After eight innings, senior left-hander Meghan
Beaubien stepped off the rubber. The biomedical
engineering student walked off the field with her
fifth collegiate complete game no-hitter, this time
with an extra inning tacked on. The 2-1 credited
win over Nebraska marked her 73rd as a Wolverine,
surpassing Kelly Kovach for ninth-most in Michigan
history.
Beaubien’s work on the diamond was over for the
day, but she still had work in three classes — senior
design, upper level occupational biomechanics and
advanced math for engineers — to look forward to.
For most student athletes, let alone students, such
a schedule would cause anxiety by just looking at
it. Beaubien, though, considers this not only a light
course load, but one of the easiest semesters she’s had
in college.
Being a pitcher that understands high level
engineering, mathematics and biology has its
advantages. It gives Beaubien a deeper understanding
of why a ball spins, what makes it move, how she can
generate the most force off the ground and what push
off angle allows her to throw the hardest ball possible.
It’s also a large reason why Beaubien describes
pitching the way she can.
“I don’t want a high angle with the ground, and I
want (my front foot) as low to the ground as possible,”
Beaubien said. “If I want to be technical about this,
that’s because if we’re imagining a force vector from
that drive foot, from my left foot, if it’s going too far
up then I’m wasting force and wasting energy in
the vertical direction when I want to maximize the
horizontal force.”
Her intellectual perspective isn’t overlooked by
Beaubien’s coaches either, who embrace and adapt
their coaching to fit her unique approach.
“It is fun to have a mind like Meghan’s because
most students and even coaches don’t speak the same
way Meghan does,” Michigan associate head coach
Bonnie Tholl said. “The terminology’s different, the
vernacular is different.”
Michigan pitching coach Jennifer Brundage
asks Beaubien questions instead of telling her what’s
wrong. She’s learned that having Beaubien solve the
problem in her head or out loud is a way to facilitate
her learning and adjustment. Essentially, Brundage
prompts Beaubien to find the solution herself,
which is not the way she approaches coaching other
pitchers.
When asked about Beaubien’s biomechanical
view of softball, junior catcher Hannah Carson
chuckled before responding.
“She is very analytical,” Carson said. “So when you
start to talk to her about how pitches move and the
trajectory of the pitch, sometimes she’ll start talking
to me and I don’t even know what she’s saying. Like
she’ll start talking about angles and speed, and then I
just have to be like ‘OK, yeah. That one just seemed a
little bit faster than the one before.’ ”
Beaubien’s fellow pitcher, and the right hook to her
left, junior Alex Storako, called Beaubien’s method
“hilarious” before going into how she and Beaubien
approach pitching problems differently. Storako
called Beaubien mechanical and analytical, while
stating her own style relies more on how things look
and feel.
Mechanical and analytical is the most accurate
description of not only how Beaubien comes at
softball, but how she goes through life.
***
It was a Sunday morning in Newport, Michigan.
Jason Beaubien sat at the helm of the vehicle with
his hands on the steering wheel, eyes on the road and
over four hours of driving ahead of him. Newport to
Chicago, every weekend, and all for his 14-year-old
daughter sitting in the backseat. She wanted to play
on the best travel team she could, and that meant long
hours on I-94.
Typically, a long car ride might offer a parent a
chance to bond or spend some time talking with their
otherwise-busy daughter. At least that’s what other
people told Jason.
“For us,” Jason said. “… There was no time.”
Instead, Meghan had her books sprawled out
across the car and her eyes locked in on the pages. She
had a four-hour practice in front of her and another
long drive back home to end the day. She didn’t have
much time during the week either, so this was her
opportunity to study and do her homework, and she
was determined to get it done.
Though it made for some lonely drives, that
behavior is exactly what Jason and Kim Beaubien
preached to their daughter.
Each day, Meghan would go out to her uncle’s
barn to pitch, driven to get better, and every day her
father would catch for her. But first, there were some
questions.
When do you want to go pitch? How much
homework do you have? When are you going to do it?
“They kind of held that standard,” Meghan said.
“Like, ‘OK, well we’re not going to go pitch if your
homework isn’t done, but at the same time, you know
you’re on travel softball teams. You’re expected to get
your pitching in.’ ”
In the Beaubien household, academics weren’t an
afterthought. Both Meghan and her younger brother,
Matt, were held to a high standard. That didn’t mean
they needed all A’s, but they needed to do their best.
So Meghan did her best.
That included studying on car rides, homework
before pitching and working late at night.
