My guess? Somewhere around $1,000 a year for a softball athlete at a power-5 program. Exceptions for those who have built up a social media following and have individual deals with companies. One example would be Yazzy Avila at Illinois. But those companies want a certain look and access to the followers on social media and it's a lot of work to build up social media.
It will be interesting to see. It looks like they'll host Arizona next weekend - that's not as much a break as it appears. I think the title is wide open, with maybe five teams having that potential. Funny that I'm overlooking the deep SEC with those thoughts. Tennessee has the pitching, but otherwise it's mostly a Big 12 world. It won't be next year.
Derk's always been a solid second pitcher for a team that can compete on this level. They need too much from her.
The key to next season is whether Haley Ferguson turns out to be an ace. They've got a couple of promising power hitters coming in next year and Vallimont gets another off-season to build strength after that injury cost her last season.
Tholl did a nice job this year and her recruiting looks solid as well. They need that ace, though.
In the middle of the season, the hitting was the team's strength. I think the freshmen hit a wall a few weeks ago. What they need more than anything is a pitcher like some of the aces they've had in recent years (Betsa, Beaubien, Storako).
16 in a row for Kilfoyl. That's what an elite ace can do.
I don't know how they can integrate the three new teams. They're hundreds of miles apart from each other, even. I wonder if they're considering some sort of other arrangement. This is a bad deal for them. The travel makes no sense, either. Expensive and the weather is always iffy in Big Ten country in April.
Derk is at 70 pitches through four. Normal load, but the defense needs to be more perfect than they've been. Nine straight outs for Kilfoyl, including five strikeouts as she gets Stephenson and Conway to open the fourth.
My point was that in the past, it couldn't be determined whether seed within the region mattered, because in every instance in the past where two non-top seeds played in a super regional, the team from the regional with the higher overall seed hosted.
Unless you've heard differently, I don't think the committee needs to meet again in the unlikely event that both Michigan and Villanova win two games today.
They'd know. I guess the second tie-breaker is seeding within the regional. Maybe this has never happened with differently seeded non-hosts winning regionals. I went back to the beginning of the current format with stated 1-16 seeds and the non-host from the higher seeded regional had always hosted the super regional.
Seems likely. They tried Ashley Miller again today, and she walked five batters before they took her out in the second. They're asking a lot from Grudzielanek to keep it from being a mercy game - she's probably tired from a lot of work this weekend and only came back from an injury last week.
They wouldn't delay the Stillwater start since it's a different regional. Probably try to air it on ESPNU if they can, before switching over. But it does seem like a short game is likely.
The 5-seed regional goes up against the 12-seed regional. Arkansas is the 12-seed, but Arizona starts play tomorrow at 2-0.
I don't know the hosting rules for certain, but four times under the modern seeding system, both seeded teams designated for a super regional lost in the regionals. The team that knocked off the higher-seeded regional host was the host for the super regional in all four cases.
This makes sense because once the 16 seeds are given regionals, teams sent to those regionals are often determined by geography and a desire not to have intra-conference regional games. But if the SEC expands much more, that might no longer be possible.
Easy inning for both pitchers. George has retired all five Kentucky batters she has faced on groundouts. It's still 4-2, headed into the bottom of the sixth.
Hannah George faces Kentucky Hutch, and induces a ground-ball double play. She then gets the dangerous Peyton Plotts on a grounder and it's still 4-2, Michigan, headed into the bottom of the fifth.
Michigan has been unable to solve Lacatena. They're very aggressive swinging against her, as her stats indicate is the right approach, but they're hitting the ball right to the defenders.
Some damage with a double and a pair of singles, but Hoehn gets out of it with a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. Coffel flies out with two out and two on base.
No strikeouts and seven hits for the Wildcats, but Hoehn hasn't allowed any free passes, either.
Kentucky puts in Alexia Lacatena, as Schoonover has thrown an awful lot of pitches against Michigan in this regional. Lacatena has walked 12 and struck out 28 in 48 innings this season, with a 4.96 ERA.
Second time through the gauntlet, Lorsung drives in a run with a two-out single. Probably should have gone through the inning unscathed, but the defense wasn't perfect there.
2-1, Michigan, headed into the bottom of the third.
Conway hit by a pitch with one out. Lilly Vallimont makes Kentucky pay with her sixth home run this season. 2-0 Michigan, one out in the bottom of the second.
Erin Hoehn, p (3.44 ERA, 48 walks and 91 strikeouts in 95 2/3 IP)
A single and a hit batter with two out for Kentucky, but Hoehn's first pass through Coffel and Lorsung ends without damage. 0-0 headed into the bottom of the first.
