Softball: Update through 19 games

The softball team is in California nearing the end of its spring break. They're playing at the Judi Garman invitational - one of the top early-season tournaments in college softball and their toughest challenge on the schedule.

They opened with two games Thursday. They lost to Texas A&M, 6-0, and host Cal State-Fullerton, 5-1. This morning, they lost to Oregon State, 1-0, and UCLA, 10-0 - their first mercy loss of the season. This dropped their record to 10-9.

Their record this season represents a decline from last year, the first in decades that they didn't go to the NCAA tournament. The Wolverine schedule this year is easier than in past years. Whether that's intentional or not getting invited to as many top tournaments is hard to say.

So far this season, their losses have been to (last year's final RPI in parentheses) South Florida (73), Louisville (37), Florida Atlantic (92), Sacramento State (171), Long Beach State (79), Texas A&M (26), Cal State-Fullerton (43), Oregon State (85) and UCLA (2). They have had 12 hits combined in the four games they've played, none for extra bases.

While the bats perked up a bit last weekend, it was against competition much weaker than they'll face in the mediocre Big Ten. Against teams that will be in contention for an NCAA bid, they're hardly getting on base at all. Their big win remains the first-weekend extra-inning victory over Florida (24), in which they had one hit. Their next-best win was over last season's Pac 12 basement-dweller Oregon State (85), in which they had two hits and were down, 1-0, entering the seventh inning. They were unable to score against Oregon State today. Another Florida game is set for tomorrow.

The pitching has kept them competitive in most games. Before this tournament, they had only one loss by more than one run. Junior Lauren Derkowski is their ace, but her .229 average against and 1.65 ERA are not very comparable to recent aces. She's a battler, and without her things would be pretty bad for the team. Senior Jessica LeBeau and freshman Erin Hoehn are also starting games. This staff is above average for the Big Ten, but will struggle against better hitting teams.

The lineup is very young. I'll briefly list the every-day starters, along with their OPS for the season. Sophomore Maddie Erickson (.997) is playing third base, freshman Jenissa Conway (.751) is in center field and shows a lot of power, but doesn't make a lot of contact. Junior Ellie Sieler (.646) leads off and plays left field. Redshirt freshman Lilly Vallimont (.598) plays first base and some catcher and is a big power prospect. Senior Keke Tholl (.544) is usually the catcher and freshman Ella Stephenson (.437) is playing right field. Sophomore Indiana Langford (.601) often plays second base, and seems to be back after missing a week.

At shortstop, sophomore Avery Fantucci, a major signing for the team, has been starting recently, moving junior Ella McVey either to second base or out of the lineup. McVey started both games today, however.

There are a lot of top prospects in this lineup. They're just not developing into great college hitters. One factor? Perhaps Tholl plays too much little-ball. The team OBP is below .300, about 200th in Division I, but they lead the entire country in sacrifice bunts. Back 10-20 years ago, you had to manufacture runs in softball. But they moved the mound back, and it became more of a power game. Perhaps this outdated approach - everyone needing to learn good bunting technique and over-aggressive baserunning - gets in the way of developing power hitters. They have to figure this out or they won't be able to get top recruits any more. For some reason, they haven't been a good defensive team the last two seasons - great defense had been a Carol Hutchins trademark.

Next year's crop looks very impressive, including J.J. Putz's daughter, Lauren, who could well be a 20-home run threat in the right lineup. They also have a couple of good pitching prospects coming in.