M Softball #beatohio today, 3-2. Tomorrow v. Wisconsin 3:00 BTN
Driesenga with the win, Wagner with the save. Lane had a two RBI home run, Amy Knapp scored the other run.
Semifinals are tomorrow, M v. Wisconsin, and the winners out of 11 PSU v. 3 Minnesota and 10 Purdue v. 2 Nebraska. Semifinals are aired live on BTN, 2:00 central for Michigan, the other game follows immediately after (tentative 4:30CT for the first pitch).
I'm a little worried about playing wisconsin. Michigan hasn't faced them all year and they are a hot team at the right time.
Good win today. Wisconsin will be tough, but certainly winnable.
I'm glad we get to face Wisconsin. It's frustrating that, in a 23-game conference schedule we don't manage to play everyone at least once, although the 3-game series set-up does have its advantages. The tournament creates the chance to rectify that a bit, though, letting us face some teams we haven't seen before. If we beat Wiscy, I hope we get a new opponent in the final as well - partly because Nebraska scares me, but mostly just because I want to face someone new.
Why was it a tough call?
But coming from growing up playing hockey and watching a lot of football, I still think it's crazy that coaches regularly put a cold* player in at the most important position in crunch time. It obviously pays off on a regular basis, but the logic of it is strange, IMO.
*Yes, I know they're in the bullpen warming up, but it's not the same as facing batters for an hour and a half.
Dreisenga had managed to get through similar situations all game. The lead runner was on with an error. The hit looked like duck snort to me. For most coaches I have known- lesser personages than Hutch- they would wait until the game was tied to make the change. Hutch put it all on herself by making the change at that time, and on Wagner coming in with a ton of pressure. Maybe because Michigan does not have a true ace, but an A and an A1, she has more confidence to change earlier? I still wonder, when they get in the big tournament if one of them will get the ace treatment.
(edit) I looked up the Nebraska series boxscores, as a small sample size for instance: Game 1, Dreisenga starts, Wagner relieves down 0-2, M loses 6-1 (pitching change does not work so well.) Game 2: Wagner starts, falls behind 0-3 after 5, no pitching change, M wins (ace treatment?), Game 3, Dreisenga starts (ace treatment, starting 2 of 3 in key series?), pitching change in 6th with 4-2 lead, M loses 4-7. I like the way the pitching change worked out last night, but I don't know what I would do next time in the same circumstance.
Let's consider that this was just to get the right matchup for Michigan.
Ohio State's batter Evelyn Carrillo was 3-for-3 against Driesenga yesterday, and is a .316 hitter overall this season. More importantly, she bats left handed. Michigan only needed one out, and remember that the return rule in softball allows you to make a pitching change and then bring the starter back one time.
Lefty Haylie Wagner was brought in to pitch to a batter who Driesenga had not been able to get out, and Wagner had the favorable matchup. I'm sure that if the change had not worked, we might have seen Driesenga back in the circle. That was clearly the right move for that point in the game--not because Driesenga was struggling, but because Wagner had a better chance of getting that particular batter out.
Nebraska scored two in the B6 to take a 3-2 lead against Purdue which they took to the end. Semifinals are 1 Michigan vs 4 Wisconsin and 2 Nebraska vs 3 Minnesota.
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.