but going for the win.”
In the second set, Styler faced 
some net errors but quickly fol-
lowed up with a service winner 
and strong backhand to take the 
first game. Kingsley, also eager to 
take control, fought back to trade 
the hold with Styler, taking a game 
to make it 3-3. Eventually Styler’s 
discipline endured, Styler won 
the final game without dropping a 
point, taking the set and with it the 
match, 6-4.

NILS G. 
WALTER

Francis S. Collins Collegiate 
Professor of Chemistry, Biophysics 
& Biological Chemistry

A public lecture and reception; you may attend in person or virtually. For more information, 

including the Zoom link, visit events.umich.edu/event/103679 or call 734.615.6667.

Monday, May 8, 2023 | 4:00 p.m. | LSA Multipurpose Room, Kessler Student Center

From Spawning 
Life on Earth 
to Fueling Modern 
Personalized Medicine

Can RNA 
Do It All?

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Wednesday, April 12, 2023 — 11 

Defense translates to offense in 
Michigan’s 2-1 walk-off win over Illinois

ZACH EDWARDS
Daily Sports Writer

In the Michigan softball team’s 
series finale, more than just a series 
win against Illinois was at stake. A 
chance to build momentum toward 
the rest of Big Ten play was at hand 
as well. And the Wolverines capital-
ized on the opportunity by translat-
ing strong defensive performance 
into offensive chances — culminat-
ing in a walk-off double from junior 
catcher Keke Tholl to win the game.
With Tholl’s walkoff hit, Michi-
gan (19-15 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) won 
the final game in the series against 
Illinois (23-17, 2-8), 2-1, turning 
what was a struggle all weekend — 
translating defensive success into 
offense — into its ticket to victory. 
That defensive success stemmed 
from sophomore right-hander Lau-
ren Derkowski on the mound with 
her dominance continuing to pre-
vail. 
“It starts in the circle and then 
it has to go into defense and then 
it finally gets to hitting,” Michigan 
coach Bonnie Tholl said. “Hitting 
is always the last to catch up in that 
maturity curve but they’re being 
exactly what they want to be in a 
team and what I want to see out of 
the team, which is still being feisty 
right now. Sometimes we’re win-
ning ugly, but it doesn’t matter. 
Right now, we’re just getting better.”
Those improvements showed 
almost immediately with the Wol-
verines preventing a hit in the top 
of the first inning for the first time 

all weekend. For Michigan, building 
momentum early has been instru-
mental to its success, and Derkows-
ki began to provide the momentum. 
But that momentum came to 
a screeching halt in the second 
inning. 
Illinois first baseman Sydney 
Malott hit a solo home run to left 
field to open the scoring. This could 
have been detrimental for Michi-
gan’s defense, but the Wolverines 
retired three of the next four batters 
to get out of the inning without too 
much damage from the Fighting 
Illini. 
Starting the top of the third, 
Derkowsk built off that success by 
facing the top of Illinois’ lineup — 
which includes two of its top three 
hitters — and retiring them in order. 
“Derkowski was a rockstar once 
again,” Bonnie said. “She got out of 
some really big jams. And so you got 
to credit your defense and pitching, 
keeping us in the game until you 
can make something happen offen-
sively.”
All season long, the Wolverines’ 
offense has fed on the energy and 
success of their defense, and it did 
exactly that in the third inning. 
Sophomore shortstop Ella McVey 
tallied Michigan’s first hit of the 
afternoon and her third of the week-
end. After McVey advanced to third 
on a fielder’s choice, graduate cen-
ter fielder Lexie Blair hit a single to 
right-center field that brought Sieler 
home and tied the game at one. 
When the Wolverines’ defense 
excels 
and 
prevents 
potential 
momentum-shifting hits, it trans-
lates to the offense 
and 
allows 
them 
to get moving. And 
they 
continued 
their excellent field-
ing throughout the 
remainder 
of 
the 
game, including a 
key double play in the 
fourth. 
The 
Wolverines 

