Big Ten Softball Tournament starts today - Michigan/Penn State 10/7 game this afternoon
All tournament games are on the Big Ten Network. The winner of the Michigan/Penn State game plays #2 Indiana on Thursday. Today's game should begin at about 2:30 eastern time.
The Big Ten awards were announced today as well. Outfielder Lexie Blair was one of 18 players named to the all-league first team. She was also named to the all-league defensive team.
Pitcher Lauren Derkowski was one of 20 on the all-league second team. Freshman 2b Indiana Langford, who broke through and earned a starting spot halfway through the season, was also named to the second team and is on the all-league freshman team as well. Keke Tholl is Michigan's sportsmanship honoree.
The Wolverines likely need to win the Big Ten tournament to keep their 27-season streak of reaching the NCAA tournament alive. A tall order, but you never know. The tournament is being played in Champaign.
The Rutgers v Ohio State game is tied so the Michigan game will not be starting at 2:30.
10th place is quite disappointing, isn't it?
Well -- considering we probably have about as many regular season / conference tournament championships as every other school combined if we were to look it up -- yes -- I would say so.
Pshaw, Michigan only has 22 regular season championships compared to 23 for the rest of the conference combined, and only 10 tournament championships compared to 13 for the rest of the conference combined.
Dominance schmoninance...
/s
Well, I think we should be ashamed of ourselves for not sharing more.
Illinois must have come in second at some point, so they should be able to claim at least one title.
They were counting on a big freshman impact. The top recruit missed the season with an injury, a couple of others who looked like four-year starters just didn't hit. And Storako/Widra transferring and Beaubien out of eligibility meant the pitching wasn't going to dominate the league as it always does.
4th-10th is 13-to-10 wins, so it's not quite as bad as it looks, but it's definitely not what the program is used to seeing. Poor Purdue and MSU weren't even invited to the tournament.
I think given the recruits coming in, as long as the pitcher can hold her own, they'll be better next season.
Hackenbracht single-handedly got Ohio State through. They'll play Minnesota and face their pitcher-of-the-year tomorrow. The Michigan game will start soon.
I'm curious who you thought were going to be four year players other than Lillian (injured as you said) and why? My only other guess would be Avery just based on what kind of recruit she was.
I thought, yes, Avery might hit well enough to take over and Erickson and Ilacqua would hang on the jobs they won early. There's just so much need for offense, the bar wasn't as high as in the past and this class was more highly rated than recent ones.
As it turns out, the only freshman starting is the one I didn't think would start. It's too bad the NCAA won't let her wear 500 as a uniform number - every one-hopper is a single with that speed.
4th-10th is 13-to-10 wins, so it's not quite as bad as it looks.
Softball is also weird in that you don’t play everyone. Of the 13 other B1G schools, Michigan only played 8 of them. Without divisions, not playing 5 conference opponents seems like an odd way to determine standings.
First pitch at 3:03 pm EDT.
Michigan (seeded 10th) plays Penn State (seeded 7th) in the opening round. The B1G women's tourney is in lovely Champaign Urbana with Illinois being this year's host.
Wondering if Bielema will stop by and cheer the Illini squad on when they take the field this evening against the Badgers. The Illini women are seeded 12th.
The only "really good" news about this being in Champaign is - there's not much to distract the team. And, apparently - the last place team in the conference isn't even invited to the tourney. This year, the last place team just happens to be the Michigan State Spartans. I wonder if Coach Mel has been giving their softball team some pep talks and instruction.
P.S. - as an aside - Northwestern is seeded first - just as they were in lacrosse.
Go Blue!
I'm sick of Northwestern dominating the Big Ten.
The Wildcats are very tough in a number of sports. Their women’s lacrosse, field hockey, and softball teams are very good.
Good luck to the ladies. Hopefully, they can play their best ball now and end the season on a high note.
Thanks for posting. Considering the changes this season, the result is not surprising but it's still been fun to watch the team battling.
And despite the season, it's fun rooting for them to make it to the NCAA tournament again.
Go Blue!
I'm not used to Michigan being the 10th seed but a couple of weeks ago I saw Indiana run rule us and I'm not used to that either.
The tournament is fresh start and strange things can happen. Go Blue!!
Let's Go Blue!
Should be overturned - SAFE! Run scored, 1-0 U-M.
[Edit] Almost a double play, ruled out at 1st (bad call).
Wow, nice jump & catch by McVey, then made the throw to 1st for double play. After a fielding error the previous play to allow a baserunner.
WOO! Base hit, RBI, 2-1 U-M!! Unfortunately 3rd out with bases loaded.
Heart of the order for Penn State in the bottom of the sixth. Derkowski's pitch count is low, though.
Game tied, but Penn State had two in scoring position with none out, got the tying run in on a sac fly, then Derkowski struck out the next two with the game on the line. Top of the seventh, heart of Michigan's lineup out there.
ARGH! Throwing error leads to PSU winning run.
Ouch
Rough way to end a rough season.
And that'll do it. A walk after getting ahead of a .120 hitter, then a ground ball turned adventure on the basepaths. A quiet end to the season.
