Softball blasts Rutgers 9-1, Betsa dominates
Yet ANOTHER sold out crowd today at Alumni Field (the next two games are sold out as well) got to see yet another great pitching performance by Megan Betsa.
After Betsa struck out the side in the top of the 1st, Michigan batted around in the FIRST INNING.
With Si-Lo and Romero, Kelly Christner put Michigan up 1-0 on an RBI double. After the bases loaded up, Romero scored on a Blanco sac fly to make it 2-0 Michigan.
Rutgers walked the next two Michigan batters which walked in a run to make it 3-0. Michigan would tack on one more run on a fielder's choice by Monte to make it 4-0.
Rutgers made a pitching change in the first inning!
In the 2nd after Betsa struck out the side again, Michigan would lead off with the top of the order up against the new freshman Rutgers pitcher. Same result.
She walked Si-Lo on 4 pitches, which may have been intentional. But the thing is is that Romero bats behind her. And she made Rutgers pay by sending one over the left field fence, a 2-run shot to make it 6-0 Michigan.
RBI doubles by Kelsey Susalla, Aidan Falk and Monte made it 9-0 Michigan. The Wolverines would once again bat around in one inning, for the second straight time in as many innings.
Betsa destroyed the next 3 Rutgers hitters with Ks, making it 9 in just 3 innings. Tera Blanco would replace her in the 4th inning to get some much-needed and valuable time in the circle. Blanco would record 3 Ks of her own.
RU plated one on a fielder's choice in the 5th, but it didn't matter.
Michigan wins 9-1 in 5 innings.
Michigan is now 42-4 and 19-2 in the B1G. Michigan will play the same team tomorrow at 1pm.
tv?
It was on BTN Plus. Tomorrow's game is televised on BTN at 1:00 PM. The baseball game vs. Rutgers is also on BTN tomorrow at 6:00 PM.
Rutgers sounds like a character from Labyrinth, perhaps employed by David Bowie.
Closing out conference play in beast-mode fashion! Betsa seems to be over those couple of mid-season hiccups. She and Driesenga are rolling and the team looks great going in to the B10 tournament and the run to the NC.
Baseball up 14-1 on Rutgers too. We can get back in this race since Indiana plays Minnesota and Nebraska plays MSU this weekend.
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$80/year for basically every sport that you can televise is worth it.
And I just don't understand why people don't get more involved beyond the "revenue sports". It's an extension of your fandom and it's loads of fun. The offseason for me is the month of July.
I've fallen in love with softball so much to the point where I can watch two random schools play when it's on TV. I have a FloSoftball account so I can keep up with recruiting.
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I watch every single game that I can. I'm taking a day off work next Friday so I won't miss Softball's B1G Tournament game.
Softball is on equal footing as hockey and MBB to me. They've had more sellouts this season than both of those sports I just mentioned, by the way.
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The original capacity after the 2008 renovation was 2,800 so a lot of seats have been removed.
I guess 2,473 is the new capacity.
Solid W. Chance to clinch the Big Ten tomorrow. Btw, WD, do you know where Romo stands vis a vis the NCAA runs-scored record? I know she was getting close a couple weeks ago, but lost track of where exactly things stood.
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Excellent, a very achievable number. Her position on that list is obviously a great testament to her hitting & on-base, but also to the great protection she's had all 4 years. Blanchard, Christner, Susalla, Blanco, & more all have a hand in that number.
Betsa 9Ks for 9 possible outs
Blanco 3Ks for 6 possible outs
Hopefully Betsa is rounding into form for the NCAAs
I was thinking about this some time last year. I think the only real expansion that they could do would be to extend the bleachers up the third base line and into left field. The first base line can't go any further without running into the Michigan bullpen. The bleachers in the outfield can't really be extended into center field unless they cut down those pine trees that provide the nice hitting background for both baseball and softball.
The only other choice would be to move the visitors' bullpen around into foul territory and put some more outfield bleachers in left field after they tear down the Track and Tennis Building.
They could also add more rows to the third base seating area and behind the plate as well, but it would take too much to do the same on the first base side.