Thursday Morning Brews: If you can hold on, hold on

Happy Thursday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. We have a full slate of content for you this morning but first a word from our sponsors...

Well, turns out it wasn’t from our sponsors but from us. Today is the first day of NCAA March Madness and we’re running a bracket challenge for our readers so you can compete against your fellow readers and commenters, and the MnB staff. Remember to get your picks in before the brackets lock today when the first game starts. As of my writing this Wednesday evening, about 80 of you have already made a bracket.

Returning to our regularly scheduled programming, we do have a good mix of content this morning. We first check in with several teams who had mid-week games and then take a look at wrestling and their preparations for the NCAA Championships.

As usual, there is a song referenced in this morning’s Brews. There is at least one clue. Clues may be words, phrases, or photos and may reference lyrics, an artist, or an album. If you think you know this morning’s song, fire away down in the comments.

Let’s get to it:

Softball blanks Western Michigan. Building off their three-game sweep of Kent State this past weekend, Michigan softball kept the momentum going in their Tuesday tie with Western Michigan. The Wolverines lacked the offensive fireworks they had over the weekend, but it all turned out well in the end as Michigan’s pitching and defense held the Broncos to no runs and only four hits on the afternoon. The victory improves the Wolverines’ record to 16-10 on the season. They’ll be back in action against Nebraska this weekend.

Baseball powers past the Broncos. Not to be outdone, baseball built off their own weekend sweep of Manhattan against Western Michigan on Tuesday afternoon. Baseball was a more high-scoring affair, with the Wolverines relying on 12 hits producing 12 runs to power past the Broncos and their five runs from six hits. Jordan Brewer contributed a home run to the effort while Jesse Franklin and Christan Bullock both doubled. The team now stands at 14-4 on the season. They’ll next play at Texas Tech this weekend.

Men’s lacrosse drops Tuesday tie with Notre Dame. While women’s lacrosse has kept their hot streak going to start the season, the men’s program has had a tougher go of it recently. The most recent example was their matchup against No. 11 Notre Dame on Tuesday, which the Wolverines lost 9-12. Michigan has also dropped games to No. 4 Yale (11-17) and Marquette (13-16) over the past two weeks. The three losses drop the team’s record to 3-4 on the season. They’ll look to get back on track against Delaware on Saturday.

Wrestling gears up for NCAA Championships. While Michigan basketball embarks on their journey to an NCAA title today at noon, Wolverine wrestlers will do the same. The wrestling NCAA Championships get underway this afternoon and will run through the weekend. Michigan will be represented by eight athletes, including Stevan Micic, Alec Pantaleo, Myles Amine who received four-seeds or better (the top eight in each weight class are seeded). Other Michigan wrestlers competing include Drew Mattin, Kanen Storr, Malik Amine, Logan Massa, and Mason Parris. All six sessions of the championships will be televised on ESPNU or ESPN.