Unfortunately, the stands were not full even though the game was sold out. The tickets aren't all that expensive so I think some folks don't bother to re-sell their tickets when they are going to be out of town or have a conflict.
That said, I saw folks giving away or selling tickets at the railroad track entrance to the ballpark last night. I would go early and see if someone has an extra ticket.
Giving up 5 runs is not good. We will struggle this year if our pitchers aren't able to keep the scoring to about half that on average. At least we didn't have a repeat of last Friday's game.
Notice that she only has 12 hits: 6 homers, 4 doubles and 2 singles. She lost some playing time early in the season to Canfield due to her slow start and to give Canfield a chance at a starting position.
Monte truly had a great weekend. Here's a nice synopsis:
How many UM teams are traveling as a team during spring break?
It isn't just football. The softbal team is playing in a tournament this weekend in California.
They start playing games again on Wednesday evening in Fullerton, CA and return home Saturday evening.
They have had spring break trips for many years.
I guess it is under the radar. Likewise, women's basketball is in NJ for a Sunday game and will start their Big10 tournament next week during spring break.
I hope the Harbaugh rule won't apply to teams who are currently in-season.
This is great insurance for the team. We need two good starters and it wasn't clear that Blanco was going to be part of the mix. In college softball there are plenty of freshman pitchers that dominate. For instance Osrario and Ocasio.
It will be much easier to replace Blanco at first than Wagner at pitcher. Here's hoping for. a 3 man pitching rotation.
Offensively, this team was a better team than 2005. But, relative to the average D1 team in 2015, I'm not so sure as all the offensive stats have improved with the shrunken strike zone.
Our pitchers were great in 2015 and had two almost equal pitchers wherein in 2005 Ritter was the go-to pitcher by the end of the season and Wilson more of a on-a-short-leash pitcher.
Ritter was a bull dog and wanted the ball late in the game. I think Haeger from Florida is very much that persona and the fact she bats makes her that much more valuable. Haeger wants to be batting in the 7th, wants to finsih the games she starts, etc.
So athleticism, talent, etc. I'd give the nod to 2015, but that's going to be true of college softball in general.
The 2015 team is very tight and is a team. But, Ritter was probably more of a go-to pitcher than either Wagner or Betsa were. However, I love the redemption story of Wagner who lost her hero role after her freshman year and only regained it at the very end. But, she and Betsa were also a team - supporting each other and wanting the team to win - not worrying that Betsa or Wagner ends up with the victory.
Michigan swept Alabama earlier this season as Wolverine Devotee noted. More important, Michigan faced Osorio who is their go-to pitcher. She is just a freshman and pitched all 3 games in their Super Regional vs Oklahoma.
We beat Jury in the first game earlier this year and Osorio in the second game. However, Osorio has tons more experience than she did in February.
She's got a great rise ball. That's the pitch we struggled with against Kent State. I'm sure we're practicing against that sort of pitch over and over.
One other tidbit. Back in 2012 when UM didn't even get to host a regional, we went to Louisville as the #2 seed and won that regional and advanced to the Super Regional. Our opponenent was Alabama. We lost both games: 4-1 and 4-3. But that was also the year that Alabama won the national title so we did quite well against them.
Just like the Big 10 is not as strong this year as it has been in the past, the PAC is no longer the perennial softball power that it once was. The strongest conference by far is the SEC with all but 2 teams making the post-season. And, they didn't just slip in. The last time I checked all those SEC teams had RPIs of <=30.
So, CAL is not quite as battle-tested as the review impies.
A sidenote is that Henderson's older sister was the go-to pitcher for CAL - Jolene.
I agree that Pitt isn't all that battle-tested, but the ACC got 7 teams into the post-season - same as the PAC10. Pitt made it to the ACC finals - upsetting Notre Dame in the first round. They lost to Florida State in the ACC tournament final. This is the team Michigan lost to in the Super Regionals last year.
So, both the #2 and #3 seeds in this regional are reasonably strong.
Previous UM teams would have suffered with the Sierra slump she went through. But, others picked up when she "slumped." They really will be dangerous with her hitting on all cylinders. It will be a tough choice - walk her and let the rest of the order do damage or face her and give up a homer.
Dreisenga,is injured. I expect her to contribute as a pitcher but not as a DP; the freshman are hitting well and will cover DP.
Romero is also a hurt arm-wise. That is why she is playing 2b rather than ss.
While UM has had speed in the past Hutch is an old school coach who bunts more than she should and doesn't use team speed all that much. That said it is hard to to have Lawrence (leadoff) stealing a lot because opposing teams can/do walk Romero. Romero has about as many walks as hits.
This team is good, clicking on all cylinders. However they will lose some games in the Big10. Good pitching or unfamiliar pitching will flummox us.
And no one discussing other softball teams uses first names. It is Haeger not Lauren, etc.
Dreisenga,is injured. I expect her to contribute as a pitcher but not as a DP; the freshman are hitting well and will cover DP.
Romero is also a hurt arm-wise. That is why she is playing 2b rather than ss.
While UM has had speed in the past Hutch is an old school coach who bunts more than she should and doesn't use team speed all that much. That said it is hard to to have Lawrence (leadoff) stealing a lot because opposing teams can/do walk Romero. Romero has about as many walks as hits.
This team is good, clicking on all cylinders. However they will lose some games in the Big10. Good pitching or unfamiliar pitching will flummox us.
And no one discussing other softball teams uses first names. It is Haeger not Lauren, etc.
