Michigan Softball Drops to #19

Submitted by MGoSoftball on

The Michigan Softball Team dropped from #14 to #19 in the USA Today/USA Coaches Poll that was released today.  We are tied for 19 in the ESPN poll as well.

I feared we would have a sizable drop after going 1-2 in the Louisville Tournament.  It doesn't get any easier this weekend as we head out to Cali for the Judi Garmen Classic.  We will play Notre Dame and #7 Oklahoma on Thursday.  On Friday we play #5 and defending NC Arizona State.  On Saturday we play Virginia and #24 De Paul.

The following weekend starts the Big Ten Conference play.  I hope the girls can get it together and take some extra BP this week with the warm weather.  We are going to need it.

manchild56

March 13th, 2012 at 11:14 PM ^

those wins starting in Big Ten play where we should still be the favorite to win it again. We have played stiff competition in our OOC schedule so I am alright with 19th in the nation with how young the players are.

MGoSoftball

March 13th, 2012 at 11:17 PM ^

get a boost from playing in the B1G.  We were ranked 5th at the year end poll but fell to 12th in RPI.  Our OOC schedule is not very difficult at all actually.  We didnt play anyone in the Top 5.

We had better do some serious @ss kicking or we will risk home field during the regionals.

justingoblue

March 14th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ^

are up. Not pretty for Michigan, although that's not really new news.

147 in batting average (.242)

48 in ERA (2.2)

71 in fielding percentage (.965)

146 in scoring (3.96)

29 in winning percentage (.667)

A couple thoughts here, though. In fairness, SOS is nowhere near equal across division one. MGB's team has stats that are very favorable compared to Michigan, but M has faced like four ranked teams while her team has faced one. This won't be able to be factored into our interpretation of these stats until the NCAA releases RPI, which from my understanding will still be a while. That being said, just from eyeballing it M is a good ways back from the Alabama's and Cal's of the softball world in all of these categories, so not all of that can be chalked up to SOS.

Also, holy hell has Auburn slid. M handed them their first loss like two weeks ago and they've lost six since then.

 

snowcrash

March 14th, 2012 at 1:29 PM ^

Wagner's numbers stack up fairly well against Taylor's last year. Wagner has allowed 69 baserunners (ignoring errors, so hits + walks + hit by pitch) in 74.1 innings, 0.93 per inning. Taylor allowed 221 in 242.1 innings, or 0.92. In terms of stats that depend only on the pitcher as opposed to the defense, Taylor had a better ratio of strikeouts to walks (340/45, Wagner's is 50/14) and hit people with pitches at about the same rate, but allowed many more home runs (12 to Wagner's 1 in about a third as many innings).

Speierman and Driesenga put together have been about as effective (1.37 baserunners per inning) as Speierman alone was last year (1.43). Driesenga has allowed more runs than you would expect given the number of baserunners she's allowed, but she should get better at pitching out of jams as she gains experience.