to speed; we beat Penn St 16-1 and Northwestern 9-0 to get to the Finals. Nebraska beat Ohio State and Iowa to get here. Like I said in the other thread, I did not want to play Iowa. They are playing with nothing to lose.
1-2-3 inning in the first, but both Sierras made strong contact. Just a little unlucky to put the balls straight to defenders.
I always forget how much I hate being the away team.
Like for 30 plus years, game starts and I'm like, oh, right, this sucks!
I would always take the visitor if I won the coin flip in a game. My teams were always a slapping, speedy team and I would score 3 or 4 runs in the top of the 1st. It always gave me an advantage because teams would have to catch me.
If I did not score in the top of the 1st; my record was something aweful like 5-20 or something horrible.
my team has run the zebra down so many times in that last frame and I've seen it go the other way.
Too painful getting chased down and beaten.
in the 1st.
Haylie gets the ball to start the game.
Very glad to see Wagner get the start. I assumed Hutch would keep riding Betsa.
Haylie Wagner in the circle to start things off for Michigan. Looks like Hutch has plenty of confidence in her senior still.
1-2-3 for the good guys. One hard hit fly ball, but it hung up for an easy play by Lawrence. 4-5-6 hitters coming up for the Maize & Blue.
pitch was designed to get her out front and induce a fly ball and it did just that. I don't think that ball had a chance to do anything but nestle into SiLo's glove.
strong inning from her. Her fastball is crackling tonight.
good defense and Nebraska goes 3 up and 3 down.
lets see if we can do something with it.
Wow, big communication error there by Nebraska to let Sweet bunt for a base hit. 2 on, nobody out.
Neb 2nd baseman. An easy bunt and we have 2 on and no outs.
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every game to determine home/away. Not all teams want to be the "home" team.
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The Big Ten tournament is like the NCAA tournament--they have rules for determining the home team. The top 4 seeds are all at home for the quarterfinals. The semifinals & finals are determined by rotation. The remainder of the games were determined by rule--
* Semifinal 1: Since Michigan & Northwestern were both home in their first game, Michigan (as the better seed) was the designated home team.
* Semifinal 2: Since Nebraska was home but Iowa was away in their previous game, Iowa got to be the home team.
* Final: Since Michigan had been home in both of their games, but Nebraska had been home once and away once, Nebraska was the designated home team.
You will see the same thing next week in the NCAA regionals: Michigan will be home in their first game, but the remainder of the games they will make an effort to make teams home & away an equal number of times to the extent possible.
1-0 Good girls, top 2.
Still 0 out.
Great bit of hitting from Monty! 1-0, us!
yeah, they have not been fooled by this pitcher *at all* so far.
Oops, 1-0, indeed! I'm in that sleepy post-work out zone, and apparently excessively optimistic.
and hurt you in SB. Especially with no outs and a powerhouse team like us.
has a "nose to toes, dugout to dugout" strike zone. So we better be swinging.
Sac fly from Blanco to make it 2-0, and Monty does a great job dodging the tag and getting in safely to 3rd.
be quiet the past few games. Its time to get her going again.
That was a great play by Nebraska's third baseman to cut that off. And a great play by Monty to avoid the tag.
Even when we aren't getting base hits, we're making great contact - foul balls whizzing down the line, liners that just happen to find a fielder, etc. Next inning our line-up starts to go through a 2nd time, hopefully we can elevate to the next level like against NW.
SiLo! Shades of Lyndsay Doyle!
That was the image in my head as well - very reminiscent of that great play.
SiLo is such a good athlete.
She is - she has the whole package. Great strength, great speed, and a strong bat. As Hutch likes to say, "This team isn't just about one Sierra."
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Now that one was hit well - what a terrific play!
tonight. 65+ MPH on the fastball is just awesome.
but she turfed another one. I do wonder if she has a good feel for it or not tonight.
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Huskers get one aboard via a Ramirez error, but Abby immediately redeems herself by getting the next out. Romero gets the 3rd, and it's the top of the order coming up for Michigan.
Smart move by Nebraska to change pitchers once we started dialing in, and they get rewarded with a 1-2-3 inning. Solid contact was still made, though, so we'll see where things go going forward.
with that play. Times 3 this inning.
Great defensive inning from her. Two great plays to pick up ground-outs, and then slipping in and grabbing the foul-out after Monty stumbled over third base. That's helping out your pitcher!
Thanks for updates. I am unable to watch.
just crazy
Michigan goes pretty quietly in the top of the 4th, 1-2-3. New Huskers' pitcher a definite improvement over their first one.
Silo with another nice grab on the warning track - Pasquale has hit Wagner hard twice, but Silo has had Wagner's each time. That's what gives a pitcher confidence to throw her game, that trust in your defense.
Edit: And Michigan picks up the third out when the Husker runner at 1st leaves early. Headed to the 5th.
that's one of those super softbally things.
very often. Most umpires are not watching the base runner so the runners tend to "get aggressive" and get a half step on the steal.
On the reply, this was not even close. The ball/arm was at about the 1 o'clock position. If you are going to leave early, it better to wait for the arm to get to the 5 or 6 o'clock position to get the good jump.