“She was so busy with her academics, and even in
high school it would be routine for her to be up to one,
two o’clock in the morning getting her homework
done,” Jason said.
It turned out that when Meghan tried her best,
even though all A’s weren’t expected of her, she
got them. Through middle school she breezed by,
receiving perfect marks without much effort. In
high school at Saint Mary Catholic Central, Meghan
graduated in 2017 as valedictorian with a 4.7 GPA and
a 34 on the ACT while taking every AP class that fit
into her schedule.
Her academic success never slowed down her
progress on the softball field. Meghan posted
outstanding individual achievements including
Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year and FloSoftball
First Team All-American in 2015, as well as the two
years after that. Additionally, she was a four-time
Michigan All-State selection with a 100-11 career
record and 1,442 strikeouts, becoming the FloSoftball
No. 6 overall recruit in the country.
On the team side, Meghan also found success. She
left high school as a three-time state champion and
a two-year team captain. In 2016, she tossed back-
to-back perfect games in the state semifinal and
championship games. With the Beverly Bandits, her
travel ball team, Meghan won the 16U PGF National
Championship in 2016 and was runner up in 2015.
At the end of it all, she had a smattering of D1 offers
to choose from. For her decision, it came back to
academics.
“When I was being recruited, I wrote out …
colleges that would be kind of on my dream list,”
Meghan said. “My top two criteria were how’s their
softball program, and how are they academically.
And honestly, I might say that academics were
weighted maybe even a little higher than the softball
program.”
So when it came time for Meghan to decide on her
commitment, Michigan came out as a clear winner.
It was a place where she wouldn’t have to sacrifice
either one of her passions to pursue the other.
A place that let Meghan keep being Meghan.
“She was just a kid that loved school,” Jason said.
“It’s strange to say, but she loves school and she loves
softball. … and I think that’s molded her into the
young lady she is.”
***
“I got to college and I was like, ‘Oh wait, I’m not as
smart as I thought I was,’ ” Beaubien said.
Because as smart as she is, her academic and
athletic success is more a product of her effort and
organization than her inherent intelligence.
Because of this wake-up call, something countless
students at Michigan have experienced, Beaubien
plans her entire week out down to the hour. She
knows when she needs to leave for practice, when
to go to a meeting, when she’s going to start an
assignment — one that is often not even due until over
a week later — and when she’s going to hang out with
friends.
Planning, though, is one thing. Following through
and excelling at it is another. That’s where all the
lessons about balance and hard work Beaubien
learned when she was younger pays off.
“She’s the kind of kid that you have to reign her in
a little bit,” Brundage said. “If I didn’t put a maximum
number of pitches on a workout for her, she would
throw too much all the time because she’s just a
workhorse that way. You can tell her work ethic. She’s
not afraid of hard work and she’s not afraid to put in
the hours.”
That’s more emblematic of Beaubien than
anything else. Not her GPA or valedictorian status.
Not her no-hitters or total strikeouts. Not her state
championships or player of the year awards. It’s her
work ethic and drive to do her best no matter what.
“No one was tougher on Meghan than Meghan,”
Jason said. “She was very determined, whether it was
studying for a math exam, or winning a spelling bee.
… No matter what it was, she was just determined to
win and be the best she could be and that carried her.”
Whatever obstacle stands in front of her, Beaubien
keeps going. Trying, analyzing and trying again
until she has it down to a science. That’s Beaubien’s
approach. That’s her method.
16 — Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan senior left-hander Meghan Beaubien uses
her analytical mind in both softball and school work.
With 12 College World Series
appearances, and winners of the first
national championship east of the
Mississippi River in 2005, Michigan
softball
has
earned
its
reputation as a
storied program.
Its
postseason
results
since
the graduation
of
legendary
infielder Sierra
Romero in 2016,
though, may not
show it.
The Wolverines have consistently
dominated the Big Ten since then.
They have held at least a share of
the
regular-season
conference
championship in 11 of the last 12
seasons, with the only blemish being
a second-place finish in 2017. Early on,
Michigan looks on pace to continue
its in-conference success. It currently
stands at 16-4, winners of 10 out of its
last 11 games heading into its home-
opener against Michigan State.
It’s in the postseason where things
have gotten tricky.
In the three postseasons since
their 2016 College World Series
run, the Wolverines have failed to
advance past the regional stage,
including the most recent NCAA
tournament in 2019 where they lost
to James Madison on their very own
Alumni Field. For an ordinary softball
program, three consecutive NCAA
regional appearances is nothing to
look down upon.
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
does not run an ordinary softball
program.