Stephanie Schoonover is pitching for Kentucky again. She pitched about half of their loss earlier today.
Michigan is going with freshman Erin Hoehn, who hasn't thrown a lot lately, but hasn't really been hit hard, either. Huge challenge for her in her first post-season appearance. She could really step up, though.
Sieler works the count full, but flies out to center. Avery Fantucci pinch hits for Janelle Ilacqua, who probably would have come out anyway for Indy Langford's re-entry.
Northern Colorado turns to their top pitcher, Erin Caviness, who held the Wolverines to two hits in a game earlier this season. But one of them was a Keke Tholl grand slam.
Interesting story out of the MAC. Miami of Ohio is ranked in the top 25 with a 48-7 record headed into the regional. The Redhawks have 159 home runs this season, which leads the country by almost 50 and is just two from the Oklahoma record a few years back. One of their players, Karli Spaid, is one away from tying the single-season record of 37.
The MAC is not strong, though. Miami got a 3-seed, played Virginia (RPI 30) yesterday and were shut out on two hits. Tennessee is the region host.
Keke Tholl reached on an error, pinch runner Lexi Dellamonica took second on a wild pitch and third on an Ella Stephenson groundout. But Jenissa Conway hit a grounder to second and Dellamonica was thrown out at home.
No problem. Lilly Vallimont crushed a double to left center on an 0-1 pitch, and it's 2-2 with two out in the sixth.
The winner of this game plays Kentucky later tonight in an elimination game.
Oklahoma State beat Kentucky, 6-2, earlier today. The Wildcats got on the board quickly against Cowboy (Cowgirl?) ace Lexi Kilfoyl. It was 2-0 with two on before there was even an out. That pretty much ended Kentucky's offense for the game. Oklahoma State took the lead in the bottom of the first and coasted the rest of the way.
Derkowski with two hits allowed, a walk and seven strikeouts through five. A very light 65-pitch load. But the Bears still lead.
Three groundouts and a walk for Michigan in the fourth. It's still 2-1, Northern Colorado. In a continuation of yesterday's troubling trend, the Wolverines have stranded five baserunners today. The Bears have not left any on base.
In other Big Ten news today... Northwestern is off to the loser's bracket, dropping a 14-2 decision to top-ranked Texas. The Longhorns hit four home runs and Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Ashley Miller, who has had serious control issues lately, did not pitch. She only lasted one inning yesterday as the starter, but the Wildcats came back to beat Saint Francis (Pa.) comfortably.
Indiana plays host Missouri in a loser's bracket game starting up in about an hour. Missouri was the only top seed in a region to lose yesterday.
Penn State plays Albany in a loser's bracket game that starts at about the same time. They're in the 16th-seed Texas A&M regional.
Northern Colorado, surprisingly, went with Isabelle DiNapoli, who was battered around fairly thoroughly in a 9-1 mercy game against Michigan back in February.
Michigan's barely touched her in two innings today.
The Wolverines went with Lauren Derkowski. No one else has pitched for them in a couple of weeks now. That was also surprising, because Erin Hoehn held them to one hit in that game.
The Bears have a 2-0 lead headed into the bottom of the third, Ella Gonzales with her fifth home run of the year in the first inning. They scored a second run on one of those run-around double plays with runners on in the third.
They need some of that comeback magic now. The season ends if they lose this one. Northern Colorado's RPI is 159, fifth-lowest in the entire tournament.
Oklahoma State beat Northern Colorado, 6-0. Lexi Kilfoyl, who is fourth in the country in ERA, second among majors, threw five no-hit innings before leaving with a big lead.
Erin Caviness threw 110 pitches for the Bears, but I'd expect her to pitch tomorrow as well. Michigan might counter with Erin Hoehn, since she did well against them the first time they played.
Among other Big Ten teams, fellow three seeds Indiana (against Washington) and Penn State (against Texas State) lost their opening games. Two seed Northwestern, who is in the top bracket with Texas, has a big lead over Saint Francis (Pa.) late.
I think it was the right move. They have two really good hitters on that team, and Lorsung had already homered today while the batter she chose to face had struck out twice.
Bottom 7: one-out singles from Rylea Smith and Coffel get a couple on and Ella McVey flashes some glove to get the second out. Lorsung is walked to load the bases. Kentucky Hutch takes her place at the plate, 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts. She singles to right field, and that's a 4-3 win for the Wildcats.
Michigan drops to the loss bracket, where they will likely play Northern Colorado tomorrow. If they win, they play the loser of tomorrow's winner's bracket game. Loser is eliminated and winner gets up to two shots at the 2-0 team.