First, not to jinx the team or anything, but in their national title year, they lost the first game of the seaon and then won 32 straight games. They started out with two rainouts, which we don't have in our pattern for this year.
While Binghampton is weak (Game 2 victory for today), they only lost 1-0 to ASU last night. They showed their weakness by just edging Toledo 5-4 yesterday.
Nice that you keep posting these game summaries so that the MGoBlog community backs another UM sport. But you're summary of the BC game is not accurate. Sappenfield had a bases loaded walk to bring in one run in the 7th inning.
In my view, the hitting and fielding is ahead of the pitching. We don't have the shut-down starter we'll need to advance to the post-season. For instance, the Minnesota starter is a true stud. But, we have time. These losses don't matter much.
This could be a money maker. I'd love to see a highlights reel as well as the 3 games. If the footage still exists, MGoBlue ought to re-package it and sell to the softball fans.
The Cajuns are a good team. Michigan can beat them. We've already done so. But::
Their pitcher is the real deal. In softball message boards she is mentioned a lot more than our pitchers. In other words, she's a stud.
The Cajuns have been to the WCWS in recent history so they won't be in awe of playing in a super regional.
There are 2 unranked teams in the SR this year - UAB (beat UCLA); and UL (beat LSU). There were several nail biters - FSU barely escaped South Alabama and Hofstra beat Missouri in the first game today. So, the mid-majors are all formidable. The mid-majors struggle to be ranked because of the strength of their conferences. UL always slips in rankings once they start playing against their conference opponents.
The Cajuns have good team speed - probably better than us.
We take pride in being a cold weather school with significant contributions from cold weather players (Doyle, Blanchard, Knapp, Dreisenga, Crummey, and Susalla). The Cajun players are primarily from small towns mostly in Louisiana, but Petal Mississippi for two players, and some Texas towns as well. Wallace is from a suburb of Fort Worth, but most of these players are from places more like Reed City, MI.
Our tough regional helped us; better to play 2 games vs Cal rather than the #2 seeds we usually face. But UL has also had the same experience. They were in a tough regional and beat LSU twice.
Cal is one of the 1 pitcher teams in the tournament. Others are A&M, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Hofstra, and Baylor. Frankly, Minnesota and Wisconsin could also be classified that way.
Henderson was injured and hasn't played much for several weeks. She finally won in their last game of the season:
Super Regionals are best of 3. The higher seed hosts unless they lose their regional. So UM would host LSU if both teams prevail in their regionals. If UM doesn't win, LSU would host the winner of the Michigan regional.
Last year, Hofstra and South Florida both upset the regional hosts (UCLA & Florida respectively) and South Florida hosted the super-regional and ended up advancing to the College World Series.
Assuming Michigan wins, either of the other opponents will be tough. Moulton is the stud pitcher in the Big10; she's the main reason Minnesota is in the mix to get to the NCAA regionals.
The pitcher UM will face today is Darragh. She's a junk ball pitcher, which Michigan traditionally doesn't do well against. But, I think we'll prevail.
If we play Nebraska, they have seen our pitchers and had success against them. Wagner shut them down in Game 2 but wasn't successful in relief in Game 3. Nebraska pitching also held Romero hitless although she got on base.
The conference has improved quite a bit in the past year. It was good to see Purdue battle Nebraska, although ultimately losing. They were tough against us as well although we ended up sweeping them.
It is Teresa Sullivan, not Theresa. Another person out of UVA is James Hilton, her CFO, who she poached from UM. He's a good bit younger and pretty talented.
As talented as Dave Brandon is with fund raising and connections, I don't think he's be very popular with the faculty. Faculty relations are pretty important for the President. That's what saved Sullivan at UVA. The faculty had her back as did the students.
Actually, Romero was intentionally walked her first 3 at-bats; she had hit a grand slam in Friday's slug fest. Anyway, when she cam up to bat with the bases loaded they pitched to her and she hit her grand slam. Her next at bat, she was also intentionally walked.
However, in game 2, they are pitching to her - at least for now.
Ohio State pitchers walked 7 UM hitters today and gave up 3 homers (Blanchard, Lawrence, and Susalla). It was nice to see Blanchard hit a grand slam after they pitched around Romero to force in a run. And, those 7 walks and 3 HRs were in 5 innings.
Ohio State pitchers walked 7 UM hitters today and gave up 3 homers (Blanchard, Lawrence, and Susalla). It was nice to see Blanchard hit a grand slam after they pitched around Romero to force in a run. And, those 7 walks and 3 HRs were in 5 innings.
I think we have always traded defense for offense; it doesn't hurt too much if the pitchers are really sharp and can handle the 4 out innings.
Our pitchers were not all that sharp yesterday; PSU is a really bad team so you don't want to be giving up that many runs to them, even if some were unearned.
Likewise, while our bats came out this weekend, it was also against subpar hitting. It will be interesting to see the team against better pitching - e.g., Darragh at Wisconsin or Moulton from Minnesota.
I still think this team is really good. They showed grit in coming back against Purdue when the defense was shoddy and the pitchers were not sharp. In years past, we struggled to come back from 2, not to mention 5.
Wagner is still in spring training having not pitched for the first 15 games or so of the season.
UM used to have very little competition in the Big10 in softball. Northwestern was our main rival, but they've struggled with pitching in the past few years and pitching is the most important commodity a team can have. UM was beat in a Super Regional by Virginia Tech when all they had was a stud pitcher & good defense.
