Softball Starts Huge IU Series With 5-1 Win
Michigan softball began the biggest series of the year tonight, traveling down to Bloomington to take on surprise contender Indiana in a three game set. Entering the weekend just 1 game ahead of IU in the loss column, it was imperative that the Wolverines get off on the right foot.
Early on, though, things were a little shaky. Meghan Beaubien was not at her usual dominant standards, ceding a hit and a walk in the 1st, followed by a run off a HBP & a double in the 2nd. Down 1-0, though, the offense started clicking. In the 3rd, Michigan posed its first real threat of the game, loading the bases. A strike-out would end the threat, however, giving IU a brief reprieve.
After Beaubien delivered her 1st 1-2-3 half-inning in the B3, Michigan took a lead in the T4 that they would not relinquish. 2 walks and an HBP loaded the bases for Alex Sobczak, and she tied the game with a sac fly. Staring down the barrel of Michigan star Faith Canfield with an open base at 1st, IU decided to issue the free pass & load 'em up. Natalie Peters didn't take kindly to IU's evaluation of her talent, and beat out a single to score the run.
After another scoreless IU half, Michigan gained some distance in the T5. A two-run shot from "Air-Mail" Aidan Falk was followed by a solo-blast from Haley Hoogenraad, and just like that, it was 5-1 game. Indiana would threaten in the 6th, putting 2 in scoring position with no outs, and then loading the bases with just 1 away. Beaubien kept her cool, though, and worked out of the jam with no harm done - an alert throw from Madison Uden off a ball hit by her sister to gun down the lead runner at home helped out. An uneventful 7th closed the book on game 1.
Michigan will face Indiana twice more this weekend, at 1 PM on Saturday, and again at 1 on Sunday. A win tomorrow to clinch the series would go a long way to staking Michigan's claim on the Big Ten championship. Don't sleep on Minneosta, though - they're still hanging around in the picture. Lots of exciting softball left on the season!
Great start to the series. The 2nd homer was Hoogenraad, though!
April 27th, 2018 at 10:36 PM ^
D'oh! Fixed it!
They scared me for the 1st few innings there. Indiana was actually looking like a good team (which they most certainly are not). Hopefully, they got that out of their systems.
Great stuff. Good to see them putting things together with some pressure.
April 27th, 2018 at 10:26 PM ^
April 27th, 2018 at 10:48 PM ^
Definitely not a vintage Beaubien performance, that's for sure. I'll give her credit, though, for battling through it & getting the big outs. You don't always have your best stuff, but the great ones find ways to get it done anyhow. Getting out of that bases-loaded jam in the 6th showed some veteran-level nerves.
April 28th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^
Absolutely. Even the best pitcher in the world can't shut out the other team every game. Batters are going to get on base and teams are going to score. Great pitchers can limit the damage even when not at their sharpest.
Rust. They haven't played a team that will make the tournament since playing Louisiana on March 2nd. This is a major downfall to playing in the B1G leading into the NCAA tournament.
The B1G will likely send Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Nebraska, and Ohio State. Ilinois and Wisconsin are on the bubble.
Since the B1G schedules based on divisions despite having no separation in the standings, of course we got the two West teams that will not make it (Iowa, Purdue). The B1G East is absolute garbage outside of Michigan and an OSU team who got to feed on our similar conference schedule. We will have played very little tournament level competition since midway through our nonconference schedule besides middling OSU and a game or two if we are lucky in the B1G tournament.
April 27th, 2018 at 10:58 PM ^
Is there any paticular reason the big ten network doesn't televise Michigan games? I have psvue and have it set to record all softball games and their cloud dvr holds 28 days of content. In those 28 days I have one UM game recorded and that game against msu was a rainout. It just seems to me the league would want to show the best team.
Am I missing something?
April 27th, 2018 at 11:05 PM ^
They've showed a few - the Iowa loss & two of the Purdue wins, plus the MSU win was on ESPNU. They're also planning on showing the last 2 games of the regular season against OSU, for a total of 6 (including the MSU rainout that they planned on, but then fell through). Not as many as I'd like, but they do try to spread it around.
They probably planned on showing 2 from the OSU series because, pre-season, that looked like it could turn into a conference-deciding series in the final weekend. Unfortunately for BTN, OSU has already accumulated 6 conference losses & is essentially out of the race. The games could still have title implications, depending on what happens against IU & how Minnesota is playing, but it isn't looking like it'll be quite the showdown many anticipated.
Both Saturday's softball and baseball games are televised on BTN Plus. It's cheap entertainment really, $9.95 for the month. I was too lazy to check if Sunday's softball game is televised there also.