Softball Bounces Back against Illinois St., 6-1

Submitted by South Bend Wolverine on

After a disappointing Saturday in which the offense never really got going, the Michigan softball team had a bounce-back performance Sunday against Illinois State.  The bats heated up in this one, as the Wolverines pounded out 13 hits.  The offensive headliners were Aidan Falk and Faith Canfield, with two hits apiece.  Falk & Canfield are hitting .400 and .389, respectively, and are showing every indication of being the core of the offensive leadership for the 2018 squad.

In the circle, freshman Meghan Beaubien got the start again, and again looked the part of the ace.  Outside of a bumpy second inning, in which she surrendered 2 hits, a BB, and a HBP, leading to ISU's only run, Beaubien kept the Redbirds off the base paths while she was pitching.

With a substantial lead, Hutch decided to go to the bullpen in the 5th, sending her other freshman pitcher, Sarah Schafer, out for her first NCAA action.  Schafer surrendered a pair of hits, but also picked up 2 Ks and did not allowed a run.

Next weekend the team heads to Tallahassee for 2 games against Notre Dame & 2 more against Florida State.  With 4 games against tournament-level teams, including 2 against a top-10 opponent, this will be one of the pivotal weekends in the non-conference schedule.

RoseInBlue

February 11th, 2018 at 1:29 PM ^

Yeah, this weekend proved that everyone in the lineup CAN hit.  But they're still struggling with runners on base.  Still some lineup tweaking to be done over the next few weeks as is tradition.

Also, the young outfield seems ready to excel.  They made some nice plays out there this weekend. But the infield committed some errors and a few mistakes that weren't called errors that led to runners being on base that really shouldn't have been.  This was somewhat expected given the departures but they'll need to tighten up if we're going to challenge good teams.  Especially since our offense isn't as potent as it has been in years past.  

Also, good to see Schaefer come in and get some innings.  She loaded up the bases but she did manage to clean it up after that so I'll chalk that up to a freshman moment for now.

Solecismic

February 11th, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^

Nice to see Sarah Schaefer throw a couple of productive innings. Like Leah Crockett, she was a big fish in a pond where there aren't a lot of major softball prospects. You don't know how they'll make the transition.

If she's a #3 who can eat some innings this year, that's huge for the team.

We've also learned that Beaubien is ready to be a dominant #1 - as in the odds of her being Big Ten Player of the Year are already fairly short. Lots of good news this weekend, even if 3-2 doesn't sound great on its own.

Hutch doesn't talk about injuries, but whether Lou Allan can take her place in the lineup is also huge for the team this year. The balance between OBP and SLG has gotten too far toward the OBP side since the Sierras graduated, and we saw what that does to your offense against good opponents last year. Allan is very much needed.

USF is not ranked or receiving votes right now. So that was the negative side. Still plenty of time to get some quality wins before the miserable Big Ten schedule starts (thanks Delany).