Minnesota has a great sophomore pitcher and even though they don't have hitting they hit/scored plenty this past weekend.
Wisconsin has a good pitcher and is in the top half of the conference. And, newcomer Nebraska is a pretty good team as well.
Here's the RPI for the season so far (listed below). The teams playing tough competition will be our toughest competition this year. I'd be surprised if we went undefeated int he conference this year; mostly looking to sweep the series which will also be hard. We fell behind twice to Purdue but due to their poor defense and somewhat shaky pitching we won. But, our pitchers were hit pretty hard as well and we made defensive miscues. We always trade offense for defense, which matters in the World Series, e.g., it can hurt us.
Anyway, here's the RPI rankings I mentioned earlier:
17. Nebraska 18. Michigan 21. Wisconsin 25. Iowa 31. Minnesota 54. Ohio State 61. Northwestern 74. Illinois 78. Indiana 90. Purdue 127. Penn St 138. Michigan State
I agree that Knapp's hitting has really improved, but both she and Blanchard will have a tough time challenging for First Team. They don't hit with enough power for 3rd and 1st. For most teams those are power positions with players that produce lots of RBIs and home-runs.
But, their play is important to the team.
One other thing Hutch has done differently this year is switch the line-up around, mostly batting order rather than players. #1 - #3 has been set, but we've had lots of shuffling around with #4 - #9. It even happened today with Blanchard and Dreisenga swapping slots.
Sweet has been in #8 and is finally climbing out of the season-long slump she's been in. She had a 2-run homer in Game 2 today and is cutting down on her Ks.
In the first game, UM got behind by 5. Wagner was hit hard, but there was an error and some passed balls in the mix as well. She settled down and had 2 scoreless innings. We chipped away at the lead and then Purdue made some costly errors and UM wins by a mercy.
The second game was pretty similar; our pitcher was hit hard and we made some errors. Again, we chipped away and tied it late in the game. By this time Romero wasn't getting anything but intentional walks - including in the last inning, which put a runner on 3rd with less than two outs. Blanchard hit a single up the middle to end the game.
It's nice to see contributions from a variety of players; to see the team come back and win after some solid hitting by Purdue and some errors by UM.
Both of the Sierras are good additions to the team.
What's the love with Northwestern? Their pitching is weak. I'd swap Minnesota with Northwestern any day.
I agree with the criticism of the prose - using Sara, Ashley, etc. For most men's sports the players are known by their last names, with the exception of "Denard."
And, I wouldn't keep mentioning how young our team is. For a team like Wisconsin, the young players are replacing less-skilled older players.Plenty of teams have young, stud players who start as freshman. Michigan softball has had its share of 4-year starters. The only reason freshmen start for a team is that they have beaten out an older player.
I disagree with your assessment that the new schedule favors us; this year it is a series of single games. That favors teams that have one stud pitcher. A double-header schedule favors a team like Michigan, which has always used two pitchers, even when the #2 is really not all that strong. In the end, it saves wear/tear on the stud and the stud often comes in to relieve the #2 starter. An example of this was the Tay,lor/Speierman year.
I'm impressed with the increased strikeouts by Dreisenga. Last year she was much more of a pitch to contact pitcher and since UM's defense is never top notch, that's a risky situation to be in. And, she was the clear #2 last year; ideally, we have more of a 1a/1b situation this year.
Let's hope it is something contageous like the flu and Wagner was left in Ann Arbor.
I think the team has too many players to travel, but I'm also pretty sure that when the travel roster is made up you include 2 pitchers, 2 catchers, and the regular defensive starters (still in flux). The left-at-home player is never a key player.
Hutch is a real believer in using two pitchers, even when one is struggling. She usually sets up the starts to the stronger/better pitcher faces the tougher compeitition. But, we haven't seen Wagner at all this trip as a pitcher or DH.
We may find out as USF has tied UM 2-2 in the bottom of the 1st.
For those who think the Traverse City games were weak, this is pretty traditional. This is like the spring football game in football. It is a way to get some live competition and to try to fill the holes in the line-up from graduation and/or the influx of new players.
Romero, the new shortstop, is the real deal. She is excellent defensively - great range and a quick release. Every ball she hit against the pro team was hit hard. She's hitting in the 3-hole.
The game against the NFP was unusual. This was a real test - and UM won. They out-hit the NFP game and came through with the victory.
Ala bama's offense is really good; defense not so much. They have two hitters with almost 20 HRs and 2 hitters with around 40 stolen bases.
Traina is good but she's hittable. UM actually has more trouble with "pitchers" - those that have lots of changes of speed, good location, drop balls, etc. One of their losses this year was to the University of South Florida. Everyone says WTF but USF is in the sweet 16 as an unranked team vs Hofstra, another unranked team with a great pitcher (Galati).
UM needs some offense; great defense (go KP); and good pitching.
One thing you didn't mention in your summary is team speed. In general, the SEC has faster players than the BIG. Our fastest players - Doyle, Evans, and Sappenfield - are all slower than Alabama's two fastest players. In addition, Hutch is a bit old school and bunts rather than letting her players steal. And, we don't even bunt all that well, turning a bunt into a fielder's choice more often than we shold.I Nonetheless, I beleive Alabama has two players with 40+ steal attempts.
Bottom line is that team speed means our defense has to be even better/more composed than it was vs Louisville. KP at 3rd base is a godsend. She is mobile and has a great arm. We'll need her to have the same good defense she had last weekend. She wants the ball so let's hope she gets it.