Top 7: Stephenson reaches on a one-out error, but Schoonover doubles her game total with a pair of strikeouts. 3-3 headed into the bottom of the seventh, Coffel due up third.
With her speed, she always is. But teams scout, and they weren't exactly surprised by it. This is drilled in every practice endlessly, because of the short basepaths.
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My guess? Somewhere around $1,000 a year for a softball athlete at a power-5 program. Exceptions for those who have built up a social media following and have individual deals with companies. One example would be Yazzy Avila at Illinois. But those companies want a certain look and access to the followers on social media and it's a lot of work to build up social media.
It will be interesting to see. It looks like they'll host Arizona next weekend - that's not as much a break as it appears. I think the title is wide open, with maybe five teams having that potential. Funny that I'm overlooking the deep SEC with those thoughts. Tennessee has the pitching, but otherwise it's mostly a Big 12 world. It won't be next year.
Derk's always been a solid second pitcher for a team that can compete on this level. They need too much from her.
The key to next season is whether Haley Ferguson turns out to be an ace. They've got a couple of promising power hitters coming in next year and Vallimont gets another off-season to build strength after that injury cost her last season.
Tholl did a nice job this year and her recruiting looks solid as well. They need that ace, though.
The book on Derkowski through 7: seven hits, a walk, four strikeouts, two hit batters. But the two home runs. The defense cost her, too.
A solid outing against a great hitting team. Kilfoyl is what makes them a championship threat.
In the middle of the season, the hitting was the team's strength. I think the freshmen hit a wall a few weeks ago. What they need more than anything is a pitcher like some of the aces they've had in recent years (Betsa, Beaubien, Storako).
16 in a row for Kilfoyl. That's what an elite ace can do.
I don't know how they can integrate the three new teams. They're hundreds of miles apart from each other, even. I wonder if they're considering some sort of other arrangement. This is a bad deal for them. The travel makes no sense, either. Expensive and the weather is always iffy in Big Ten country in April.
Derk is at 70 pitches through four. Normal load, but the defense needs to be more perfect than they've been. Nine straight outs for Kilfoyl, including five strikeouts as she gets Stephenson and Conway to open the fourth.
My point was that in the past, it couldn't be determined whether seed within the region mattered, because in every instance in the past where two non-top seeds played in a super regional, the team from the regional with the higher overall seed hosted.
Unless you've heard differently, I don't think the committee needs to meet again in the unlikely event that both Michigan and Villanova win two games today.
They'd know. I guess the second tie-breaker is seeding within the regional. Maybe this has never happened with differently seeded non-hosts winning regionals. I went back to the beginning of the current format with stated 1-16 seeds and the non-host from the higher seeded regional had always hosted the super regional.
Her height makes that particularly tough. She'll catch the plate with more of those. She doesn't walk many batters - one a game on average.
Good at bats from Michigan in the first.
In the age of NIL, I think he'd find it perfectly cromulent.
You know, the traditional idea of a scholarship athlete attending college and actually going to the trouble of earning a degree in engineering.
Ah, if you have to explain a line, you probably blew it. It wasn't meant as a slam on anyone.
Seems likely. They tried Ashley Miller again today, and she walked five batters before they took her out in the second. They're asking a lot from Grudzielanek to keep it from being a mercy game - she's probably tired from a lot of work this weekend and only came back from an injury last week.
They wouldn't delay the Stillwater start since it's a different regional. Probably try to air it on ESPNU if they can, before switching over. But it does seem like a short game is likely.
Reviewing the regions... I'm editing this post as the day continues.
Texas (1 seed)
Oklahoma (2 seed)
Tennessee (3 seed).
Florida (4 seed)
Oklahoma State (5 seed)
UCLA (6 seed)
Missouri (7 seed)
Stanford (8 seed)
Louisiana State (9 seed)
Duke (10 seed)
Georgia (11 seed)
Arizona (RPI 21). Arkansas was the 12 seed.
Baylor (RPI 18). Louisiana - Lafayette was the 13 seed).
Alabama (14 seed)
Florida State (15 seed)
Texas A&M (16 seed)
Records so far, by conferences with multiple bids:
SEC 30-14 (7 regional winners), Pac 12 14-9 (3 regional winners), Big 12 13-3 (4 regional winners), ACC 10-6 (2 regional winners), Big Ten 5-8, Sun Belt 7-6, AAC 1-4.
The 5-seed regional goes up against the 12-seed regional. Arkansas is the 12-seed, but Arizona starts play tomorrow at 2-0.
