ellie sieler

It's been a while since there was front page discussion of softball at MGoBlog. I wrote a softball preview nearly two months ago and I haven't written anything since, with the churn of basketball and hockey season consuming my time. But after an eventful weekend for softball, building on a couple of positive weeks, it's time to check back in. We'll give a brief recap of the season, talk about the recent offensive surge (the team's biggest storyline), briefly mention pitching, and then look at the road ahead. 

A brief season recap 

Michigan Softball currently sits 24-11, 6-0 in B1G play. The path to this point has not been consistent or straight forward, an incredibly choppy non-conference portion of the schedule followed by a rapidly improving performance in conference play. The team started the season in Tampa with a 5-3 win over Illinois State, lost a 1-0 shutout to USF, but then closed out the opening weekend with three narrow wins over Bethune Cookman, Florida, and Oregon State. Their next weekend was in Boca Raton, getting wins over Seton Hall and Maine before losing 2-0 to Louisville and 1-0 to host FAU. As you can tell, offense was an issue early on. 

Michigan had an easier weekend at the UC Santa Barbara Tournament after that, taking four of five from a combination of opponents including UCSB, Northern Colorado, and Sacramento State. Michigan stayed out west to play Long Beach State, who they lost to in extras (7-6), and then headed for the hardest weekend, the Judi Garman Classic. There, in Fullerton, Michigan's offensive flopped in tremendous fashion by losing four straight games scoring a combined one run. Granted, it was against some pretty good teams in Cal State Fullerton, UCLA, Texas A&M, and Oregon State, but the anemic performance left no one reassured about the group's future. Offensive fortune did turn around in the final game of the weekend, though, as Michigan shockingly slaughtered an elite Florida team 10-2 in a run rule, their second win of the season over the Gators. 

Michigan then migrated back towards the north with a record of 11-9. They played three games in Highland Heights, Kentucky, sweeping  Bowling Green and Illinois State but dropping one to the hosts of Northern Kentucky. Staying in-state, Michigan jutted over to Louisville for one last non-con weekend over St. Patrick's Day, where they beat South Dakota, Dartmouth, and Illinois (that one didn't count for conference standings), but lost in an ugly run rule to the hosts Louisville. Two days later, Michigan returned home to Ann Arbor and finally began their slate of games at The Hutch, with a 2-0 win over Oakland. 

This was about the time that Michigan's offense really got humming. After the narrow win over Oakland, Michigan played host to one of the lesser teams in the conference in Purdue and slapped the Boilers around. Michigan swept the series, outscoring Purdue 24-5 on aggregate, to begin the year 3-0 in B1G play. They kept the momentum going by detonating Toledo during a mid-week game, 12-3 in a run rule victory, and then went into Bloomington for a big weekend. The Hoosiers are not a great team nationally, but are a decent squad with a solid pitching staff (more on that in the next section). Michigan instead clobbered IU's pitching, sweeping the series with two run rule wins and outscoring the Hoosiers 32-8 on aggregate. That final game, played this past Sunday, means Michigan is on a 10 game win streak leading into this weekend's series in Evanston. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: takes on the season]