On a message board, Alabama folks talked about their troubles with lefties. Hope that is true. They have also struggled with defense occasionally. Let's hope that is also true.
UM has nothing to lose. We're a 20+ seed going in to play the #2 seed. We should be loose. Pressing never helps. We had 2 walk-offs in the regional. The team knows they can come from behind.
Our conference is weak this year so almost contending for the conference title doesn't count for much.
The selection is based quite a bit on RPI. Northwestern, which had a pretty miserable conference record, ends up getting in, based on their better RPI.
I don't like lots of the match-ups. It seems as though the NCAA is trying to hype the tournament based on past opponents rather than just letting the seeds fall into place more naturally.
UM is matched up against KY, who we played in the SR last year. Likewise, the year before we were paired with TN in the SR. That was the team we had to beat to get into the World Series back in 2005.
My point is that every year is a rebuilding year. We always lose at least a few starters. This year is no different, except that we haven't been as successful at the task.
Starting two freshmen pitchers is no excuse. Often the freshman pitcher/slugger on a team is more skilled than the older players. And, that is the case for UM. We have a junior pitcher that was our #2 last year but hasn't seen a lot of playing time this year.
Lots of teams have stud freshman pitchers - Florida, Alabama, Washington - last year, Louisiana Lafeyette this year. Our freshman pitchers aren't quite at that level this year, but frankly it is the offense that is killing us.
As to our likely seeding in the regionals - I'd say #2 in a regional. That draws from the 17th - 32nd place team. We should go in with some attitude - frustrated that we're #2.
There's not a lot of pressure on the team. Lots of times we're ranked something like #4 and there is whispering that UM isn't really that strong; the Big10 is a weak softball conference; we're overrated, etc. This time we can be on the other side of the argument and show folks that we're better than our record shows.
I'm not sure why folks keep framing this year as a re-building year. In 2007, after Ritter graduated the team had a very respectable year - made it to the Super Regionals vs Baylor with a freshman pitcher (Nemitz) and a non-stud senior (Wilson).
The following year they lost the Super Regional vs Virginia Tech (Tincher) with a freshman pitcher (Taylor) and Nemitz.
In 2006, a big rebuilding year - losing lots of offensive starters, but still having Ritter, they made it to the Super Regionals vs Tennessee.
This is a disappointing season record-wise. I'm sure the coaches were not anticipating this. Nor are they making excuses of having to replace a dominant pitcher.
I hope the players loosen up and have fun. They will not be a #1 seed in the regionals, but plenty of lower seeded teams advance.
And, they can host. The NCAA has to distribute sites all of the nation; they can't all be in the SEC or PAC. I'm pretty sure that Cal played at Louisville last year as the #1 seed and Hofstra often hosts as a #2 seed.
While Illinois is in the bottom third of the BIG it gave Purdue a loss. And, we struggled against Illinois last year, although we beat them. Illinois has two reasonable pitchers - Guy and Gay.
Michigan is in the driver's seat for the conference title. They need to play good defense (4 of the 6 runs we gave up in Game 2 were unearned); put the ball in play - cut down on Ks. Our pitchers, especially Wagner, are doing their jobs.
They could easily host, but I doubt they'll be a #1 seed. That is not an uncommon scenario for cold weather sites, but it would be big change for UM. I'm not even sure we'd want host under those circumstances.
I don't think Evans being pinch hit for is any indication of a hand injury.
Hutch has been pinch hitting for the slappers any time she needs a power bat - for a sacrifice fly or a homer.
I think Evans batted 9th in Game 1 because her average is lower than the other two slappers. However, she was the only slapper to get a hit in that game, so Game 2 was back to the beginning of the season order with Evans, Sappenfield at the top and Doyle batting 9th.
I don't think Evans being pinch hit for is any indication of a hand injury.
Hutch has been pinch hitting for the slappers any time she needs a power bat - for a sacrifice fly or a homer.
I think Evans batted 9th in Game 1 because her average is lower than the other two slappers. However, she was the only slapper to get a hit in that game, so Game 2 was back to the beginning of the season order with Evans, Sappenfield at the top and Doyle batting 9th.
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Unfortunately, the stands were not full even though the game was sold out. The tickets aren't all that expensive so I think some folks don't bother to re-sell their tickets when they are going to be out of town or have a conflict.
That said, I saw folks giving away or selling tickets at the railroad track entrance to the ballpark last night. I would go early and see if someone has an extra ticket.
Giving up 5 runs is not good. We will struggle this year if our pitchers aren't able to keep the scoring to about half that on average. At least we didn't have a repeat of last Friday's game.
Monte only has 6 homers this season so far:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/mich/sports/w-softbl/auto_pdf/2015-16/stats/season_stats.pdf
Notice that she only has 12 hits: 6 homers, 4 doubles and 2 singles. She lost some playing time early in the season to Canfield due to her slow start and to give Canfield a chance at a starting position.
Monte truly had a great weekend. Here's a nice synopsis:
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/w-softbl/recaps/032716aaa.html
She was 4 for 5 this weekend and had 5 walks.
How many UM teams are traveling as a team during spring break?
It isn't just football. The softbal team is playing in a tournament this weekend in California.
They start playing games again on Wednesday evening in Fullerton, CA and return home Saturday evening.
They have had spring break trips for many years.
I guess it is under the radar. Likewise, women's basketball is in NJ for a Sunday game and will start their Big10 tournament next week during spring break.
I hope the Harbaugh rule won't apply to teams who are currently in-season.
