February 21st, 2016 at 10:21 AM ^
6-0 in the first.
That escalated quickly gif here.
February 21st, 2016 at 10:32 AM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 11:45 AM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 11:49 AM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^
yeah, they can win every game until they face Florida in the championship game again. We were already mercy ruled by them this year. Need to find a way to beat them when it counts. Gotta believe Romero is arleady thinking about that game....
February 21st, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^
Hi guys. New poster (long time lurker).
Interesting place to throw Crockett into the fire. I'm a fan, though, and it seems she rose to the occasion.
February 21st, 2016 at 12:50 PM ^
Michigan wins 9-1 in 6 innings.
Hutch played with the batting order today.
- SiLo
- Ramirez
- Romero
- Susalla
- Blanco
- Falk
- Sobczak
- Canfield
- Christner(!)
Not every day you see a 20+ HR hitter batting last in the order, but I really like this order.
It worked. Michigan finally solved Virginia Tech and run ruled them after "just" winning in 7 innings the previous two meetings this year.
In the 1st, Ramirez drove in SiLo on a triple and then Romero scored Ramirez on a single. Sobczak single deep through the hole to score Romero.
Canfield hit was originally a single but advanced to third on a throwing error which scored two runs. And then Kelly Christner hit a triple and scored another Michigan run!
By the time the end of the 1st inning came, it was 6-0 Michigan.
Sobczak scored on a fielder's choice by Ramirez to make it 7-0 Michigan in the 3rd inning.
And then in the 6th, Romero hit HR blast followed by a Sobczak double that scored T-Swear.
Freshman Leah Crockett surprisingly made her debut in the B6 to close it out as Michigan ended it early, beating Virginia Tech for the 3rd time this season, this time 9-1 in 6 innings.
Michigan went 4-0 this weekend at the B1G/ACC Challenge. Next up, they'll head to Palm Springs for the Mary Nutter Memorial Tournament.
First game: Oklahoma at 1pm on Friday. We'll see Sierra Romero vs Sydney Romero for the first time.
The next two weeks of games will be streamed live ($20 for 1 month) on FloSoftball.
February 21st, 2016 at 2:24 PM ^
So what are Sydney's vitals? Is she a video game character like her sister?
February 21st, 2016 at 2:27 PM ^
February 21st, 2016 at 2:15 PM ^
Not sure how I feel about putting Crockett in. I know we don't do many redshirts in softball, but this seemed like a good time for one, with 3 pitchers presumably ahead of her. Might be a sign that she's at least starting to threaten Blanco for that 3rd spot in the rotation - another thing to keep an eye on.
Not too surprised by the unconventional line-up. Hutch always like to fiddle in the early season before settling down by Big Ten season at the latest. Christner in the 9 spot in strange, but Ramirez hitting high in the order is expected. I figured she'd play at least a game or two in the 1 or 2 spot. In a conventional line-up, that's her natural spot - get on base & use her speed - but our power hittings have such good OBP that they can be their own table-setters. Overall, at least for this year, I like Ramirez sticking at 9, but it's good to get her used to hitting higher in the order. That might well be the answer next year, after the Sierras take their excellent OBP & blazing base-path speed with them after graduation.
February 21st, 2016 at 2:34 PM ^
I was a little confused on Hutch burning Crockett's red shirt at first as well. Then, I remembered that this is softball and let it go. I figure it means Blanco might need to step it up if she wants to keep Crockett off of her butt though. The pitching has been a little shaky so far this season so I can understand Hutch wanting to shake things up a bit. Not shaky as in bad but both Betsa and Driesenga haven't been quite as efficient as they have been in the past. As for Blanco, we haven't established a norm for her yet so that's a wait & see.
I liked the line-up today. The quality and versatility of our hitters is unconventional in and of itself and many of these girls would work in several spots in a traditional line-up.
February 21st, 2016 at 10:13 PM ^
A few points on playing Crockett this season:
* I can't think of a single player who was redshirted by Hutch while healthy, other than the people at the bottom of the depth chart like the bullpen catchers and such. She has never redshirted a potential contributor that I can recall.
* This is the season. Michigan has a solid shot at a national championship. It would be pretty awful to miss out on one just so we can have another pitcher in 2020. All hands on deck--you never know who will win a game when we need it most.
* Nobody is stepping up. Driesenga and Betsa are allowing too many baserunners right now, and Blanco is clearly a work in progress. Crockett could easily be one of the two best pitchers by the end of April.
February 22nd, 2016 at 12:11 AM ^
Plus, the scholarship thing.
Someone isn't on scholarship that would be if Sara didn't get injured last year. Sara D is either not on scholarship or someone else is paying their way for one year until Sara finishes up her career.
We have another pitcher in Meghan Beaubien coming in 2018 so we're always gonna have 3 scholarship pitchers. And we also just picked up a pitcher commit who will be here in 2020 in Chandler Dennis.
February 21st, 2016 at 5:58 PM ^
Undeated until Florida. Maybe beat them?