found their stride on defense and 
just needed a breakthrough on 
offense to take the lead.
With the game on the line in 
the seventh inning, both teams 
placed runners in scoring posi-
tions with hits, but neither team 
took the edge. 
“We’re hitting .300 with run-
ners in scoring position,” Bonnie 
said. “It hasn’t always equated 
to victories, but I felt pretty good 
about getting somebody in scor-
ing position. And we had defi-
nite momentum the last couple 
of weeks, and it just speaks to 
momentum.”
And in the eighth inning, using 
the momentum it built from the 
previous inning, the Wolverines 
finally had their breakthrough. 
Sieler opened up the inning 
with a hit over second base for a 
single. A sacrifice bunt from Blair 
moved her to second and a walk 
from graduate right fielder Ellie 
Mataya put baserunners at first 
and second. 
Keke stepped up to the plate 
with the entire game and week-
end series on the line — and she 
delivered. Her walk-off double 
brought Sieler home, capping off 
the weekend with a narrow win 
for Michigan. 
“Every emotion was flowing 
through me,” Keke said. “That was 
just amazing. And to see my team-
mates fight out of that, I ran over 
to the dugout after I saw Sieler go 
home. I don’t think I have words 
to say how great that feeling was.”
After winning the final game in 
dramatic fashion, the Wolverines 
get a much needed victory to also 
win the series and potentially pro-
pel it through the rest of the Big 
Ten season. The Wolverines built 
defensive momentum to score the 
walk-off hit and win the game on 
Sunday, but they’ll look to find 
better ways to accumulate scores, 
without a nail-biting walk-off 
being necessary to win games.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Sports

SOFTBALL

SportsMonday: Michigan is a football school. Don’t forget it.

NICHOLAS STOLL
Daily Sports Writer

About a month ago, I was sitting 
at Good Time Charley’s watch-
ing the Michigan men’s basketball 
team get thrashed by Rutgers in 
the Big Ten Tournament, the clock 
ticking down mercifully to end 
their NCAA Tournament hopes.
Before the ‘double zeroes’ even 
flashed across the screen, in a mix 
of jest and self-consolation, some-
one at my table chimed in:
“It doesn’t matter, we’re a hock-
ey school anyway.” 
A “hockey school.”
That phrase — some sport with 
“school” tacked on the end — has 
cracked me up since Kentucky’s 
John Calipari and Mark Stoops got 
in a petty debate over the Wildcats’ 
athletic identity last year. 
In most scenarios, it seems 
equally as arbitrary as it is obvious. 
Kentucky is a basketball school 
(get over it, Mark), Alabama is foot-
ball, Duke is basketball, Georgia is 
football and Michigan State is bas-
ketball.
See? Easy.
And regardless of whether the 
Crimson Tide have an up year in 

basketball or the Spartans have a 
down year under Tom Izzo, the 
label remains the same.
So, while in my friends’ case 
they were simply signaling their 
shift in focus to the then-on-a-roll 
Michigan hockey team and away 
from the anemic state of both Wol-
verine basketball programs, they 
weren’t correct in their assertion.
Michigan is not a “hockey 
school.” Nor is it a basketball 
school.
Say it with me:
It’s a football school.
And I don’t think it’s ever been 
more clear. No, the Wolverines 
haven’t won a national champion-
ship in over 25 years. And while 
they’re built to win a title now, they 
still might not in the next few years 
either (but that feels like a column 
for a different day). Yet that’s not 
what makes it so painstakingly 
clear to me that this is a football 
school.
Sure, the history helps, but 
when most living people have only 
witnessed one Michigan national 
championship and not a single cur-
rent undergraduate student was 
alive the last time the Wolverines 
lifted the banner, that history loses 
its oomph. 

What makes it clear is that 
Michigan football is back.
Because it’s not just back from a 
down year or two — it’s back from 
the grave.
In my 22 years of life, the Wol-
verines have only beaten Ohio State 
four times, two of which came in 
the last two years. They’re also 
11-11 against their second biggest 
rival, Michigan State, in the same 
time period. Not to mention a mea-
sly four wins in bowl games in my 
lifetime. A 15-29 record against 
its rivals and just four postseason 

wins in 22 years? That’s not “Mich-
igan football” — that’s not the sign 
of a strong football program.
From the end of the Lloyd Carr 
era, to Rich Rod, to Brady Hoke, 
the Wolverines have been in the 
mud. Even the beginning of Jim 
Harbaugh’s tenure ushered in 
mixed feelings. Michigan might 
technically have been winning 
more, but not the important games. 
But after two consecutive wins 
over Ohio State, two consecutive 
Big Ten Championships and two 
consecutive College Football Play-