This is great insurance for the team. We need two good starters and it wasn't clear that Blanco was going to be part of the mix. In college softball there are plenty of freshman pitchers that dominate. For instance Osrario and Ocasio.
It will be much easier to replace Blanco at first than Wagner at pitcher. Here's hoping for. a 3 man pitching rotation.
Offensively, this team was a better team than 2005. But, relative to the average D1 team in 2015, I'm not so sure as all the offensive stats have improved with the shrunken strike zone.
Our pitchers were great in 2015 and had two almost equal pitchers wherein in 2005 Ritter was the go-to pitcher by the end of the season and Wilson more of a on-a-short-leash pitcher.
Ritter was a bull dog and wanted the ball late in the game. I think Haeger from Florida is very much that persona and the fact she bats makes her that much more valuable. Haeger wants to be batting in the 7th, wants to finsih the games she starts, etc.
So athleticism, talent, etc. I'd give the nod to 2015, but that's going to be true of college softball in general.
The 2015 team is very tight and is a team. But, Ritter was probably more of a go-to pitcher than either Wagner or Betsa were. However, I love the redemption story of Wagner who lost her hero role after her freshman year and only regained it at the very end. But, she and Betsa were also a team - supporting each other and wanting the team to win - not worrying that Betsa or Wagner ends up with the victory.
Michigan swept Alabama earlier this season as Wolverine Devotee noted. More important, Michigan faced Osorio who is their go-to pitcher. She is just a freshman and pitched all 3 games in their Super Regional vs Oklahoma.
We beat Jury in the first game earlier this year and Osorio in the second game. However, Osorio has tons more experience than she did in February.
She's got a great rise ball. That's the pitch we struggled with against Kent State. I'm sure we're practicing against that sort of pitch over and over.
One other tidbit. Back in 2012 when UM didn't even get to host a regional, we went to Louisville as the #2 seed and won that regional and advanced to the Super Regional. Our opponenent was Alabama. We lost both games: 4-1 and 4-3. But that was also the year that Alabama won the national title so we did quite well against them.
Just like the Big 10 is not as strong this year as it has been in the past, the PAC is no longer the perennial softball power that it once was. The strongest conference by far is the SEC with all but 2 teams making the post-season. And, they didn't just slip in. The last time I checked all those SEC teams had RPIs of <=30.
So, CAL is not quite as battle-tested as the review impies.
A sidenote is that Henderson's older sister was the go-to pitcher for CAL - Jolene.
I agree that Pitt isn't all that battle-tested, but the ACC got 7 teams into the post-season - same as the PAC10. Pitt made it to the ACC finals - upsetting Notre Dame in the first round. They lost to Florida State in the ACC tournament final. This is the team Michigan lost to in the Super Regionals last year.
So, both the #2 and #3 seeds in this regional are reasonably strong.
Previous UM teams would have suffered with the Sierra slump she went through. But, others picked up when she "slumped." They really will be dangerous with her hitting on all cylinders. It will be a tough choice - walk her and let the rest of the order do damage or face her and give up a homer.
OK. Not a bogus award, but let's see how long it takes to show up on the college softball discussion thread.
The article is great. Graham Hayes does a good job of highlighting softball players.
This is the award most softball folks pay attention to:
http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Softball/College-Corner/2015-College-Corner/Player-of-Year/Top-10
She's still in the running for it, but is not likely to win it. It usually goes to a pitcher or a hitting pitcher and almost always a senior.
We'll see.
What hurts Michigan is the weak RPIs of its remaining opponents - other Big 10 schools.
Here is the RPIs for week 2:
http://robocoach.websitetoolbox.com/post/week-2-rpi-7354747
If you search on Southeastern, you'll see that almost all the teams in that conference are better than all but the top 3 in the Big 10.
What saves Michigan is its pre-season schedule.
And note that Kent State, our other home loss, has a decent RPI - relative to other Big 10 schools.
Wagner ended up with the victory in Game 2 as UM had gone ahead before Betsa came in to relieve her. So, Betsa gets a save:
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/w-softbl/stats/032815aab.html
Betsa and Wagner ended up with same number of Ks in Game 2 (4 apiece) but Betsa got hers in 2 innings and Wagner got hers in 5.
Dreisenga,is injured. I expect her to contribute as a pitcher but not as a DP; the freshman are hitting well and will cover DP.
Romero is also a hurt arm-wise. That is why she is playing 2b rather than ss.
While UM has had speed in the past Hutch is an old school coach who bunts more than she should and doesn't use team speed all that much. That said it is hard to to have Lawrence (leadoff) stealing a lot because opposing teams can/do walk Romero. Romero has about as many walks as hits.
This team is good, clicking on all cylinders. However they will lose some games in the Big10. Good pitching or unfamiliar pitching will flummox us.
And no one discussing other softball teams uses first names. It is Haeger not Lauren, etc.
Dreisenga,is injured. I expect her to contribute as a pitcher but not as a DP; the freshman are hitting well and will cover DP.
Romero is also a hurt arm-wise. That is why she is playing 2b rather than ss.
While UM has had speed in the past Hutch is an old school coach who bunts more than she should and doesn't use team speed all that much. That said it is hard to to have Lawrence (leadoff) stealing a lot because opposing teams can/do walk Romero. Romero has about as many walks as hits.
This team is good, clicking on all cylinders. However they will lose some games in the Big10. Good pitching or unfamiliar pitching will flummox us.
And no one discussing other softball teams uses first names. It is Haeger not Lauren, etc.
