14

Thursday, May 27, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

SEATTLE — Boos rang out in a 

cacophony from the Seattle University 
fans as centerfielder Bailey Thompson 
was rung out on a changeup that 
floated in and picked the bottom right 
corner of the zone.

From the press vantage point, 

nearly behind the plate, the pitch 
thrown by senior left-hander Meghan 
Beaubien was objectively a strike. 
So why the jeers from the Redhawk 
crowd? They haven’t seen a pitcher of 
this caliber since Washington’s Gabbie 
Plain on March 13, and it was clear 
neither had the Seattle players.

Leaving the game with no hits 

allowed and 12 strikeouts, Beaubien 
was lethal. She picked apart hitters 
with surgical precision, choosing 
her placement and offspeed pitches 
systematically and scientifically. 

“It’s a nice little pride thing,” 

Beaubien said. “It’s nice to throw that 
and say that no one got any hits on you 
that game.”

Meanwhile, the Redhawks looked 

flustered in nearly every at-bat, 
swinging at bad-opportunity pitches 

and watching good ones pass by them 
before turning around and heading 
back to the dugout. 

“I 
think 
a 
combination 
of 

everything I got was really going for 
me today,” Beaubien said. “That helps 
keep hitters off balance.”

When Seattle did make contact, 

they 
were 
typically 
groundouts 

handled well by the Wolverine 
infielders. 
Rarely, 
Michigan’s 

outfielders had to get under a deep ball 

to convert the out.

Despite the controlling pitching 

appearance, the start of the game 
foreshadowed a much shakier outing. 
On the third batter of the game, 
Beaubien accidentally launched a ball 
backwards from her windup, counting 
as a ball. She came back with another 
pitch that soared high. The third came 
inside, striking Thompson on the 
forearm and giving up the free base. 
The entire at-bat for Beaubien was 
shambolic.

Beaubien came back the very next 

batter to prove everyone wrong. It 
took seven pitches as Seattle first 
baseman Madison Catchcart fought 
off Beaubien’s assault, but in the end 
Beaubien won, ringing Catchcart up 
on a heater and sending the Redhawks 
back to their dugout empty handed.

For the rest of the game, she was 

as stout as can be, not a single sign 
of uncertainty peeking through her 
confident performance.

And with little support from her 

offense, Beaubien needed to. She 
willed her team to a 2-0 victory in the 
opening game of the NCAA Seattle 
Regional.

Michigan offense struggles in loss against Maryland

Sophomore 
infielder 
Jimmy 

Obertop swung right through a 
curveball, striking out and leaving 
two runners on base with the 
score 7-3 in the eighth inning. 
The Maryland bench erupted as 
Michigan’s first real chance to get 
back in the game disappeared.

The Wolverines (26-15 Big Ten) 

struggled on both sides of the plate 
as they fell to the Terrapins (26-15) 
on Sunday, 7-3.

Sophomore left-hander Jacob 

Denner started on the mound for 
Michigan, although it was a short 
start. He struggled early, allowing 
two home runs in the first inning 
as Maryland jumped out to a 3-0 
lead. Denner got through the 
second but allowed a double in the 
third and was pulled in favor of 
senior right-hander Blake Beers.

“When you face good hitting 

and you fall behind or you make 
mistakes out over the middle of 
the plate good hitters are gonna hit 

it,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich 
said. “They made us pay early in 
the game and we got down.”

Beers did not fare much better 

than Denner. He allowed an 
inherited runner to score, and then 
ran into trouble an inning later, 
allowing two runs and two more 
to reach base before he exited. 
Freshman 
left-hander 
Logan 

Wood took over and allowed one 
run to score but was able to induce 
a double play to end the inning 
with the score at 7-3. Wood got 
through 2.1 innings before leaving.

The back end of the bullpen did 

well, as graduate student right-
hander Joe Pace worked a clean 
1.1 innings in relief of Wood, and 
junior right-hander Willie Weiss 
finished off the game with two 
scoreless frames.

“Logan Ward and Joe Pace and 

Willie Weiss were able to land 
their secondary stuff at a much 
better rate than the first two guys 
were,” Bakich said. “They got 
ahead of hitters and had them off 
balance.”

But the damage was already 

done. The Michigan offense was 
dormant, putting up just three 
runs and four hits as the team 
struggled to muster up quality at 
bats.

“We didn’t have much going 

on offensively after the second 
inning,” Bakich said. “Credit to 
their pitching, they were pitching 
fine and it’s also our fault for not 
making more hard contact. The 
hard contact we made was caught.”

Sophomore 
outfielder 
Tito 

Flores got the Wolverines on the 
board in the second, crushing a 
three-run home run to the left 
after graduate transfer infielder 
Benjamin 
Sems 
singled 
and 

sophomore infielder Ted Burton 
doubled to level the score at three.

Those early hits turned out 

be three of the four total that 
Michigan lodged in the game

There 
was 
no 
late-inning 

magic today, as the eighth-inning 
opportunity ended with Obertop’s 
strikeout. In the ninth, a leadoff 
walk by Sems was erased by a 
Burton 
strikeout 
and 
Mazur 

grounding into a double play to 

end the game.

The 
explosive 
Wolverine 

offense struggled to produce and 
early 
pitching 
struggles 
gave 

Maryland 
an 
insurmountable 

lead and the series win. The loss 
eliminates Michigan from Big 
Ten title contention, as Nebraska 
clinched the title by moving 3.5 
games ahead of the Wolverines 

with a win today against Ohio 
State.

“It feels horrible,” sophomore 

outfielder 
Clark 
Elliott 
said. 

“Especially on senior day, not to 

mention the weight that it carried 
for the postseason, it leaves a sour 
taste in our mouth. You want to let 
the seniors go out on a win, but we 
just couldn’t get it done.”

 STEEL HURLEY
Daily Sports Writer

Against first non-conference opponent of the season, Meghan Beaubien 

delivers no-hitter

SAM BERNARDI
Daily Sports Writer

JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily

Michigan softball player Meghan Beaubien threw a no-hitter against Seattle University. 

BECCA MAHON/Daily

Michigan pitching struggled to contain the Maryland offense.

Read more at michigandaily.com