off berths — not to mention a 2024 
recruiting class currently ranked 
No. 2 while still picking up steam 
— the Wolverines have been resur-
rected.
It shows when Heisman-caliber 
and draft-eligible players like run-
ning back Blake Corum come back. 
It shows when five-star quarter-
back Jadyn Davis committed to 
Michigan and vowed to bring more 
players with him, just three years 
after star quarterback J.J. McCar-
thy did the same. And it shows 
when the Wolverines have set their 
sights on winning it all, from the 
coach down to the players.
“I’m willing to do whatever it 
takes to win it all,” Corum said on 
the “In the Trenches” podcast Jan. 
9. “I hope Team 144 is ready. I’m 
going to make sure they’re ready.” 
Before him, McCarthy’s “job’s 
not finished” statements after 
beating the Buckeyes and winning 
the Big Ten Championship implied 
it.
Before him, Harbaugh put it 
simply:
“We could win college football’s 
greatest trophy,” Harbaugh said in 
March of 2022. “We could win the 
national championship.”
The Michigan football program 
TESS CROWLEY/Daily

is not just alive again — its heart is 
beating, its stomach is hungry and 
its eyes are filled with fire. Just a 
few years ago, these Wolverines 
were nowhere to be seen, and they 
haven’t been seen for a long, long 
time.
And this Lazarushian story 
arc is what solidifies Michigan as 
a football school. Because that’s 
what “football school” or “basket-
ball school” means.
It means a program that can’t 
truly die, no matter how lifeless it 
might look.
That’s Michigan football.
On any given year, the basket-
ball teams, the ice hockey team, 
the gymnastics teams, the base-
ball team, the softball team or any 
other team that dons the maize and 
blue might be better than the foot-
ball team in their respective sport. 
That doesn’t change the label.
That success, even when sus-
tained, remains temporary and 
fragile. The elite level could slip, 
and any one of those programs 
could fall off completely.
But Michigan football can’t be 
felled. 
Michigan is, Michigan was, and 
Michigan always will be:
A football school.

JOSHUA BROWN
Daily Sports Writer

Sunday games for the Michigan 
baseball team have not been its 
sweet spot. The Wolverines have 
slogged their way through Sundays 
by conjuring together a hodge-
podge of leftover pitchers.
On Sunday, those remaining 
arms tasked with winning the 
weekend series against Nebraska 
were a far cry from the quality out-
ings of the prior two days. The poor 
pitching performances compound-
ed throughout the game and let any 
hope of a win slip away.
And in this box-of-chocolates 
day, where unpredictability loomed 
at every pitch, Michigan (17-14 
overall, 6-3 Big Ten) fell victim once 
again to its Achilles heel of pitching 
depth in an 11-3 loss to the Corn-
huskers (18-10-1, 4-2).
“(Nebraska) came out and beat 
us in every facet today,” Michigan 
coach Tracy Smith said. “Not a 
lot to comment on with regard to 
today, but (we) played hard and we 
just got to get better and better, and 
(recognize) that every 90 feet mat-
ters offensively, defensively.”
Early on, those 90 feet between 
each base produced good results 
for the Wolverines coming off their 
strong hitting throughout the line-
up on Saturday. After a scoreless 
first frame by senior left-hander 
Jacob Denner, senior first baseman 
Jack Van Remortel pounced on his 
first opportunity with a two-RBI 
single off Cornhuskers left-hander 
Will Walsh to give his squad an 
early 2-0 advantage.
For a moment, the Sunday curse 
seemed to be lifted.
But after this promising first 
inning, Nebraska delivered a com-
bination of devastating long shots 
at the plate, blowing up Michigan’s 
strategy to nurse its arms through-
out the game. Smith has repeatedly 
told his team that solo home runs 

don’t kill them.
But Sunday, solo shots delivered 
the early dagger, as a pair of bombs 
by Cornhuskers catcher Josh Caron 
and second baseman Max Ander-
son, with a three-run homer by 
shortstop Brice Matthews sand-
wiched in between, chased Denner 
after just 2.1 innings and six runs 
allowed.
“If we’re not getting length on 
the starter — it’s problematic,” 
Smith said. “Six runs, two-and-a-
third (innings), so kind of forced our 
hand a little bit to make the move 
earlier than we certainly wanted to, 
but not sure we had a choice.”
The Wolverines’ inability to get 
additional innings out of Denner 
with an already-thin pitching staff 
was then further complicated when 
senior right-hander Cam Hart was 
only able to record one out before 
being pulled due to an apparent 
injury.
This forced junior right-hander 
Ryan Zimmer to anchor the long 
relief role. Zimmer couldn’t fully 
stem the bleeding though, allowing 
three earned runs in three innings 
pitched. Two of those were let in 
by senior right-hander John Tor-
roella after replacing Zimmer with 
runners on, however. As the game 
unraveled from the mound for 
Michigan, it found itself down 10-3 
by the sixth inning.
Despite 
these 
compounding 
challenges from the mound, Michi-

