SB piles on Long Beach State, 13-5

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

It's been an offensive struggle this weekend at the Judi Garman Classic out in Fullerton, scoring no more than 2 runs so far. Very un-Michigan-like.

It's softball so dry spells do happen sometime. Good thing we got that out of the way.

The #14 Wolverines took on a horrendous Long Beach State team today. LBSU lost 17-0 to Florida the other day. (However, they did beat Notre Dame! LOL!)

We did not waste any time at all. 

Michigan took a 4-0 lead in the 1st inning after a 3 RBI double by Aidan Falk and a run that walked when the LBSU starting pitcher had a meltdown. We batted around in the 1st inning. 

Megan Betsa continued her flamethrowing ways and struck out the side in the top of the second. 

The score grew to 6-0 in the 2nd when Amanda Vargas had a base knock that LBSU could not field, allowing Faith Canfield and Kelly Christner to score. 

RBI Singles by Katie Alexander, Monte and freshman Haley Hoogenraad gave Michigan a 9-0 lead after two innings.

Two innings later in the 4th, Madison Uden (another freshman) belted a line drive to center field which the CF was unable to catch, scoring one run on an error.

Megan Betsa and practically the entire starting lineup would be pulled after the inning to make way for Leah Crockett inside the circle and a slew of subs. 

LBSU would score 5 runs in the inning on Leah Crockett and Tera Blanco who relieved her, taking the game out of run rule territory briefly in the 5th inning.

3 runs would end the game early for Michigan in the bottom of the 5th, and we got them.

Taylor Swearingen almost ended the thing on her own, hitting a long ball that landed just short of the fence to drive in two runs. One of the aforementioned subs, freshman Thais Gonzalez would score TSwear on an RBI single and end the game.

Michigan wins 13-5 in 5 innings. Just what we needed. The offense was great. 12 hits. 

3 freshmen were involved in runs being scored today in Thais Gonzalez, Madison Uden and Haley Hoogenraad who earned her first collegiate hit today. She wears #32, a rather famous number that became available following the conclusion of last season.

Michigan is now 12-6-1 and will thankfully get away from the West coast and return to the Midwest.

We'll head down to Lexington, KY for the Kentucky Invitational for 4 games in a Saturday-Sunday tournament.

Our next opponent will be Evansville (4-8) on Friday at 10am.

Wolverine Devotee

March 4th, 2017 at 8:49 PM ^

I haven't heard anything. It is really strange because she did pretty good last weekend. She played all games last weekend and didn't get hurt from anything I saw. Unless something happened during the week. I don't want to speculate on what it could be.

samdrussBLUE

March 4th, 2017 at 10:57 PM ^

This season is looking like it will be a struggle. Minnesota is very solid. We don't have pitching depth. Offense has been very stagnant and inconsistent against any team with a pulse.



I'm not throwing in the towel, but I also am not automatically claiming the B1G or hosting any postseason games. It'll be interesting to watch from the stands as this team continues to develop

RoseInBlue

March 5th, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^

We can still easily win the B1G.  We don't play Minnesota and the B1G is still largely a sieve when it comes to softball.  

We did know this would be a rebuilding year.  The return of Kelly Christner's 2015 bat has been more than welcome.  So has the emergence of some of the sophomores.  But we graduated a lot of production.  Sierra Romero was a huge loss, both to our offense and the team's identity, and losing Sierra Lawrence and Kelsey Susalla on top of that just hurts that much worse.  We saw what the loss of key players can do last year without Haylie Wagner in the circle and Lauren Sweet behind the plate.  Now, we're seeing it again.  But they'll grow and they'll be fine.  And I think Hutch's track record speaks for itself.