I don't know the hosting rules for certain, but four times under the modern seeding system, both seeded teams designated for a super regional lost in the regionals. The team that knocked off the higher-seeded regional host was the host for the super regional in all four cases.
This makes sense because once the 16 seeds are given regionals, teams sent to those regionals are often determined by geography and a desire not to have intra-conference regional games. But if the SEC expands much more, that might no longer be possible.
Long way to go. Very long way to go.
A grounder ends it. Hannah George retires all eight Kentucky players she faced and Michigan moves into the regional championship.
They will need to beat Oklahoma State twice tomorrow to win the regional. Oklahoma State needs only one win to advance.
Two quick outs - Smith, the leadoff hitter, on a foul pop, then Coffel on a fly to center field. One out away...
Lacatena has dropped her era from 4.96 to 4.61 tonight. Another easy inning. Top of the seventh, top of the order for Kentucky.
Easy inning for both pitchers. George has retired all five Kentucky batters she has faced on groundouts. It's still 4-2, headed into the bottom of the sixth.
Hannah George faces Kentucky Hutch, and induces a ground-ball double play. She then gets the dangerous Peyton Plotts on a grounder and it's still 4-2, Michigan, headed into the bottom of the fifth.
Michigan has been unable to solve Lacatena. They're very aggressive swinging against her, as her stats indicate is the right approach, but they're hitting the ball right to the defenders.
Vanessa Nesby leads off with a single, and Hoehn hits Lorsung with a pitch for the second time today. Two on, none out, and here comes Hannah...
Some damage with a double and a pair of singles, but Hoehn gets out of it with a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. Coffel flies out with two out and two on base.
No strikeouts and seven hits for the Wildcats, but Hoehn hasn't allowed any free passes, either.
Kentucky puts in Alexia Lacatena, as Schoonover has thrown an awful lot of pitches against Michigan in this regional. Lacatena has walked 12 and struck out 28 in 48 innings this season, with a 4.96 ERA.
Leadoff single for Langford. With one out, Keke Tholl hits her 16th home run of the year. 4-1 Wolverines, still up in the third.
Second time through the gauntlet, Lorsung drives in a run with a two-out single. Probably should have gone through the inning unscathed, but the defense wasn't perfect there.
2-1, Michigan, headed into the bottom of the third.
Conway hit by a pitch with one out. Lilly Vallimont makes Kentucky pay with her sixth home run this season. 2-0 Michigan, one out in the bottom of the second.
Michigan's twitter-x feed just reposted the Erickson walk-off - one of those pitches you know the pitcher wants back as soon it's let go.
Erickson singled after fouling off three 3-2 pitches with two out, but that was the only Wolverine baserunner. No score after one.
Michigan order (season OPS) for game 60:
Ellie Sieler, lf (.949)
Indy Langford, 2b (.688)
Maddie Erickson, 3b (1.014)
Keke Tholl, 1b (.984)
Ella Stephenson, rf (.778)
Jenissa Conway, cf (.890)
Lilly Vallimont, c (.696)
Ava Costales, dp (.925)
Ella McVey, ss (.707)
Erin Hoehn, p (3.44 ERA, 48 walks and 91 strikeouts in 95 2/3 IP)
A single and a hit batter with two out for Kentucky, but Hoehn's first pass through Coffel and Lorsung ends without damage. 0-0 headed into the bottom of the first.
Stephanie Schoonover is pitching for Kentucky again. She pitched about half of their loss earlier today.
Michigan is going with freshman Erin Hoehn, who hasn't thrown a lot lately, but hasn't really been hit hard, either. Huge challenge for her in her first post-season appearance. She could really step up, though.
And Maddie Erickson ends it. 12th home run of the season. 4-2.
On to play Kentucky again in about a half-hour.
Fantucci doesn't, watching strike three go by. Two out.
Sieler works the count full, but flies out to center. Avery Fantucci pinch hits for Janelle Ilacqua, who probably would have come out anyway for Indy Langford's re-entry.
Ella McVey leads off... fights off two 3-2 pitches, then singles down the line to left field. Leadoff hitter aboard, Sieler at bat.
Northern Colorado turns to their top pitcher, Erin Caviness, who held the Wolverines to two hits in a game earlier this season. But one of them was a Keke Tholl grand slam.
Hannah with the heroics!
Popup, short flyout, popup... and it's 2-2 headed into the bottom of the seventh.
Trouble in the seventh. Derkowski walks the first two batters and Hannah George takes the mound.