With over 1600 wins, Hutchins
entered this season as the winningest
D1 softball coach in history. Since
leading the Wolverines to their first
College World Series appearance in
1995, in only their third trip to the
NCAA Tournament, Michigan has
not missed the playoffs.
These last three years mark the
longest super-regional drought the
Wolverines have ever endured since
becoming postseason staples in 1995.
Add in the pandemic-shortened 2020
campaign, and Michigan is at a point
by-far furthest removed from playoff
success in the last quarter century.
Stuck
on
being
consistently
good for almost a half-decade, the
Wolverines are now at an inflection
point. They have what it takes, within
their current roster, to take the
program back to the College World
Series. To be great.
They just haven’t shown it yet.
They have shown bits and pieces
of a formula destined for success,
one seen in the likes of the 2013-2016
teams, when Michigan went to the
College World Series in three out of
four years, the 2009 College World
Series squad or the 2005 National
Champions.
Those bits and pieces include one
of the most dynamic pitching-duos
in the nation: junior right-hander
Alex Storako and senior left-hander
Meghan Beaubien. Together, along
with three innings of support from
senior right-hander Sarah Schaefer,
they have propelled the Wolverines
to a nation-leading .90 ERA, and have
placed Michigan as the only program
in the country to hold a team ERA
under one.
That’s not only dominant, it’s
a proven recipe for success. The
pitching rotation has held batters to a
.158 batting average so far this season.
That number is a full .28 points below
the average opponent batting average
of Michigan’s last five College World
Series teams and is on-par with the
2005 champions’ numbers.
“Our pitchers have done a fantastic
job of doing their part,” Hutchins said.
“They keep us in every game, we’ve
had a chance to win every game we’ve
played.”
When it comes to a formula that
can return the Wolverines to an
elite national program, as opposed
to a consistent Big Ten powerhouse,
pitching is certainly found in the
equation. So is fielding. When batters
do make contact with balls thrown
by Beaubien or Storako — a relatively
rare occurrence as they both sit
in the top nine in the nation for
strikeouts per game — the balls make
it to a defensive unit boasting a top-25
fielding percentage.
With such success on one side of
the ball, the question turns to where
Michigan can go to become elite
once again: What’s missing from this
team’s equation that teams from years
past have had?
The answer runs deeper than
just to hit better, it lies in whether
or not the Wolverines actually have
an attainable path to providing
enough run-support to make use of
Beaubien and Storako’s elite skill-sets
postseason play is the real question at
hand.
Luckily for Michigan, they do. As
the game of softball evolves towards
an
emphasis
on
power-hitting,
a common argument has been
Michigan’s inability to keep up with
the changes. However, recently, the
Wolverines’ bats have shown serious
pop. Over the past weekend at Ohio
State, for example, they blasted seven
home runs, and are now tied for third
in the Big Ten with 14.
Obviously, no conversation about
the Michigan offense can take place
without mentioning junior outfielder
Lexie Blair. No matter how the
offensive unit as a whole has played,
Blair has consistently delivered. She’s
recorded at least a hit in all 20 games
this season, and boasts an astounding
.478 batting average. That’s even
higher than Romero’s average in 2016,
when she led the Wolverines’ last
College World Series team in batting.
“Is she one of the best hitters here
at Michigan ever? She’s definitely in
that conversation,” associate head
coach Bonnie Tholl said. “Anytime
she steps into the box, you can expect
something exciting to happen.”
That 2016 team, the last team to
reach what has been a standard for
the program, had productive sticks up
and down the lineup. They had three
batters hit over .400 on the season,
and their entire starting lineup hit at
least at a .300 clip.
To make it back to the College
World Series, the 2021 team doesn’t
need to match the batting averages
of teams that made it to the World
Series before them in order to reach
that elite level themselves. They have
a historically dominant pitching
tandem, all they need to do is seize
the potential that the current lineup
holds, and the promised land can
return to sight for the Wolverines.
The improvement doesn’t have
to be dramatic. With the offensive
surge last weekend against Indiana,
Michigan showed promise up and
down its lineup. The team has
already brought its previously-
dismal team batting average up
to .302, and now have five batters
hitting north of .295.
“We are upward trending in
offense,” Hutchins said on March
28. “And again, once again, hitting
becomes contagious.”
As they gain momentum in the
batter’s box, those numbers aren’t
too far off from the 2015 team, who
lost in the College World Series final
to Florida in three games. Their
pitching tandem, meanwhile, held a
1.74 ERA, far higher than Beaubien’s
and Storako’s.
