The Sunday Paper is a weekly feature that serves as a one-stop recap of the previous week in Michigan athletics and previews the upcoming week.

Welcome to the first edition of The Sunday Paper, where we give you a look back at what happened last week in Michigan athletics and preview the week ahead.

After Michigan's football program concludes its spring practices at the beginning of April, all eyes turn to the baseball and softball programs, among other spring sports. Football still commands attention, given the number of prospect camps nationally.

It was a busy week for the athletic programs, which had ups and downs, so let's cover it all.

Please grab a cup of coffee and prop your feet up: it's time for The Sunday Paper!

It mainly was a disappointing week for the Michigan hockey program.

All of the fanbase's attention was on Thursday's Frozen Four matchup with Denver, which the Wolverines lost heartbreakingly, 3-2, in overtime.

TMBR's Brock Heilig was all over it.

FULL STORY: Michigan's season ends in heartbreaking fashion

After the loss, Michigan lost three NHL Draft picks from this year's roster who signed with their professional clubs: No. 1 overall pick Owen Power, captain Nick Blankenburg, and No. 5 overall pick Kent Johnson.

FULL STORY: Three Wolverines sign NHL contracts

The week wasn't shut out with good news, though, as it got word that goalie Erik Pontillo is returning to Ann Arbor for his junior season. Pontillo was picked 67th by the Buffalo Sabres, who have his rights for another year.

He started each game for the Wolverines with a 31-10 record and a .926 save percentage.

FULL STORY: Pontillo set to return for junior season

TMBR's Zach Libby is at Coppell High School in Texas for the Rivals Camp Series, and he's been all over it, per usual, with coverage this weekend.

Four-star Michigan wide receiver commit, Semaj Morgan, has been well published on TMBR since his commitment. He's become a leader in building Michigan's 2023 class and isn't lacking any personality.

Libby had an excellent piece on what he's doing for his peers getting recruited at West Bloomfield.

STORY: Semaj Morgan using recruiting experience to help others at West Bloomfield

While in Dallas, Libby has a running thread of updates inside the Wolverine Den, which you can follow here.

Lastly, in one of the most insightful recruiting stories of the year, Sound Mind Sound Body founder Curtis Blackwell spoke with TMBR on his relationship with Michigan and in-state prospects.

STORY: SMSB founder Curtis Blackwell on relationship with Michigan, key targets

Stay tuned on Sunday evening and throughout this week as Libby posts numerous stories from his trip to Texas.

The baseball team is off to a rocky start at 16-14 overall, with losses to in-state Oakland and Purdue Fort Wayne in recent weeks.

Oakland has experienced a bit of a program renaissance under Ann Arbor native Jordon Banfield's watch in his second season at the helm. Regardless, a 14-7 defeat of the Wolverines was unexpected.

Meanwhile, Purdue Fort Wayne has a 7-22 overall record, and Michigan's 6-3 home loss to the Mastodons is unarguably its worst of the season.

The Wolverines dropped two of three last week in conference play at home against Iowa, scoring no more than three runs in all three games, with 2-8, 2-0, and 3-10 finals.

This week, following the mid-week loss to Fort Wayne, Michigan hosted Cal State Fullerton this weekend and found a much-needed groove with wins on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, the Wolverines will battle for their second sweep of the season and the first since March 20.

The Wolverines won the first two games of the series, 2-1 and 8-2, in two stellar pitching performances.

Fullerton, although historically successful, is 10-19 overall this season and won't bolster Michigan's resume as it enters a tough week with matchups against Notre Dame and a three-game series at Michigan State.

Although it's off to a slow start, everything is still ahead of the baseball team as it's still in contention for the Big Ten and the early season hardly affects the long stretch of conference play.

Despite the record, Michigan has a ranked win over No. 21 Maryland (7-4) and lost by one run in both of its other ranked matchups -- No. 14 Texas Tech, 7-6; No. 4 Vanderbilt, 5-4 -- including losing on a walk-off wild pitch to Vandy.

The various softball polls consistently rank Michigan between 21st and 23rd, with 21st being the most common.

At 23-12, the softball team is doing what it's done for decades under the tutelage of college softball coaching legend Carol Hutchins.

With ranked wins out-of-conference over Duke (split), Kentucky (split), LSU, and UCF in the early goings of the 2022 season, the Wolverines struggled to open conference play. It was swept in a two-game series (third game canceled) against Nebraska, then two-of-three at No. 9 Northwestern.

Hutchins' squad turned things around this week, though, with a 6-1 mid-week win over Michigan State while taking two-of-three from Penn State this weekend, failing to win a fifth-straight game in a 3-2 loss to the Nittany Lions on Sunday.

On Wednesday, the Wolverines host Central Michigan for a midweek matchup at 4:00 p.m., then travel to Maryland (6-2 in Big Ten play) for a weekend series.

Men's Lacrosse: Lost in overtime at Penn State, 9-8, totaling five consecutive losses. 7-5 overall record, 0-3 in Big Ten play, as it preps for its final two games of the season against Rutgers and Ohio State.

Track & Field: Michigan has four individual All-Americans from its indoor season, which, according to MGoBlue.com, haven't missed a beat. Joshua Zeller (110m hurdles), Dubem Amene (400m, 4x400 relay), Miles Brown (4x400 relay), and Cole Johnson (800m) all won at the Duke Invitational. Amene and Brown teamed up on the relay win, and Amene himself had a historical time (46.07 seconds) in the 400m individual that was the fastest time by a Wolverine since 1985.

Women's Lacrosse: Michigan is ranked No. 22 nationally with a 9-5 overall record and a 1-3 conference record. It has an impressive resume with ranked wins on the road against No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 18 Johns Hopkins. However, the Wolverines lost four in a row to No. 4 Northwestern (9-12), No. 14 Rutgers (8-13), No. 17 USC (10-14), and Ohio State (7-9). They travel to unranked Penn State on Saturday.

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