Michigan Softball climbs the polls

Submitted by MGoSoftball on

The University of Michigan Softball team climbed into 7th place in the ESPN.com/USA Softball rankings this week.  The Wolverines started the season at #11 and won their first 15 games.  The are powered by the dominating pitching of pre-season All-American Sr. Jordan Taylor (.68 ERA, 71 Ks and 6BB) and the strong offense led by Sr. 1B Dorian Shaw, another pre-season All-American.

The suprise of the year comes from my pre-season All-American selection 2B So. Ashley Lane.  Ashley leds the team in RBIs at 22 and led most of the year in HR, which she is now tied with Dorian at 7.

This is welcome news because the 1-2 punch gives Coach Carol Hutchins an opportunity to keep the pressure on opposing pitchers.  Those pitchers cannot pitch around Dorian because they will face Amanda Chidester (.650 slugging percentage and 15 RBIs) and then Lane.  Hutch has Dorian batting 3rd, Amanda batting 4th and Ashley batting 5th.  This trio accounts for the bulk of the RBIs and half of the Runs Scored.

The Wolverines are in Florida on spring break this week although they will be playing many games this week.  I will keep the Blog updated daily.

Good Luck Ladies and GO BLUE.

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carol hutchins
jordan taylor
Ashley Lane
amanda chidester
dorain shaw

MGoSoftball

March 1st, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^

If there is something that 2 guys can sit around a bar table and debate, then there will be a poll somewhere. We have not seen any Top 5 teams yet but UCLA and Tennessee both lost to weaker teams. So weaker teams can get tough for a game or two. In softball anything can happen.

Joined: 10/18/2010

MGoPoints: 8892

Charlie_Sheen

March 1st, 2011 at 8:49 AM ^

I'm so tired of pretending that UM's softball team isn't perfect and bitchin' and winning every second and that they're not perfect and bitchin' and just delivering the goods at every frickin' turn.

Joined: 03/01/2011

MGoPoints: 17

Hardware Sushi

March 1st, 2011 at 9:04 AM ^

You're an F-18, bro, and you will destroy them in the air and deploy your ordinance on the ground.

The only thing you're addicted to is winning. So go hang out with those two smokin' hotties and fly privately around the world...

Joined: 03/08/2010

MGoPoints: 6543

BlueMiles

March 1st, 2011 at 1:31 PM ^

I'm not sure many understand and/or appreciate just how good Jordan Taylor is.  She is absolutely freaking phenominal.  For anyone that appreciates baseball or softball, take a look at her year by year stats.  They are simply amazing, and she just keeps getting better.  0.68 ERA?  Sick.  71/6 K/BB ratio?  Are you kidding me?

Jennie Finch got lots of publicity back in the day because a) she was a great pitcher, and b) she's kinda hot.  Jordan Taylor is every bit as good, in my opinion. 

I'm very excited about the start for the UM Softball team and hope this is the year that they can take it all of the way.  They certainly have the talent to do so. Go Blue!

Joined: 01/11/2011

MGoPoints: 53