gan also wilted in opportunities 
with runners in scoring position. 
Freshman 
third 
baseman 
Mitch Voit lined out to Walsh 
with the bases loaded in the bot-
tom of the third inning, and the 
Wolverines left runners on first 
and second in the fourth after a 
solo home run by senior left field-
er Jake Marti. Following these 
missed opportunities, the batting 
lineup failed to produce any more 
runs.
While the hits and scoring 
opportunities did not convert 
into many runs — it scored a mere 
three runs off 11 hits — Michigan’s 
fate was sealed on the mound, 
yielding 11 runs, all earned, in a 
fashion similar to last Sunday’s 
11-1 loss to Illinois. And it does not 
seem like quick fixes are immi-
nent to solve the issue.
“It’s not like Major League 
Baseball when you call guys up 
from triple-A,” Smith said. “This 
is who we are at this point. Just 
guys are going to have to get bet-
ter.”
After winning their first two 
Big Ten series, the Wolverines’ 
blowout loss brought them 
back down to earth in this 
Sunday rubber match against 
Nebraska, serving as a sober-
ing reminder of their nagging 
pitching weakness that has 
plagued them in games across 
the season.

BASEBALL

Ondrej Styler shows endurance in singles despite team loss 
against No. 3 Ohio State

Following a doubles match loss 
to Cannon Kingsley and JJ Trac-
ey, senior Ondrej Styler entered 
the court determined to edge out 
Kingsley on a solo court. After 
trading holds in the first set, they 
pushed the set to a tiebreak.
On the 32nd point, Styler 
approached the net and slammed 
the ball into the court. He threw 
his hands up in the air in triumph, 
conducting the crowd as they 
roared, finally taking the set, 7-6 
(15).
Styler’s performance against 
No. 3 Ohio State was a true test 
of endurance as he battled long 
games and sets in a singles vic-
tory over Kingsley on Sunday at 
the Varsity Tennis Center 7-6 
(15), 6-4. Styler went on to win his 
match, but his endurance was not 
enough for the Michigan men’s 
tennis team in a 4-2 loss.
In doubles play, Styler and 

junior 
Jacob 
Bickersteth 
saw 
difficulty breaking against the 
Buckeyes and were plagued by mis-
communication, dropping the set 
6-2. 
“I think we need to figure out 
our patterns a little bit more and get 
a little bit more on the same page,” 
Styler said. “I’ve switched partners 
throughout the season and we are 
still trying to figure out the best 
fit.”
In singles play at the No. 2 court, 
Styler opened the match with 
strong serves to take the first game, 
but Kingsley promptly followed up 
to take the next. After continuing 
their back-and-forth game, Kings-
ley began to read Styler’s play and 
forced him into net returns, win-
ning three consecutive games, with 
the score 5-3. 
Still determined to outlast King-
sley, Styler fought back. He forced 
Kingsley to run the baseline with 
crafty line shots and slice volleys, 
eventually forcing a tiebreak, six-
all.
“(Kingsley and I have) played a 

lot since my freshman year,” Styler 
said. “We both came at the same 
time and since I kind of won in two 
sets last time, I tried to do a similar 
thing, just the same strategy.”
In their past two singles meet-
ings, Kingsley and Styler similarly 
pushed the match to a tiebreak with 
Styler ultimately taking the set, and 
with it both matches. Again, Styler 
had to find the strength and endur-
ance to clench the win, but on Sun-
day for several more points. 
Styler was able to capitalize 
on Kingsley’s forced net errors, 
returning drop vol-
leys and multiple 
saved set points, 
taking the set on his 
17th point.
“I just tried to 
stay in the moment 
and keep going for 
my shots and even-
tually go for the 
win,” Styler said. 
“Not just hoping for 
the win, not hoping 
for other misses, 

MEN’S TENNIS

ANNA FUDER/Daily
JEREMY WEINE/Daily

Poor pitching piles up for 
Michigan in loss to Nebraska

KENDALL MCCASKILL
Daily Sports Writer

CALEB ROSENBLUM/Daily

