Tuesday Morning Brews: Zero hour

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. Spring is in the air, or at least it is in the Mid-Atlantic. I’m looking at a start to the work week in the 70s, and Wednesday might even touch 80. With Spring weather comes Spring sports, so we’re checking in with softball, baseball, hockey, and women’s gymnastics this morning.

Let’s get to it:

Michigan softball is off and running, but their results thus far have been somewhat mixed. The Wolverines opened their season at the USF Wilson-Demarini Tournament, going 3-2, with wins over UAB, Georgia State, and Illinois State, and losses against No. 2 Florida and USF. Ironically, Michigan also went 3-2 with losses to a Top-5 ranked Florida team and a solid USF club in the same tournament last year. In the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Michigan went 2-2, beating No. 8 Florida State and Notre Dame before losing the second games to both. That puts Michigan at 5-4 on the season. They’ll be back in action this weekend in the Texas Invitational against Virginia Tech., Texas, and Wichita State.

Baseball opened its season with a series win over Army. The Wolverines took the opening game by a score 12-6 over the Black Knights. In the second game, Michigan’s offense wasn’t quite as explosive and they dropped the game 3-4. Michigan rebounded to take the third game 7-3. Sophomore Karl Kauffmann got the win for the Wolverines in that third game. The Brother Rice alumnus worked 6.0 innings of scoreless ball in his first career start on the mound. With a record of 2-1, the Wolverines will next play in the Tony Gwynn Legacy tournament against San Diego, Arizona, and Cal. Poly. next weekend.

What a weekend for Michigan hockey! On Friday, the Wolverines secured a 4-2 statement win over No. 1 Notre Dame. On Saturday, Michigan held on to a 1-0 lead for the weekend sweep of the top-ranked Fighting Irish. The outright sweep was Michigan’s first since the series against Penn State a month ago. Michigan has now won three games in a row, plus a SO ‘win’ against Michigan State in the first game of that series. Mel Pearson’s squad is now 16-13-3 (11-10-3) on the year, which is good for the No. 13 ranking in this week’s poll. Michigan can’t catch Notre Dame for the regular season conference title, but the Wolverines now seem well positioned to make the NCAA Tournament. The regular season concludes against Arizona State this weekend.

Women’s gymnastics has continued their fast start to the season. The Wolverines currently stand at 8-1 (4-1) on the year, including wins over No. 4 Alabama and No. 21 Illinois. Michigan’s sole loss on the year came against No. 12 Nebraska by the score of 196.525 to 196.875. The Wolverines also recently won the N.C. State Quad over N.C. State, North Carolina, and Brown. Michigan will be back in action this weekend in Toledo, OH against Denver, Utah St., and Bowling Green.