M Softball lost to #16 Louisville 2-1
The #14 Michigan Softball Team lost a close one to #16 Louisville today 2-1. Haylie Wagner pitched very well today. She gave up 1 ER on 5 hits. She gave up 2 walks and registered 0 strikeouts. Typically this outing is good enough to win most games.
The hitting is still sluggish. We only had 4 hits total. Bree Evans went 2 for 3 with an RBI. Steph K went 1 for 3 and scored the only run. Nothing much else to report on the offensive front.
Coach Hutch kept the line-up in flux by moving Steph K to 3B, Chiddy to 1B, and Amy to SS. Ashley played 2B, and Lauren caught. The outfield remained the same with Colie, Bree and Lyndsay.
We play again at 3pm against St Louis. We are in Louisville Ky for the Black and Red Tourney. Weather is 60F and sunny, just wonderful for softball.
What's our record so far?
puts us at 15-6. We only had 6 losses for the entire season last year. We are definately struggling and trying to gain our bearings. The freshmen are learning quickly but teh hitting is not so good.
We have lost 6 games to rather easy opposition. Its not like we are facing ASU, Florida, and 'Bama each week. Those teams can pitch. We can hit well against UCLA and Auburn then struggle against Virgina.
you can blame the play so far on the freshman. At all. Gamtracker finally started giving us batting averages. Taking them from the GT currently up against Saint Louis, here are the team averages:
Evans: .254, Sappingfield: .262, Chiddy: .290, Lane: .237 Kirkpatrick: .308 Sweet: .370, Driesenga: .375, Knapp: .175 Doyle: .224.
For the returning players, those are all about a solid .1 below what they were hitting last year (basing it on memory), or more in some cases. The offense is REALLY struggling and I'm sure Hutch is tearing her head out to try and figure out why players that have been hitting for three years suddenly aren't hitting.
Going into this game, these were the OBPs and slugging %s of the 9 players who have played most:
Sweet .404/.593 - very good esp. for a freshman, but has 2 walks/13 Ks so pitchers might start throwing her more junk
Kirkpatrick .429/.404 - walks a lot
Chidester .338/.581 - good, but she was .490/.709 last year
Sappingfield .318/.262 - struggling, was .419/.420 last year
Evans .315/.269 - way down from .453/.498 last year, is she healthy?
Lane .292/.508 - also down from .432/.741 last year
Doyle .321/.224 - was .399/.396 last year
Wagner .382/.346 - looks to have some power and a decent eye, may develop as a hitter
Knapp .250/.250 - down from .292/.367 last year
Agree, the players who were so productive last year seem to be in some sort of collective funk. Kirkpatrick and Sweet are doing well, but last year one of those was on the bench and the other was in high school.
so far this season the unearned runs seem to be kiiling this team. We are playing well for 2 games, then 1 bad game it seems. Well as long as they are playing their top ball by tournament time is te huge key to making a long run in post season play.
Driesenga threw 4 good innings, then ran into trouble and Wagner had to pitch the last 2. Chidester went 4 for 4, so maybe she is back in her groove.
Hutch has us spoiled. Is there another sport at UM for which we have such high expectations? I think we are almost a shoo-in to win B1G and we have all season to work on becoming a national contender.