Team 40 Finishes ACC/B1G Challenge with a win

Submitted by MGoSoftball on

Team 40 defeated ND this morning 9-2 in the final game of the ACC/B1G challenge on the campus of NC State in Raleigh, NC.  The ladies went 3-1 on the weekend.

Abby Ramirez gets the game ball by going 4 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI.  Four players went deep and long today: Faith Canfield (2 RBI), Aidan Falk, Alex Sobczak and Amanda Vargas (2 RBI).  The offense had 12 hits today.

Tera Blanco was the complete-game winning pitcher.  She allowed 2 earned run off 6 hits, 5 Ks and 1 BB.  Only 2 of the 6 hits went for extra bases.  She threw 100 piches and 64 were strikes. Tera did a really good job in the circle today compared to previous starts.

Overall for the tourney, the loss to ND yesterday was disappointing as the team left 15 runners on base, average more than 2 per inning.  We had several opportunities to score in that game but the bats could not make good contact when it was needed most.

The season is starting a little slow and unexpected; however, shall I remind everyone that we lost an All-Galaxy hitter, an All-Universe pitcher and a lot of leadership due to graduation.  So it is expected that it would take a few games for this team to gel.

My prediction is that we will host a Regional Tourney as a 10 or 11 seed.  It is possible but tough to crack the Top 8 with the loses to ND and USF so early in the season.  The B1G schedule will not help with SOS. The only other ranked B1G is #13 Minny but we will not face them in the regular season.

The team will have an opportunity to avenge the ND and USF loses next weekend.  We play #3 Florida State on Sunday.  A sweep next weekend should move us up into the Top 10.

In two weeks, the team travel to the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, CA.  We play #6 UCLA and #22 Baylor.

 

Wolverine Devotee

February 19th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^

Tera with her second straight start and win.

29 batters faced, 6 hits, 2 runs and 5 K. Not bad at all against a decent team. Great to see.

Also great to see us hitting home runs so frequently this weekend. 

Canfield is starting to emerge as a really nice piece. 

The next 10 games will be streamed on FloSoftball. It's $20 for a subscription. Definitely worth it. They do a pretty good job.

 

Clarence Boddicker

February 19th, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^

"The next 10 games will be streamed on FloSoftball. It's $20 for a subscription. Definitely worth it. They do a pretty good job."
I read the whole post on my phone, where I can't see a username without scrolling. Then I read this and thought, yeah, this can only be one person. I scrolled, and, indeed, it's WD. Only you would propose that $20 is well worth the chance to catch a handful of M softball games. Excellent...+1

Chiwolve

February 19th, 2017 at 12:58 PM ^

Thanks for the update!

 

"The only other ranked B1G is #13 Minny but we will not face them in the regular season."

How does this make sense?

Alton

February 19th, 2017 at 1:48 PM ^

Michigan plays a series against each of the other 6 "East" teams every year.  But with only enough room on the calendar for 8 conference series, that means that Michigan can only play 2 series (1 home, 1 away) against "West" teams.  That means that every seven years, Michigan will play each West team one series at home and one on the road. 

Want to see Northwestern at Alumni Field?  Either show up for the series this season, or wait until 2024.

Baseball schedules differently.  Even though both sports only have 8-week conference schedules, baseball schedules so that you host each other school once every 3 years.  The downside is that every 3 years, you don't play a particular school...or you have to play them in a non-conference series.

So pick your poison--either skip a "west" team 5 times every 7 years, or skip your biggest rival once every three years.  It all comes back to Jim Delaney and the 14-team conference.

rob f

February 19th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^

Why not play some conference games while in Florida (or some other warm southern climate)?

The weather is always going to keep home scheduling to a minimum. That's a given. But if The B1G really wanted to make scheduling more fair/even, they would eliminate a couple non-conference northern games in favor of conference games AND play an additional 4 or 6 conference games before heading north, preferably vs. teams from the opposite division. I'm sure that most, if not all, B1G teams spend the first half of their seasons down south along with us.

This would, of course, work for baseball as well as softball.

RoseInBlue

February 19th, 2017 at 5:00 PM ^

While this would allow us to play more conference teams, it wouldn't help us in terms of our actual goal of getting to the WCWS.  Our schedule is front-loaded to get our SOS on par with the other top teams in the nation.  B1G softball is weak for the most part so those games do us no favors, win or lose.  Michigan softball earns its stripes (and its ranking) during the 1st month of the season in non-conference games.  

stephenrjking

February 19th, 2017 at 5:22 PM ^

With all of the extra money flying around, I wonder if some northern team that wants to do well in baseball and softball will try to build an adequate indoor facility that can be adapted for baseball, softball, and perhaps a few other outdoor spring sports for these early months. Wouldn't even have to be the primary venue, just a place to play some home games (and host other conference teams) until the regular fields thaw out, the way Minnesota baseball will use US Bank Stadium.

rob f

February 19th, 2017 at 6:10 PM ^

Until now, I didn't know the new home of the Vikings could be reconfigured for baseball.

I googled and found this recent Star-Tribune article mentioning it:

http://m.startribune.com/more-than-135-baseball-games-scheduled-for-u-s…

Unfortunately, I don't think baseball and softball are big enough on any athletic director's radar to spend the $$$ on an indoor facility. It's nice that it works out well for the Gophers, but they're benefitting from a very unique situation, apparently.

Being that you live in Minnesota, do you know if the state, county, or city dictated to the Vikings that tax dollars had certain strings attached?

South Bend Wolverine

February 19th, 2017 at 2:32 PM ^

The struggles have been frustrating, but I'm not too surprised, especially in terms of offensive difficulties.  There are a lot of new faces in the line-up, and overall I've been pleased - through 9 games, we've scored 4+ against everyone but Florida, who has clearly activated some sort of pitching-related cheat code.

Betsa struggling yesterday was a surprise, and if the difficulties persist, that'll be cause for concern.  Blanco being a little up & down is not unexpected, but hopefully she settles into a groove by Big Ten season.

Overall an ok weekend.  Happy to see the team get their revenge in emphatic fashion today.

tiggs14

February 19th, 2017 at 2:33 PM ^

The 3 losses have been an extra inning loss to arguably the best team in the country(Fla), a blown 4 run lead to a top 25 team in their bldg, & the ND L being the outlier in the early going. So far the Offense has been mashing, with Christener looking like her sophomore self, & contributions up&down the lineup. Betsa has struggled a bit, which was expected of a young lady who missed the entire offseason. Going forward I look for Betsa to return to her 2time B1G pitcher of the year self, & Team40 to follow suit.

Alton

February 19th, 2017 at 5:19 PM ^

ACC won it this year (the B1G won last year).  Final totals were ACC 19, B1G 13.

Michigan & Minnesota went 7-1 against Notre Dame and NC State.

Iowa (0-4) & Penn State (4-0) went 4-4 against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech.

Ohio State (2-2) & Purdue (0-4) went 2-6 against Louisville (3-1) and North Carolina (3-1).

Nebraska & Northwestern went 0-8 against Pittsburgh and Florida State.

I think the most interesting result is probably Penn State going 4-0 in Atlanta against Va Tech and Ga Tech.

Blue Durham

February 19th, 2017 at 4:55 PM ^

Good, informative write up.

FYI, Scores from the other games this weekend:

Friday
Minnesota 4, Notre Dame 1

Saturday
Minnesota 3, Notre Dame 2
Minnesota 11, NC State 1

Sunday
Minnesota 7, NC State 1

Records for the weekend:
Minnesota 4-0
Michigan 3-1
Notre Dame 1-3
NC State 0-4