Softball Splits Saturday Games
Well, friends, I have to admit that I may have over-rated the softball team's offense in my season preview. There's a lot of time left in the season, of course, but the offensive struggles are starting to look like a pattern, and are the main reason the team is sitting on a middling 7-6 record, with some questionable losses along the way.
In today's first game, strong pitching from Blanco (5.1 innings) and Beaubien (2) wasn't enough to overcome the total lack of run support. The Wolverine pitchers blanked Virginia Tech for 7 full innings before finally surrendering a run in the bottom of the 8th for a walk-off 1-0 loss.
Fortunately, game 2 went a little better - as one would expect against Wichita State. The Wolverines pounded the Shockers into the ground, putting up 6 runs in the first inning. All the starters except for Tera Blanco got at least 1 hit on the day, and she still managed to score a pair of runs, so it wasn't all bad for her either. Madison Uden and Aidan Falk were the stars, combining for 5 hits and 6 RBIs in the game. Beaubien pitched the first 3 innings before handing over the reins to fellow-freshman Sarah Schaefer with the game no longer in doubt. The run rule ended the game before the Wolverines would even step to the plate in the 5th inning, with a final score of 11-0.
Michigan will try to earn a winning record on the weekend with a match-up against the Texas Longhorns tomorrow at 1:30 PM, CT. The game will be shown live on the Longhorn Network.
February 24th, 2018 at 6:46 PM ^
start to the season with many close losses due to lack of offense..Theres just not many sluggers on this years team...Very similar to last season...6 losses this early really hurts them hosting regionals or super regionals unless they go on a LONG winning streak and this offense just doesnt look good at all...Stranding base runners is a issue again just like last year...No big bats
February 24th, 2018 at 7:01 PM ^
frustrating 1st game today, especially the way they lost it in the 8th with the auto runner at 2nd for extra innings rule.
sac bunt to get runner to 3rd, suicide squeez lost it.
February 24th, 2018 at 7:03 PM ^
surprising.
wait until they settle in to weak competition of the conference and they'll get the record back up.
February 24th, 2018 at 7:06 PM ^
on Sunday and come back with a 3-2 record on the weekend. Game time is 2:30 ET.
February 24th, 2018 at 7:10 PM ^
Only 2 starters and 1 sub batting over .300 says it all.
February 24th, 2018 at 7:30 PM ^
The lack of run support is so frustrating especially since the pitching has been great. We haven't lost by more than 3 runs (and that 3 run loss was a 3 run HR so 1 bad pitch, other than we've lost by 1 and 2 runs) and that includes games against top 10 teams. But even the best pitchers will give up runs occasionally. And your own team can't put across runs, even shutdown pitchers will take losses.
I realize the team has lost a steady stream of offensive contributors over the last few seasons but underclassmen should have stepped in and stepped up. Nobody's really taken their place. 1-9 was a consistent hitting threat a few years ago and now scratching out even 1 run against decent teams is a struggle. It's weird.
February 24th, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 8:15 PM ^
Katie Alexander and Tera Blanco are hitting as well as or better than they did last year. All the other returning regulars have gotten off to slow starts, but they've shown that they're capable of much more. Last year the offense had .413 OB and .496 slug. This year so far it's .331/.364.
The pitching/defense is actually improved over last year. Opponents hit .292/.272 last year and just .241/.227 so far this year.
February 24th, 2018 at 9:25 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
Silver Lining---Softball was always there when everything else sucked. At least on offense, they have defiitely taken a step back. Perhaps that means football (especially offense) will be taking a step forward.
We've been spoiled with the women's bats over the last 20 years, but c'mon man, get some hits!