Tuesday Morning Brews: Survive and advance

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. Today we bring news of winter sports in Big Ten Tournaments and spring sports continuing their fledgling campaigns. This morning we’re checking in with hockey, baseball, softball, wrestling, and women’s basketball.

Let’s get to it:

Michigan hockey topped Wisconsin in both games last weekend, propelling the team to the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan won 6-5 on Friday and 7-4 on Saturday, as both teams found plenty of success on the offensive end. Mel Pearson’s club has now won seven in a row and eight of their last 10 games. The Wolverines will face Ohio State in their semifinal. Michigan was 0-4-0 against the Buckeyes this season.

Women’s basketball fell to Nebraska in the third round of the Women’s Big Ten Tournament after a first round bye and a 77-48 win over Penn State in the second round. The offense once again flowed through Hallie Thome and Katelynn Flaherty for the Wolverines. Thome had 21 pts. and Flaherty had 17 pts. Unfortunately, the remainder of the team went just 5-25 from the floor and recorded only 16 points. At 20-9, the team will head to the postseason - the only question being whether it’s the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. Selection Sunday is March 12.

Michigan baseball beat No. 8 Stanford by the score of 5-0 on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was the Wolverines only win of the weekend. The Cardinal got the better of Michigan on Friday by the score of 7-0, earlier on Saturday by the score of 3-2 via a heart-breaker three-run walk-off homer, and on Sunday by the score of 7-4. Sophomore pitcher Karl Kauffmann was strong on the mound for the second time in his three starts, throwing 6.2 innings and striking out 10 in the game Michigan won on Saturday. After going through rough stretch, the Wolverines are 3-8 on the season. They’ll be back in action with a three-game series against Lipscomb this weekend.

Michigan softball had a much better weekend, winning all five of their games at the Judi Garman Classic. On Thursday, Michigan topped Loyola Marymount by the score of 3-2 and Charlotte by the score of 5-0. On Friday, the Wolverines recorded two wins over ranked teams, besting No. 8 Baylor by the score of 6-3 and No. 18 Louisiana Lafayette by the score of 3-1. On Saturday, Michigan won their only game of the day 11-3 over Cal Poly. The team is now 13-6 on the season. They’ll be back in action this weekend in the FAU Tournament.

Stevan Micic and Alec Pantaleo earned Big Ten individual titles at the wrestling Big Ten Tournament this past weekend. As a team, Michigan finished third. The Wolverines had two other finalists, Myles Amine and Adam Coon. Coon reprised his battle with Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder in the heavyweight championship match. This time it was Snyder who walked away with a two-point win, 4-2. In their last matchup, it was Coon who beat the two-time world champion, gold medalist, and NCAA champion, 3-1. In all, eight Michigan wrestlers qualified for the NCAAs, which begin March 15th.