Interesting story out of the MAC. Miami of Ohio is ranked in the top 25 with a 48-7 record headed into the regional. The Redhawks have 159 home runs this season, which leads the country by almost 50 and is just two from the Oklahoma record a few years back. One of their players, Karli Spaid, is one away from tying the single-season record of 37.
The MAC is not strong, though. Miami got a 3-seed, played Virginia (RPI 30) yesterday and were shut out on two hits. Tennessee is the region host.
Michigan's 11th infield groundout of the game leaves another runner in scoring position, so it's 2-2 headed into the seventh.
Tied it up in the bottom of the sixth.
Keke Tholl reached on an error, pinch runner Lexi Dellamonica took second on a wild pitch and third on an Ella Stephenson groundout. But Jenissa Conway hit a grounder to second and Dellamonica was thrown out at home.
No problem. Lilly Vallimont crushed a double to left center on an 0-1 pitch, and it's 2-2 with two out in the sixth.
1-2-3 Wolverines in the fifth. 2-1 Bears headed into the sixth.
The winner of this game plays Kentucky later tonight in an elimination game.
Oklahoma State beat Kentucky, 6-2, earlier today. The Wildcats got on the board quickly against Cowboy (Cowgirl?) ace Lexi Kilfoyl. It was 2-0 with two on before there was even an out. That pretty much ended Kentucky's offense for the game. Oklahoma State took the lead in the bottom of the first and coasted the rest of the way.
Derkowski with two hits allowed, a walk and seven strikeouts through five. A very light 65-pitch load. But the Bears still lead.
Three groundouts and a walk for Michigan in the fourth. It's still 2-1, Northern Colorado. In a continuation of yesterday's troubling trend, the Wolverines have stranded five baserunners today. The Bears have not left any on base.
In other Big Ten news today... Northwestern is off to the loser's bracket, dropping a 14-2 decision to top-ranked Texas. The Longhorns hit four home runs and Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Ashley Miller, who has had serious control issues lately, did not pitch. She only lasted one inning yesterday as the starter, but the Wildcats came back to beat Saint Francis (Pa.) comfortably.
Indiana plays host Missouri in a loser's bracket game starting up in about an hour. Missouri was the only top seed in a region to lose yesterday.
Penn State plays Albany in a loser's bracket game that starts at about the same time. They're in the 16th-seed Texas A&M regional.
They get one back in the third on a two-out Maddie Erickson single. 2-1 headed into the fourth.
Northern Colorado, surprisingly, went with Isabelle DiNapoli, who was battered around fairly thoroughly in a 9-1 mercy game against Michigan back in February.
Michigan's barely touched her in two innings today.
The Wolverines went with Lauren Derkowski. No one else has pitched for them in a couple of weeks now. That was also surprising, because Erin Hoehn held them to one hit in that game.
The Bears have a 2-0 lead headed into the bottom of the third, Ella Gonzales with her fifth home run of the year in the first inning. They scored a second run on one of those run-around double plays with runners on in the third.
They need some of that comeback magic now. The season ends if they lose this one. Northern Colorado's RPI is 159, fifth-lowest in the entire tournament.
Seems Michigan is cornering the market. Now to work out the NIL issues, so they can market the corners.
Oklahoma State beat Northern Colorado, 6-0. Lexi Kilfoyl, who is fourth in the country in ERA, second among majors, threw five no-hit innings before leaving with a big lead.
Erin Caviness threw 110 pitches for the Bears, but I'd expect her to pitch tomorrow as well. Michigan might counter with Erin Hoehn, since she did well against them the first time they played.
Among other Big Ten teams, fellow three seeds Indiana (against Washington) and Penn State (against Texas State) lost their opening games. Two seed Northwestern, who is in the top bracket with Texas, has a big lead over Saint Francis (Pa.) late.
I think it was the right move. They have two really good hitters on that team, and Lorsung had already homered today while the batter she chose to face had struck out twice.
Bottom 7: one-out singles from Rylea Smith and Coffel get a couple on and Ella McVey flashes some glove to get the second out. Lorsung is walked to load the bases. Kentucky Hutch takes her place at the plate, 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts. She singles to right field, and that's a 4-3 win for the Wildcats.
Michigan drops to the loss bracket, where they will likely play Northern Colorado tomorrow. If they win, they play the loser of tomorrow's winner's bracket game. Loser is eliminated and winner gets up to two shots at the 2-0 team.
Top 7: Stephenson reaches on a one-out error, but Schoonover doubles her game total with a pair of strikeouts. 3-3 headed into the bottom of the seventh, Coffel due up third.
With her speed, she always is. But teams scout, and they weren't exactly surprised by it. This is drilled in every practice endlessly, because of the short basepaths.