Baseball/Softball

So, last weekend was fun. The Michigan Wolverines Softball team went into the B1G Softball Tournament in Iowa City and brought the whole damn crown back to Ann Arbor with them. Meanwhile, back in A2, the Michigan Baseball team was taking another series from a B1G foe, this time being a solid Purdue team to put themselves on the verge of qualifying for the B1G Tournament in Omaha over Memorial Day. It was a fun weekend in Michigan bat-and-ball sports: 

Your B1G Softball Tournament Champion Michigan Wolverines

Things went pretty well in Iowa City! For the first time since 2019, Michigan is back on top of the B1G Softball Tournament (note: there was no conference tournament in either 2020 or 2021) as the #2 seeded Wolverines swept through Maryland, Wisconsin, and Indiana to take home the crown. It ended up being a completely busted open bracket, the most upset-heavy field I can remember in recent years. The 1st seeded Northwestern Wildcats suffered the same fate that 2018 Michigan did, losing as the top overall seed in their first game of the tournament. NU was felled by the angry Indiana Hoosiers, who were beginning their Cinderella run to the title game that flipped the narrative on their disappointing season. 

Northwestern was gone right off the bat, making Michigan the highest seeded team left before the Maize & Blue had ever even played a game. They also got a nice bit of draw luck when Ohio State and Penn State, two tricky teams in their half of the draw, were quickly KO'd before Michigan ever played either. That set up a matchup with Maryland in the quarterfinals to kick things off for the Wolverines, a bit of a pitcher's duel between Lauren Derkowski and Courtney Wyche through four innings. 

As usual, it took Michigan's hitters until later in the game to figure out the opposing pitcher, but once they keyed in, they solved Wyche pretty quickly. In a 0-0 game in the bottom of the fifth, Michigan's hitters stopped swinging at pitches out of the zone and began to work an unending parade of walks. Eventually they took the lead and then things spiraled out of control for Maryland, a hit batter and a Lilly Vallimont RBI single tossed in there, resulting in a scenario no one saw coming entering the inning: that Michigan could end it on a run rule. With the bases loaded and two outs, Michigan now up 6-0, this happened: 

The Game Ender. 🚀@AveryFantucci | #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/L4jVEoF9tN

— Michigan Softball (@umichsoftball) May 10, 2024

That's pinch-hitter Avery Fantucci bashing a walk-off grand slam to center, a 10-spot for the Wolverines in the 5th to end the game in one fell swoop. The Terps never knew what hit 'em and Michigan was off to the semifinals. Ending the game in a run rule was quietly huge for the team's chances in this event, since it helped keep Derkowski's pitch count in the 60s, saving her the energy she would need to pitch each of the next two games. Also in things huge for Michigan's chances, they received a bit of a lucky break after their game concluded, as 11-seed Wisconsin (who had beaten Ohio State the previous day) knocked off 3-seed Rutgers, setting up an easier semifinal matchup for Michigan. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the rest of the BTT, NCAAs, and Baseball]

May has arrived and with it comes the postseason phase of the baseball and softball seasons. The B1G Softball Tournament is currently ongoing, with Michigan playing their first game later today. Baseball is also down to the wire, the final two weeks of the regular season before the conference tournament takes place over Memorial Day weekend. A lot going on as the Michigan teams enter the home stretch and we will dig into it today: 

Softball: Good, but recently frustrating 

My last piece was introducing softball's big upcoming weekend against Penn State, noting that there were two series left in the regular season and a strong finish was going to be needed to differentiate this team from last year's squad, which bombed down the stretch. The good news is, Michigan mostly proved that this team is different. They swept a solid PSU team in Happy Valley and then came home and took the first game of the series from Ohio State. The win streak was up to 14 at that point and it felt like the hot streak was going to continue forever. Then the OSU series finished in disastrous fashion and dampened the mood significantly. Let's break it down below. 

The Penn State series was a good test for this Michigan team, a matchup between Lauren Derkowski and Bridget Nemeth, two of the better pitchers in the B1G. Nemeth has been probably the second best pitcher in the conference behind only Northwestern's Ashley Miller, so I was heartened to see Michigan have some real success against her. They only got two runs in the first game, but with Derkowski's dominant pitching, it was enough for a 2-0 shutout win. Their next games were better, getting a couple runs off Nemeth in brief work when she came in for relief on Saturday, and then scratched out three runs against her on Sunday in a gutty win in extras. In total, Nemeth surrendered 7 ER against Michigan in 18 winnings of work, a 2.72 ERA for a pitcher whose season ERA is 1.68. That's fine with me. 