First, not to jinx the team or anything, but in their national title year, they lost the first game of the seaon and then won 32 straight games. They started out with two rainouts, which we don't have in our pattern for this year.
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/w-softbl/archive/schedule-2005-archive.html
While Binghampton is weak (Game 2 victory for today), they only lost 1-0 to ASU last night. They showed their weakness by just edging Toledo 5-4 yesterday.
The substitution rule in softball is not just a few years old. However, I can't verify when it was established.
The flex rule is relatively new and allows a coach to use good hit/bad defense or fast, but weak hitting players more effectively:
http://bit.ly/1mtoheR
Nice that you keep posting these game summaries so that the MGoBlog community backs another UM sport. But you're summary of the BC game is not accurate. Sappenfield had a bases loaded walk to bring in one run in the 7th inning.
http://bit.ly/1jwg8ll
In my view, the hitting and fielding is ahead of the pitching. We don't have the shut-down starter we'll need to advance to the post-season. For instance, the Minnesota starter is a true stud. But, we have time. These losses don't matter much.
Bethune Cookman was not Megan Betsa's first start. She started the the second game against South Florida and pitched a complete game victory.
Well, here's something based on more teams via Reddit. The following link provides an explanation of the image below:
http://bit.ly/15qTd1B
Bacon has been a lecturer at the university - really low pay:
http://bit.ly/151KJQ6
This could be a money maker. I'd love to see a highlights reel as well as the 3 games. If the footage still exists, MGoBlue ought to re-package it and sell to the softball fans.
The Cajuns are a good team. Michigan can beat them. We've already done so. But::
Their pitcher is the real deal. In softball message boards she is mentioned a lot more than our pitchers. In other words, she's a stud.
The Cajuns have been to the WCWS in recent history so they won't be in awe of playing in a super regional.
There are 2 unranked teams in the SR this year - UAB (beat UCLA); and UL (beat LSU). There were several nail biters - FSU barely escaped South Alabama and Hofstra beat Missouri in the first game today. So, the mid-majors are all formidable. The mid-majors struggle to be ranked because of the strength of their conferences. UL always slips in rankings once they start playing against their conference opponents.
The Cajuns have good team speed - probably better than us.
We take pride in being a cold weather school with significant contributions from cold weather players (Doyle, Blanchard, Knapp, Dreisenga, Crummey, and Susalla). The Cajun players are primarily from small towns mostly in Louisiana, but Petal Mississippi for two players, and some Texas towns as well. Wallace is from a suburb of Fort Worth, but most of these players are from places more like Reed City, MI.
Our tough regional helped us; better to play 2 games vs Cal rather than the #2 seeds we usually face. But UL has also had the same experience. They were in a tough regional and beat LSU twice.
Cal is one of the 1 pitcher teams in the tournament. Others are A&M, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Hofstra, and Baylor. Frankly, Minnesota and Wisconsin could also be classified that way.
Henderson was injured and hasn't played much for several weeks. She finally won in their last game of the season:
http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-softbl/recaps/051113aad.html
She pitched earlier this weekend and got the loss - giving up several runs in the first inning.
UM needs to worry about their own pitching, hitting, defense. We don't want to sneak into the Super regional.
Super Regionals are best of 3. The higher seed hosts unless they lose their regional. So UM would host LSU if both teams prevail in their regionals. If UM doesn't win, LSU would host the winner of the Michigan regional.
Last year, Hofstra and South Florida both upset the regional hosts (UCLA & Florida respectively) and South Florida hosted the super-regional and ended up advancing to the College World Series.
Assuming Michigan wins, either of the other opponents will be tough. Moulton is the stud pitcher in the Big10; she's the main reason Minnesota is in the mix to get to the NCAA regionals.
The pitcher UM will face today is Darragh. She's a junk ball pitcher, which Michigan traditionally doesn't do well against. But, I think we'll prevail.
If we play Nebraska, they have seen our pitchers and had success against them. Wagner shut them down in Game 2 but wasn't successful in relief in Game 3. Nebraska pitching also held Romero hitless although she got on base.
The conference has improved quite a bit in the past year. It was good to see Purdue battle Nebraska, although ultimately losing. They were tough against us as well although we ended up sweeping them.
Please delete this entry; was a duplicate
It is Teresa Sullivan, not Theresa. Another person out of UVA is James Hilton, her CFO, who she poached from UM. He's a good bit younger and pretty talented.
As talented as Dave Brandon is with fund raising and connections, I don't think he's be very popular with the faculty. Faculty relations are pretty important for the President. That's what saved Sullivan at UVA. The faculty had her back as did the students.
Actually, Romero was intentionally walked her first 3 at-bats; she had hit a grand slam in Friday's slug fest. Anyway, when she cam up to bat with the bases loaded they pitched to her and she hit her grand slam. Her next at bat, she was also intentionally walked.
However, in game 2, they are pitching to her - at least for now.
She is a stud hitter, and only a freshman.
Ohio State pitchers walked 7 UM hitters today and gave up 3 homers (Blanchard, Lawrence, and Susalla). It was nice to see Blanchard hit a grand slam after they pitched around Romero to force in a run. And, those 7 walks and 3 HRs were in 5 innings.
Ohio State pitchers walked 7 UM hitters today and gave up 3 homers (Blanchard, Lawrence, and Susalla). It was nice to see Blanchard hit a grand slam after they pitched around Romero to force in a run. And, those 7 walks and 3 HRs were in 5 innings.