It's too bad Lexie Blair couldn't play after getting hurt against Minnesota. She'll be missed - a long, productive career here. Not sure if Lexi Voss is returning. It will be a very young team next year, hopefully building a new powerhouse.
Unfortunately they've been trending downwards for quite some time and finished 10th (!!!) in the conference this year. May be some darker days ahead for the women...
They won the conference championship every year from 2008 to 2016 and then again in 2018, 2019 and 2021. I'm not seeing the "trending down for quite some time," unless you mean from 1st place to 2nd in the Big Ten. I believe this year was an outlier like 2020 for Harbaugh.
Carol was a legend, and she set the bar at a nearly impossible level to maintain. But, this is what we expect from this program, and rightfully so. 2023 was a transition year for the softball team. Bonnie Tholl recruited a top 10 class last year but lost 4 superstars to the transition. If she keeps recruiting in the top 10, we will be back on top of the Big Ten and have our shots for national championships very soon.
Who were the four superstars she lost in transition?
They are also right, the decline has been happening for a few years at minimum. 2005-2016 they went to 10 super regionals. The last five seasons they haven't made one super regional, making it the first time in 30+ years if someone has stayed in the program that they haven't made at least one. Sure, 10 out of 12 regional titles is a standard they can't maintain. The hitting though has been atrocious for three years now, averaging less than five runs a game and dropping from .298, to .284, to .275. So yes, they have been on the decline for a few years minimum.
Woof. The softball team had a massive collapse in Big Ten play. Crazy that they can score 15 runs against Northwestern but then go on these mega droughts.
Will any Michigan players go to the transfer portal after this season ? Last year they lost 4 players who transferred to Oklahoma, Bama, LSU and Auburn.
The two who left as non graduate transfers have not done much of note in the south, so it doesn't seem to be just a Michigan developing them issue. Sadly Hannah Carson's season ended with an ACL tear in February. As expected, Alex Storako is doing her thing and very well could be on her way to a national title in Norman.
Hard to say these days. Transfers seem to leave for two primary reasons - grads with a year left who simply go to grad school elsewhere, and freshmen who didn't have the experience here they had hoped for.
There are three freshmen who had chances to start earlier in the year, were higher-level recruits from out-of-state, and weren't playing the second half. And next year's class is also a strong one, with decent prospects for starting. So I'd wonder most about those three, but they could be very happy here and consider themselves in the mix again.
It sounds weird with Michigan's history, but pitching is the bigger concern. I think both Derkowski and LeBeau will be core players next year, with one freshman coming in, but they need another arm from the portal quite badly.
Tough way to end a year. Not wholly unexpected and hopefully they can bounce back next year and start a new streak.
This is such a weak hitting team, very few homers on the season. They seem to recruit singles hitters over power hitters.
I wish Warde had gone outside the program for a new head coach. Clutch hitting has been absent for awhile. This just feels like more of the same thing.
I wish Hutch didn't retire when she did too, feels like she helped handcuff Warde.
Hitting is hitting. They did as well with two outs in important situations as they did the rest of the season. One player with more than three home runs on the season. Three full-time starters with an OPS below .700 and several who were given runs of starts who ranged from .609 OPS (23 starts) to .440 OPS (22 starts). If they needed a pinch-hitter, they didn't have a candidate on the bench. This was simply a poor hitting team, even by recent Michigan standards.
It was also the top-rated freshman class in a long time. Hutch didn't leave the proverbial cupboard bare, and Tholl has been by her side for decades. We would have lost her to another program years ago without the understanding that she would be Hutch's replacement.
So what we traded for a nation-wide coaching search was continuity - someone who knows the system, already has the relationship with the recruits. Softball is not football. There are no complicated playbooks to learn. No magic strategies. It's all about practice and knowing your opponents and competition against the best. That's why they play top-tier early season tournaments. Tholl has been in this program since the '90s and she was absolutely the best candidate for the job.
What happened, then? Why are these top recruits not producing like Taryn Kern, the Indiana freshman who leads the country with 22 home runs (just a shade below Michigan's entire team total)? As far as I can tell, Kern wasn't on the radar as a top recruit. At least Indiana's 2022 class announcement has no ranking for her and they have top-100 rankings for four other players on the Elite 100. Yet she played travel ball in California and went all the way to Indiana for college.
Women develop earlier than men and it's not that unusual for freshman to produce what they're going to produce right from the start. Recruiting is about developing relationships with travel ball leagues all the way down to junior high. Tholl has that, and next season's recruiting class is as highly-rated as this one.
This might be bad luck. Or maybe there is something going on and good players aren't developing or there's an issue with scouting. I don't fault the hire at all, but hopefully Tholl is making adjustments and has a plan for moving forward, because another season like this one and the national cache of the brand will be affected.
The lack of offense was more on display this season, but I remain more concerned about pitching because you can't rely on having just two pitchers any more and ideally Derkowski is a number-two, not an ace. Another season like this on offense, though, and it will look more like a development/scouting issue and maybe they do have to look outside the program.