As opposed to praying for a
miraculous upsurge in hitting, where
the entire team is batting over .300 for
example, in order to play elite softball,
the Wolverines just need further
in-season
improvements
from
players already starting to get hot.
This includes senior infielder Natalia
Rodriguez. She entered the series
against Indiana batting .231 and ninth
in the lineup. She now hits .309 and
watches leadoff-hitter Blair from the
on-deck circle. A continued upswing
from her can provide a lethal one-
two punch that will produce ample
support for Michigan pitchers.
Pair Rodriguez with batters like
senior first baseman Lou Allan, who
smashed three home runs over the
weekend, and the offense begins to
take shape. Add in a crop of young
Wolverine hitters that are getting more
and more comfortable with gained
experiences, such as sophomore Julia
Jimenez whose batting average has
swelled to .295 and continues to rise,
and all-of-a-sudden this Michigan
team starts to look like the dominant
ones of years past.
“We’re working our offense hard,”
Hutchins said. “What they can do
better is just focus on their one-pitch
moment, and that’s all we can ask of
them.”
Whether the offense will continue
to improve remains in question.
Michigan softball is at a crossroads
between being Big Ten bullies
and national stars. They’re at an
intersection
between
a
quarter
century of continued success and a
future that is far from certain. They
have the missing link in their grasp:
a roster beaming with potential, a
roster capable of steering the program
back toward consistent appearances
in softball’s biggest stage. Toward
greatness.
They just have to harness it.
NICK STOLL
Daily Sports Writer
Scientific method: Meghan Beaubien’s
analytical approach to softball
Michigan has the talent, can it end a super regional drought?
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins is looking to take her team past the regionals
for the first time in five years.
PAUL
NASR
Michigan fails to
capitalize on early
scoring run
After a 20-9 defeat against Maryland on Feb. 20, the Michigan
men’s lacrosse team looked to even the season series on Saturday.
Against the nation’s second-ranked squad, Michigan needed a fast
start to assert itself and send Maryland a message that it came to play.
That message was delivered early by the Wolverines as they jumped
to a 5-0 lead seven minutes into the game. Michigan’s quick start saw
it play its best team lacrosse all season, forcing the Terrapins into their
largest deficit of the year.
But then it fell apart. The Wolverines (2-6 Big Ten) failed to finish,
falling 18-12 to No. 2 Maryland (8-0).
It didn’t take long before the Terrapins flipped the switch. They
proceeded to go on a blistering 16-0 scoring run while flexing their
defensive mettle, holding the Wolverines’ offense off the scoreboard
for 27 minutes.
“We’ve got to stop the runs,” Michigan coach Kevin Conry said.
“The most important thing that we can do is come out of the third
quarter with some fire. … If you’re not dialed in 100% of the time —
and the most disciplined team on the field, the most physical team on
the field, the most attentive to all the details — you will lose. We lost
because we gave up those runs.”
During that run, Maryland maintained possession and kept the
ball out of the Wolverines’ hands. Michigan began the game with a
9-2 shot differential. By the time the game ended, though, Maryland
dominated in shots, outpacing the Wolverines 39-23.
“We gave them an outlet, and we allowed them to find out who they
were again: The No. 2 team in the country,” Conry said. “When you
play Maryland, and if you want to beat them, you have to over execute
for sixty minutes. And in that twenty-seven minutes, they had the ball
and we couldn’t make a stop. Maryland was over executing, and we
were not meeting our standards.”
Michigan appeared to regain momentum late in the game by going
on a 7-2 run, but the Terrapins’ earlier burst proved to be too much for
the Wolverines to overcome.
Maryland’s offensive surge was keyed by arguably the best player
in the country in senior attackman Jared Bernhardt. During its
16-0 scoring run, Bernhardt netted five goals while assisting on two
others. His off-ball presence made it very difficult for defenders to
predict his move.
“He’s one of the best players in the country for a reason,” junior
defenseman Andrew Darby said. “He is an unbelievable player, and he
works really hard. Going up against him is definitely a good learning
experience for us. We tried different things to stop him. I love to play
against players that good because it can only make you better.”
Key contributors to this game included junior attackman Bryce
Clay, who knotted a hat trick and an assist, and sophomore attackman
Josh Zawada, who tallied two goals and three assists for the day.
On Saturday, the Wolverines hung with one of the nation’s best
programs. Despite a valiant effort, Conry’s squad will need far more
than moral victories as the season reaches its apex.
MARK PATRICK
Daily Sports Writer
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Junior attackman Bryce Clay scored three times vs. Maryland.