Softball Run-Rules Maryland, Extends Big Ten Lead
For the third time in 3 days, the Michigan Wolverines sent the Maryland Terrapins home early, walking off in the 6th with an 8-0 run-rule victory. It was Sierra Romero day at Alumni Field, and Michigan's star didn't disappoint. She struck early with a trademark ROM-BOMB in the first inning, giving the Michigan a lead they would not relinquish. The entire line-up was active today, as every starter reached base at least once, and only one failed to record a hit.
As much as we all love to see the hits pile up, though, those familiar with Carol Hutchins will know that her favorite thing about today was the big "zero" on the board for Maryland. Megan Betsa continued her mid-season resurgence, going 6 strong, ceding just one hit while striking out 8 Terp batters. All weekend long, the Wolverine pitchers were locked in, allowing just 1 run in 16 innings. The upward trend in the circle more than anything bodes well for a post-season run.
Elsewhere around the Big Ten, Minnesota was effectively dealt a loss today by the skies rather than the Cornhuskers, as their planned match-up with Nebraska had to be cancelled. This means that Michigan & Minnesota could finish the season tied in the loss column, and Michigan would still win the outright Big Ten Championship because of the extra win (unless, of course, we suffer a rain-out as well). It would've been better for us to have Nebraska win, but a little extra breathing room is ok either way.
Made the trip from College Park just to be outscored 33-1. I'm almost tempted to say I hope they got some Zingermans coupons or something so the trip wasn't completely pointless.
On second thought I hope Romero and company took those too.
Michigan outscored Maryland 33-1 this weekend.
Faith Canfield had a great weekend. Really great to see a freshman emerging.
Michigan will face CMU at Alumni Field on Wednesday. That game was recently moved from BTN+ to a BTN game so that's good.
Next weekend Michigan will head to PSU. PSU dropped one to terrible Iowa yesterday, 4-1. PSU also got swept by OSU and OSU lost 2 of 3 to Purdue this weekend. That tells me quite a bit.
I can't believe there's only two weeks left in the regular season.
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Correction: Purdue blew a 3-1 lead in the 7th and lost to OSU. They still beat them once this weekend.
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It's always been 8 runs.
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It's eight after five. I'm stuck at work and not able to give a date, but it has been that way for as long as I remember.
Yes indeed. Here's the rule for those interested in the exact wording:
A regulation eight-run-rule game shall be declared by the plate umpire if one team is ahead by eight or more runs after five or more equal innings. Complete innings must be played unless the home team reaches the eight-run lead while at bat in the last inning. Any hit that results in an eight-run lead by the home team (after 4½ innings) is treated as a game-ending hit. (See Rule 14.6.) Whenever the visiting team reaches the limit in the fifth or any inning thereafter, the home team must have its opportunity to bat in the bottom half of the inning.
You're right though - I cannot remember when this was last revised to this version. I believe they can elect to suspend the rule for tournament play, provided the committee agrees in advance.
That dummy on commentary kept bringing up no-hitter in the middle of the game. Naturally Maryland got one hit after they kept mentioning it all game.
The first rule of broadcasting sports with bats and balls: NEVER TALK ABOUT A NO-HITTER UNTIL IT HAPPENS.
I liked it a lot better when the verb was "mercied."
And Romero!!!
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In the late 1970s, there were several baseball seasons in the Big Ten that were decided by rainouts. Back then, rainouts could be made up if both teams agreed on a date (before the end of the season, of course) and the date didn't interfere with classes. Since most schools ended classes at the end of April or early May, there was plenty of time for midweek makeup games.
But what happened is teams started to back out of planned makeup games if they saw it might be to their advantage to have cancelled games instead of making the game up. I recall one season (1979)--Kirk Gibson's senior season at MSU and Rick Leach's senior season at Michigan--where MSU backed out of a makeup game (with Indiana, I think) at the last minute, and that helped MSU beat Michigan by half a game in the final standings.
Anyway, the conference decided in 1981 that if a series can't be completed, they would just declare the unplayed games "no contest." It's more fair, at least, and not subject to manipulation by the teams for their own advantage. When they started paying softball in the conference, they just took the same rules that baseball had.
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It's just that, in the end, there are only 2 acceptable rules: (1) all games must be made up, or (2) no games can be made up. Otherwise, it's subject to too much manipulation.
And rule #1 would be hard to implement with different class schedules--you shouldn't force Maryland to fly to Iowa, for example, for a single Tuesday makeup game if Maryland is still in class, or if it's Iowa's final exam week, or whatever.
And anyway, now that there's a conference tournament, the rainout doesn't directly decide who makes the NCAAs like it did back in the 1970's. Everybody gets a chance to win it on the field.
April 25th, 2016 at 12:42 PM ^
a Sunday game will be moved to a Saturday or Friday DH. I wonder if the fact that Nebraska vs Minny was supposed to be the feature game on BTN on Sunday prevented that.
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I understand that there was a change in how the strike zone was interpreted, and that this affected Betsa because she specialized in a rising fastball. Has there been an adjusment on her part specificially to this issue, or is she just pitching better in general? Or are the umps "loosening up" the strike zone?
It seems that she has been using a drop ball a lot more this season. Probably an effort to combat the new strike zone interpretation. She still uses her riseball but almost always to get the batter to chase up out of the strike zone whereas she used to throw it for strikes at multiple levels. It's definitely forced her to change the way she pitches.
Softball is crazy with substitutions. Miss. State replaced their starting pitcher, but moved her to right field. She (lefty pitcher) is now back in for the 3rd time to face a lefty batter. There is a lot of roster strategy and rule use that make this game interesting. It has worked each time she's returned so far. The Bulldogs are giving the #1 Gators everything they have to take them down and open the door for us to possibly move back into the top spot. It's tied up in the 7th.
Florida beats Mississippi State 3-1 in the 10th inning on a 2-run walk-off home run. Gators will stay #1. Auburn could very well take Michigan's #2 spot after sweeping #13 Georgia.
No reason for us to fall, though. They won, yes, but we didn't lose.
April 25th, 2016 at 10:01 AM ^
Auburn is already #2 in the ESPN/USA Softball poll, no reason they won't move to #2 in the Coaches Poll
April 25th, 2016 at 12:55 PM ^