I think we have always traded defense for offense; it doesn't hurt too much if the pitchers are really sharp and can handle the 4 out innings.
Our pitchers were not all that sharp yesterday; PSU is a really bad team so you don't want to be giving up that many runs to them, even if some were unearned.
Likewise, while our bats came out this weekend, it was also against subpar hitting. It will be interesting to see the team against better pitching - e.g., Darragh at Wisconsin or Moulton from Minnesota.
I still think this team is really good. They showed grit in coming back against Purdue when the defense was shoddy and the pitchers were not sharp. In years past, we struggled to come back from 2, not to mention 5.
Wagner is still in spring training having not pitched for the first 15 games or so of the season.
UM used to have very little competition in the Big10 in softball. Northwestern was our main rival, but they've struggled with pitching in the past few years and pitching is the most important commodity a team can have. UM was beat in a Super Regional by Virginia Tech when all they had was a stud pitcher & good defense.
Minnesota has a great sophomore pitcher and even though they don't have hitting they hit/scored plenty this past weekend.
Wisconsin has a good pitcher and is in the top half of the conference. And, newcomer Nebraska is a pretty good team as well.
Here's the RPI for the season so far (listed below). The teams playing tough competition will be our toughest competition this year. I'd be surprised if we went undefeated int he conference this year; mostly looking to sweep the series which will also be hard. We fell behind twice to Purdue but due to their poor defense and somewhat shaky pitching we won. But, our pitchers were hit pretty hard as well and we made defensive miscues. We always trade offense for defense, which matters in the World Series, e.g., it can hurt us.
Anyway, here's the RPI rankings I mentioned earlier:
17. Nebraska
18. Michigan
21. Wisconsin
25. Iowa
31. Minnesota
54. Ohio State
61. Northwestern
74. Illinois
78. Indiana
90. Purdue
127. Penn St
138. Michigan State
I agree that Knapp's hitting has really improved, but both she and Blanchard will have a tough time challenging for First Team. They don't hit with enough power for 3rd and 1st. For most teams those are power positions with players that produce lots of RBIs and home-runs.
But, their play is important to the team.
One other thing Hutch has done differently this year is switch the line-up around, mostly batting order rather than players. #1 - #3 has been set, but we've had lots of shuffling around with #4 - #9. It even happened today with Blanchard and Dreisenga swapping slots.
Sweet has been in #8 and is finally climbing out of the season-long slump she's been in. She had a 2-run homer in Game 2 today and is cutting down on her Ks.
Both of the wins today were come from behind.
In the first game, UM got behind by 5. Wagner was hit hard, but there was an error and some passed balls in the mix as well. She settled down and had 2 scoreless innings. We chipped away at the lead and then Purdue made some costly errors and UM wins by a mercy.
The second game was pretty similar; our pitcher was hit hard and we made some errors. Again, we chipped away and tied it late in the game. By this time Romero wasn't getting anything but intentional walks - including in the last inning, which put a runner on 3rd with less than two outs. Blanchard hit a single up the middle to end the game.
It's nice to see contributions from a variety of players; to see the team come back and win after some solid hitting by Purdue and some errors by UM.
Both of the Sierras are good additions to the team.
What's the love with Northwestern? Their pitching is weak. I'd swap Minnesota with Northwestern any day.
I agree with the criticism of the prose - using Sara, Ashley, etc. For most men's sports the players are known by their last names, with the exception of "Denard."
And, I wouldn't keep mentioning how young our team is. For a team like Wisconsin, the young players are replacing less-skilled older players.Plenty of teams have young, stud players who start as freshman. Michigan softball has had its share of 4-year starters. The only reason freshmen start for a team is that they have beaten out an older player.
I disagree with your assessment that the new schedule favors us; this year it is a series of single games. That favors teams that have one stud pitcher. A double-header schedule favors a team like Michigan, which has always used two pitchers, even when the #2 is really not all that strong. In the end, it saves wear/tear on the stud and the stud often comes in to relieve the #2 starter. An example of this was the Tay,lor/Speierman year.
I'm impressed with the increased strikeouts by Dreisenga. Last year she was much more of a pitch to contact pitcher and since UM's defense is never top notch, that's a risky situation to be in. And, she was the clear #2 last year; ideally, we have more of a 1a/1b situation this year.
Let's hope it is something contageous like the flu and Wagner was left in Ann Arbor.
I think the team has too many players to travel, but I'm also pretty sure that when the travel roster is made up you include 2 pitchers, 2 catchers, and the regular defensive starters (still in flux). The left-at-home player is never a key player.
Hutch is a real believer in using two pitchers, even when one is struggling. She usually sets up the starts to the stronger/better pitcher faces the tougher compeitition. But, we haven't seen Wagner at all this trip as a pitcher or DH.
We may find out as USF has tied UM 2-2 in the bottom of the 1st.
For those who think the Traverse City games were weak, this is pretty traditional. This is like the spring football game in football. It is a way to get some live competition and to try to fill the holes in the line-up from graduation and/or the influx of new players.
Romero, the new shortstop, is the real deal. She is excellent defensively - great range and a quick release. Every ball she hit against the pro team was hit hard. She's hitting in the 3-hole.
The game against the NFP was unusual. This was a real test - and UM won. They out-hit the NFP game and came through with the victory.
Ala bama's offense is really good; defense not so much. They have two hitters with almost 20 HRs and 2 hitters with around 40 stolen bases.
