Softball Facing MSU in B10 Quarterfinal
Wot it says on the box! Big Ten Tournament play begins for the Maize & Blue against MSU. MSU spoiled the party last year, and while everyone will deny it, you know that game's in the back of everyone's mind tonight. Beaubien gets the start, it's up to her to keep MSU down so the O can go to work.
Ah, dammit, you had to pull at the heartstrings - especially since I grew up in Saline! :) Well, I don't have to like her, but I will agree that she's a dang good player. One of the highest compliments you can pay a rival is to say you'll be glad they're graduating - and I'm sure glad that she won't be around to give us fits anymore!
what a joke
I'm not saying we win this game without the HBPs, but both were crucial, and both were horrible calls. The pitches were over the plate, they hit the batters on the hands while they were actively leaning towards the ball. It hurts, and that sucks, but that's not a HBP.
baseball collapsing at the end of the season Im used to... but not softball. could be run ruled in last 2 games and against lowly MSU...Team has really lost focus..After winning the Indiana series and reg season title the team has gone completely sleep...post season is not going to be pretty..We got spoiled in sooftball when we had all those great hitters but last 2 years hitting has disappeared
Something like that, yeah. We've absolutely owned MSU for pretty much the whole time I've been following softball (since 2008). These 2 tournament games are the only two losses I can even remember against them. I'm probably forgetting one from 8 years ago or something, but it's been few & far between apart from these.
7-0 final. F.
Like I said in the season review post, this season will depend on how far Beaubien can carry us. Offense is inconsistent as it proved today. So much pressure being put on Beaubien to be perfect. There's maybe 2-3 really good hitters on the team (Canfield, Blanco, Uden). After that it gets bleak.
I will say tonight, the strike zone was inconsistent for Beaubien vs MSU pitcher.
Like I said in the season review post, this season will depend on how far Beaubien can carry us. Offense is inconsistent as it proved today. So much pressure being put on Beaubien to be perfect. There's maybe 2-3 really good hitters on the team (Canfield, Blanco, Uden). After that it gets bleak.
I will say tonight, the strike zone was inconsistent for Beaubien vs MSU pitcher.
but she has not impressed thus far, hope that is due to recovering from her injury. I recall this board talking up how great a recruit Sobczak was a few years ago, and she is currently not getting any playing time on a weak hitting team. If those highly rated recruits don't make an impact next season, this team will struggle at the plate.
for winning the BIG regular season, but it came against a really SOFT schedule. They finished 18-3 in the regular BIG schedule, and 11 of those wins were against bad teams (Rutgers, PSU, MD, and Purdue). OSU was the only team they played that will get an at large bid to the NCAA.
Would be interesting to see where UM would finish if they played in the SEC, where almost every team will make the NCAA. My guess is that they would have ended up around the middle of the conference at best.
would be better if they were in the SEC conference, but I'm just stating that this current UM team as BIG regular season champs would not fare well. I'm sure Beaubien would get them some wins, but this weak hitting lineup would really struggle against SEC pitching.
Southern and West coast teams always have that advantage
"...but it came against a really SOFT schedule. They finished 18-3 in the regular BIG schedule, and 11 of those wins were against bad teams (Rutgers, PSU, MD, and Purdue). OSU was the only team they played that will get an at large bid to the NCAA."
guys, he's right. This EXACT quote will be inserted into the B10 record archive next to, "2018 Big Ten Softball Champions"
Michigan’s “soft schedule” has been reflected in their RPI which was 30 as of May 6. LINK
It may not be unreasonable to believe that having a 12-1 record against the bottom five teams in the Big Ten, none of which won as many as 40 percent of their games, taints Michigan's regular-season Big Ten championship a bit. Still, a championship's a championship, even if the tournament championship carries greater prestige.
If (a) the consecutive losses to Ohio State and Michigan State drop Michigan's RPI closer to 40, (b) the NCAA tournament committee gives greater weight to the RPI than the coaches’ rankings when seeding teams in the tournament, and (c) Michigan’s possibly having no more than six wins against teams that will be in the top 64 of the RPI rankings (Florida State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Baylor, Wichita State, Ohio State), then it may be that despite the regular season Big Ten championship, the “soft schedule” merely will result in the Wolverines getting a three seed in their regional.
Could upsets happen that would find Michigan miraculously heading to the College Softball World Series? Maybe. See Boston University vs. top-ranked and defending national champion Oklahoma in the Troy Cox Classic in New Mexico earlier this season. LINK
if they hadn't even tried?
"The regular season championship means nothing. The automatic bid comes from winning big ten tourney."
The Michigan softball team isn't in endanger of missing the playoffs. So they weren't necessarily concerned about the automatic bid.
I mean, winning the Big 10 tourney would've just been nice because it was one of their goals for the season.
They may still end up with a better seed than the team that actually wins the Big 10 tournament.
Multiple post.
Mutiple post.
That's not fair to the players. Softball teams don't play at those times,
I'll root for Iowa to shock everyone and win the title. Wouldn't mind Indiana, either. Let them steal a bid to the NCAA.
an embarrassment