 
season. Yet, in the 17 games 
she’s played this season, she’s 
already racked up 11. But with 
her increased presence in the 
lineup comes the responsibility 
of making plays when it matters.
Carson 
also 
contributed 
another error, against UCLA 
when she overthrew junior 
first baseman, Lou Allan, on 
a dropped third strike. Again, 
her error didn’t have a major 

impact on the score of the game 
— the runner was tagged out in 
a rundown — but, like Storako, 
her increased role also demands 
an increased responsibility.
Freshman 
shortstop 
Julia 
Jimenez added another error 
on the weekend for a team total 
of five. Receiving a throw-down 
from Carson, and trying to tag a 
stealing runner out, Jimenez let 
the ball slip past her, allowing 
the runner to steal third.
All that said, errors are going 
to take place. It’s more about 
how Michigan responds to 
them than what the effect is in 
the moment they’re made. For 
the Wolverines’ benefit, their 
defense needs to remain strong 
because of their struggling 
offense. 
Without 
a 
strong 
defense, they will struggle on 
both sides of the plate. This 
could allow for more runs from 
other teams, something the 
Michigan pitchers work hard to 
contain.
Michigan needs to be able 
to find solace in 
its ability to rally 
on the defensive 
end even when 
the 
offense 
isn’t 
producing. 
Keeping 
a 
positive mindset, 
and sticking to 
the 
one-pitch 
focus — both in 
the batter’s box 
and on the field — 
is something the Wolverines are 
striving to do.
“Our biggest thing is, if you 
have a bad at-bat, it’s easy to just 
go internal with yourself and 
just kind of put yourself down 
and be distracted with that 
rather than be present in the 
moment, especially on the field,” 
Blair said. “Which, I think our 
defense has done really well 
with not letting the negatives 
in the game carry over. We 
just want to be present for our 
pitchers. Present for ourselves, 
for our team. And there’s always 
room for improvement and 
there are always opportunities 
in the game that we can take 
advantage of next time if we 
didn’t do it the first time.”

Michigan drops series to Pepperdine

Michigan’s 
high 
powered 
schedule took them to the West 
Coast yet again this weekend. But 
the California sunshine was the 
only consistent part of the trip for 
the Wolverines. 
Spotty offensive play plagued 
the No. 16 Michigan baseball team 
(8-7) as it fell to No. 24 Pepperdine 
(12-3) 2-1 in its weekend series. 
The Waves won the opening game 
14-2 and split the doubleheader 
on Saturday, with the Wolverines 
winning the first game 7-4 before 
dropping the final game, 6-1. 
In the first game of the series, a 
slow start doomed the Wolverines 
from the onset, leading to a 12-2 
loss. 
“We came up flat, didn’t have 
a lot of intensity,” freshman 
third baseman Ted Burton said. 
“They took advantage of us when 
we were down. We’ll be better 
intensity wise and playing-wise.”
The Waves have the highest 
batting average of Michigan’s 
opponents thus far and their 
heavy bats manifested themselves 
quickly. After going down in order 
in the top of the first, junior right-
hander Jeff Criswell got behind in 
the strike count in several at-bats. 
Ultimately, in the first inning 
alone he allowed three hits and 
three runs. 
“Whether it was finishing 
a hitter off with two strikes or 
putting the final out in the inning 
with two outs (we were unable to 
get out of the inning),” Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich said.
Criswell started to settle down 
and finished the day throwing five 
innings with seven strikeouts and 
not allowing another run past the 
first inning. 
The lone highlight of the 
opening 
game 
was 
junior 
shortstop 
Jack 
Blomgren’s 
production at the plate. Blomgren 
went 2-for-4 with two runs and 
an RBI, including a solo home run. 
His offensive production allowed 
Michigan to chip away at the 
deficit. 
But, the Wolverines left runners 
in scoring position multiple times. 
Blomgren’s home run may have 
cut the deficit to one run, but 
because Michigan left runners 

stranded earlier, it ultimately did 
not affect the outcome.
“We knew that their starting 
pitching is very good,” Bakich 
said. “We knew they are an older 
team. It’s a great offense that’s just 
got a lot of power. We knew we 
had to play well. Unfortunately, 
they capitalized on all of our 
mistakes.”
To begin the day Saturday, 
the 
Wolverines 
looked 
like 
a 
completely 
different 
team. 
Redshirt freshman left-hander 
Steven Hajjar threw a career-
high six innings and struck 
out a career-high 10 batters. 
Solidifying himself as the second 
pitcher in the rotation, he found 
success in his fastball and his off-
speed pitches, his curveball and 
changeup, to keep Pepperdine 
batters off balance. 
“We’re not a team that likes to 
get kicked around,” Hajjar said. 
“We go in and lose 14-2 that will 
fire anyone up. Coach Bakich 
gave us a good pregame speech 
that we need to earn this team’s 
respect and I think that fired me 
up personally.”
The 
offense 
complemented 
Hajjar’s pitching by scoring four 
runs in the third inning and taking 
advantage of walks. Lead-off 
hitter junior Jordan Nwogu went 
2-for-5 with one RBI, bouncing 
back from the first game where he 
went 0-for-4. 
“We are a team that has the 
ability to win this series and that’s 
what we showed in the second 
game,” Hajjar said. 
The final game of the weekend 
started off hot with Nwogu hitting 
the second ball he saw for a home-
run, but Michigan was unable to 

capitalize on this momentum. 
“I 
think 
the 
problem 
is 
that we didn’t use that to gain 
momentum,” Nwogu said. “We 
struggled the rest of the game to 
string quality at-bats together. I 
think sporadically we put together 
some good at-bats but not enough 
to plate runs.”
Nwogu recorded the only two 
hits of the day, but the Wolverines 
were able to get a total of 10 
baserunners via hit-by-pitch and 
walks. But they were unable to 
get many runners past second 
base and ultimately couldn’t bring 
home any of the runners. 
“We got a lot of runners to 
first and second but that’s about 
where they stopped,” Bakich said. 
“When your playing from behind 
and you’re down 4-1 and 6-1 and 
you can get the first two guys 
on, you can bunt them over. But 
a bunt at the point in the game 
when you’re down 4-1 we don’t 
really want to give up an out just 
to advance runners.”
Junior left-hander Blake Beers 
pitched five innings, allowing five 
hits and three runs. Michigan 
dipped into the bullpen three 
times, but its offensive struggles 
did nothing to help the pitchers 
out. 
“I think that we don’t have a 
problem with effort or anything 
like that we are really giving it 
our all it just didn’t happen for us 
today,” Beers said. “The biggest 
thing that we can take out of today 
is that we are giving it our all it’s 
just not happening for us right 
now. 
“It’s not a bad thing it seems 
like right now it’s just not all 
coming together.”

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Juwan Howard is “praying to the basketball gods” for good health.

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Sophomore guard Danielle Rauch recovered quickly from a broken hand to play at the Big Ten Tournament.

SOFTBALL

ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Writer

LILY ISRAEL
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan baseball team is 8-7 with its first home games this weekend.

Our defense 
and offense 
need to pick up 
on it.