Traina is good but she's hittable. UM actually has more trouble with "pitchers" - those that have lots of changes of speed, good location, drop balls, etc. One of their losses this year was to the University of South Florida. Everyone says WTF but USF is in the sweet 16 as an unranked team vs Hofstra, another unranked team with a great pitcher (Galati).
UM needs some offense; great defense (go KP); and good pitching.
Here are comparables for both teams:
Michigan stats Alabama stats
Alabama definitely has the edge on speed, but it is less critical if they speedsters don't get on base.
Our pinch runners are fast, but mostly in comparison to the folks they replace. They aren't SEC-fast.
One thing you didn't mention in your summary is team speed. In general, the SEC has faster players than the BIG. Our fastest players - Doyle, Evans, and Sappenfield - are all slower than Alabama's two fastest players. In addition, Hutch is a bit old school and bunts rather than letting her players steal. And, we don't even bunt all that well, turning a bunt into a fielder's choice more often than we shold.I Nonetheless, I beleive Alabama has two players with 40+ steal attempts.
Bottom line is that team speed means our defense has to be even better/more composed than it was vs Louisville. KP at 3rd base is a godsend. She is mobile and has a great arm. We'll need her to have the same good defense she had last weekend. She wants the ball so let's hope she gets it.
On a message board, Alabama folks talked about their troubles with lefties. Hope that is true. They have also struggled with defense occasionally. Let's hope that is also true.
UM has nothing to lose. We're a 20+ seed going in to play the #2 seed. We should be loose. Pressing never helps. We had 2 walk-offs in the regional. The team knows they can come from behind.
Go Blue.
Our conference is weak this year so almost contending for the conference title doesn't count for much.
The selection is based quite a bit on RPI. Northwestern, which had a pretty miserable conference record, ends up getting in, based on their better RPI.
I don't like lots of the match-ups. It seems as though the NCAA is trying to hype the tournament based on past opponents rather than just letting the seeds fall into place more naturally.
UM is matched up against KY, who we played in the SR last year. Likewise, the year before we were paired with TN in the SR. That was the team we had to beat to get into the World Series back in 2005.
Tough regional; tougher than many. And, if UM wins they face the #2 regional - Alabama is the likely winner of that region.
This will be a good experience for the team. They can win the regional, but it would be an upset if they do.
My point is that every year is a rebuilding year. We always lose at least a few starters. This year is no different, except that we haven't been as successful at the task.
Starting two freshmen pitchers is no excuse. Often the freshman pitcher/slugger on a team is more skilled than the older players. And, that is the case for UM. We have a junior pitcher that was our #2 last year but hasn't seen a lot of playing time this year.
Lots of teams have stud freshman pitchers - Florida, Alabama, Washington - last year, Louisiana Lafeyette this year. Our freshman pitchers aren't quite at that level this year, but frankly it is the offense that is killing us.
As to our likely seeding in the regionals - I'd say #2 in a regional. That draws from the 17th - 32nd place team. We should go in with some attitude - frustrated that we're #2.
There's not a lot of pressure on the team. Lots of times we're ranked something like #4 and there is whispering that UM isn't really that strong; the Big10 is a weak softball conference; we're overrated, etc. This time we can be on the other side of the argument and show folks that we're better than our record shows.
I'm not sure why folks keep framing this year as a re-building year. In 2007, after Ritter graduated the team had a very respectable year - made it to the Super Regionals vs Baylor with a freshman pitcher (Nemitz) and a non-stud senior (Wilson).
The following year they lost the Super Regional vs Virginia Tech (Tincher) with a freshman pitcher (Taylor) and Nemitz.
In 2006, a big rebuilding year - losing lots of offensive starters, but still having Ritter, they made it to the Super Regionals vs Tennessee.
This is a disappointing season record-wise. I'm sure the coaches were not anticipating this. Nor are they making excuses of having to replace a dominant pitcher.
I hope the players loosen up and have fun. They will not be a #1 seed in the regionals, but plenty of lower seeded teams advance.
And, they can host. The NCAA has to distribute sites all of the nation; they can't all be in the SEC or PAC. I'm pretty sure that Cal played at Louisville last year as the #1 seed and Hofstra often hosts as a #2 seed.
While Illinois is in the bottom third of the BIG it gave Purdue a loss. And, we struggled against Illinois last year, although we beat them. Illinois has two reasonable pitchers - Guy and Gay.
Michigan is in the driver's seat for the conference title. They need to play good defense (4 of the 6 runs we gave up in Game 2 were unearned); put the ball in play - cut down on Ks. Our pitchers, especially Wagner, are doing their jobs.
They could easily host, but I doubt they'll be a #1 seed. That is not an uncommon scenario for cold weather sites, but it would be big change for UM. I'm not even sure we'd want host under those circumstances.
I don't think Evans being pinch hit for is any indication of a hand injury.
Hutch has been pinch hitting for the slappers any time she needs a power bat - for a sacrifice fly or a homer.
I think Evans batted 9th in Game 1 because her average is lower than the other two slappers. However, she was the only slapper to get a hit in that game, so Game 2 was back to the beginning of the season order with Evans, Sappenfield at the top and Doyle batting 9th.
I don't think Evans being pinch hit for is any indication of a hand injury.
Hutch has been pinch hitting for the slappers any time she needs a power bat - for a sacrifice fly or a homer.
I think Evans batted 9th in Game 1 because her average is lower than the other two slappers. However, she was the only slapper to get a hit in that game, so Game 2 was back to the beginning of the season order with Evans, Sappenfield at the top and Doyle batting 9th.