Michigan was able to sweep the series because it was a strong weekend for Derkowski and the rest of the pitching staff, but also because the bats battered PSU's non-Nemeth pitchers in the Saturday game. That middle game was a 14-3 bludgeoning, in between the two close, "playoff" style 2-0 and 3-2 wins. Michigan was able to get the sweep because the power continued to deliver, home runs from Maddie Erickson and Keke Tholl on Friday and Sunday, respectively, which are so big against ace level pitchers. During the blowout win in between, Michigan got great hitting from all over, Erickson, Jenissa Conway, and Lilly Vallimont all socking long balls, in addition to another great day for Ella Stephenson. 

[Katelyn Mulcahy]

It was the satisfactory sort of weekend that sent a message that this Michigan team was for real, locking up a top two spot in the B1G Tournament by sweeping a top 40 RPI opponent on the road. The final weekend of the regular season was back at home against Ohio State, a decent but not tournament-bound opponent. The Friday game was a throwback to some of Michigan's mid-April games, where iffy pitching and dreadful defense buried Michigan into a hole and required the offense to dig out of it, which they gladly did thanks to more clutch hitting from Erickson (two huge RBI doubles) and Ella Stephenson (insurance 2 run HR late). 

Heading into the Saturday game, Michigan was only 0.5 games back of Northwestern, needing to win out and have the 'Cats drop one of their last two against Indiana to take the regular season title. The Maize & Blue got the help they needed on Saturday afternoon from the Hoosiers, but that's when things sputtered. Over the final two games of the series, Michigan would put together their two worst offensive performances since February, scoring one total run across the two games. This was a shockingly poor showing at the plate from a team that has been able to sustain lively offensive efforts against a number of different levels of pitching. Michigan's pitching couldn't answer the bell, particularly on Saturday, and they lost the two games 6-0 and 2-1.  

[AFTER THE JUMP: takes and baseball]

I wrote a softball update a few weeks back, when Michigan was starting to show some promise offensively, with a few important weekends upcoming. Three weekend series have passed since then, with Michigan continuing to bank wins and stay near the top of the conference as we learn what this young team is made of. It's about time for another softball update and in turn, it's time to give Michigan's baseball team some love as well, after yet another series win in conference play, most recently over the rival Ohio State Buckeyes. Today we'll be accomplishing both, talking about developments in the softball season and the road ahead, before digging into where Michigan Baseball sits with a month to go in the regular season: 

Softball hitters: REAL 

When I wrote about softball last time, I was reporting on the genuinely encouraging developments on offense for the Wolverines that had suddenly materialized, following a moribund first month of the season. At the time I noted that we would gain more information on just what these young hitters were made of over the following couple weeks, with two solid pitching teams upcoming in Northwestern and Iowa. There were reasons to believe the offensive surge was real, but until they faced more deecent pitching staffs, it was difficult to buy in fully. 

So what happened? Michigan has continued to hit pretty well. They didn't bludgeon Northwestern, which no one was expecting against a team with a star ace like Ashley Miller, but after scoring just one in the first game in an abbreviated run rule game, they put up 4 and then 5 on the 'Cats. It was disappointingly not enough to win any of the games due to a pitching meltdown, but from an offensive standpoint, I came away encouraged. Northwestern has only allowed 4+ runs nine times this season in 38 games and two of those were against the Wolverines. That's something. 

Then came Iowa, who had allowed 6+ runs four times all season. Michigan put up 6+ in all three games, seeming to send their pitching into a tailspin that then carried over into a disastrous series against Indiana this past weekend. Michigan put up 11 and 5 in mid-week games against MSU over the past two weeks and then put up 4, 6, and 11 this past weekend against Nebraska. The pitching held up enough to sweep all of those games against Iowa, MSU, and Nebraska. To cap it all off, Michigan went on the road yesterday to Oakland and defeated the Golden Grizzlies for the second time this season, winning by a 9-4 final score.  

I don't believe that Michigan is one of the very best offenses in college softball, but we have enough evidence now that this is a good college offense. More importantly, it is an offense that is miles better than what they put out there in any of the last few seasons. The numbers over the past 29 games speak for themselves: in that span Michigan is hitting a quadruple slash of .324/.419/.558/.977 as a team. Their batting average, OBP, and SLG would all be top 25 in the country if sustained over a full season. Of course, they haven't been facing the most *elite* pitchers in the country during this stretch (mostly conference games against a weak B1G) and thus we wouldn't expect it to be fully sustained over a full season. but I've followed this team a while now. I've watched versions of Michigan over the years, particularly 2022 and 2023, that couldn't hit the ball against anybody. To now have a team that is bludgeoning the merely okay teams on the schedule is a significant development. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: digging deeper into softball + baseball talk]