softball roundup

Sooooooo yeah. The last time I wrote about Michigan Softball was late April, when they had three weekends left in the B1G season. They were still in the field for NCAA Tournament projections at the time and I felt that a solid close to the regular season would likely be enough to get the Wolverines into the tourney. Which, for a rebuilding season, would have been a fine outcome. 

That is emphatically not what happened. Michigan Softball lost an infuriating extra inning game to Northwestern, destroyed the 'Cats on Saturday, and then lost a comedy of errors umpiring show on Sunday. That was an okay result, but everything that followed was a catastrophe, back to back sweeps at the hands of a pair of good B1G teams in Minnesota and Indiana. A 1-8 record over the final nine B1G games plummeted Michigan to 10th in the conference standings, forcing them to need a miracle in the BTT to make it in. They didn't get one, rather a first round exit at the hands of Penn State. 

So here we are, 25-24 and no NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994. How did it go wrong? What comes next? And what about the longterm viability of Michigan Softball as a meaningful program? We've got some hard questions to answer today. 

How it all went down

Ugly! Oh wait, you want me to tell you more? The abbreviated version in the opening not painful enough? Well, here goes I guess. That first game against Northwestern was where we left off, the chance for Michigan to notch marquee wins in conference against a team that ended up being a regional host seed when the tourney bracket got unveiled. NU is legit and as a whole, it looked like a decent fight. Michigan and Northwestern were tied 2-2 on Friday into extra innings, Michigan getting terrific relief pitching from Jessica Lebeau. They fell down 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th, but a big hit by Audrey LeClair tied the game. The winning run was waved home but was thrown out by a country mile in one of the worst sends from third base I have seen in some time. Alas, Northwestern took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 11th and won the game by that margin. 

It was a bitter loss, but made up for by a stunning 15-0(!!!) shellacking Michigan laid on Northwestern on Saturday. Out of nowhere, a challenged offense had their way with a top notch team and secured a comfortable run rule victory. That led us into Sunday, a game that was tied 0-0 into the 7th amid multiple umpiring errors that jobbed Michigan (in my view). However, you still need to show a pulse outside of getting screwed and the Wolverines didn't do nearly enough with the six hits and two walks they got. Eight baserunners translated into zero runs, while two key base knocks for the Wildcats in the top of the 7th powered them to a 3-0 victory. 

[Bill Rapai]

Despite dropping two of three, Michigan was still on track to make the NCAAs at this juncture. It all began unraveling the following weekend, a sweep at home at the hands of Indiana. IU ain't a bad team, but they're not Northwestern. You needed to take at least 2/3 at home and you got swept. And not just swept, decisively swept. The Friday game got postponed to a Saturday doubleheader, which Indiana swept by a combined score of 19-2(!!). Everything that could go wrong went wrong, a 4-1 defeat that saw Michigan never be competitive on the scoreboard and a 15-1 drubbing in which LeBeau got pummeled and with Lauren Derkowski tired from Game 1, Michigan was forced to turn to its unusable pitching depth, which made things go from bad to worse. On offense, Michigan mustered only nine hits combined in the two games and zero runs against Heather Johnson and Briana Copeland of IU. Of those nine hits, only two were of the extra base variety (both doubles). Pitiful. 

The Sunday game against Indiana was at least more competitive, but it still was far from an acceptable result. The Hoosiers got to Derkowski again and Michigan trailed 5-1 in the bottom of the 3rd before trying to claw back. They cut the lead to 6-5 on an Ella McVey single in the 7th, placing the tying and winning runs on, but an Ellie Sieler flyout ended it. Getting swept up by a team like Indiana put Michigan's tournament hopes into deep jeopardy, setting the stage for a dramatic trip to Minneapolis. In between were two easy run rule wins over WMU and Oakland, but the team went to Minnesota realistically needing a sweep. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: a play that will make you SQUEAL!]

It's been since the season previews that I've updated baseball and softball coverage, so it feels about time to get a new installment in. A little over a month has gone by and in that time, we've learned plenty about both teams amid the first season with new coaches. Both teams have returned to Ann Arbor and started up their conference slate, so today we'll cover how the non-conference went, who is hot and who is not, and where to set expectations as the weather gets warmer and we get knee-deep in B1G play: 

Softball: Doing Enough

The first season without Carol Hutchins in nearly four decades was going to be a bumpy one, and the roster left behind after transfer portal exits was a stripped down one. We acknowledged as much in the season preview and the start of the season has reflected the inevitable bumps that were going to come with that reality. As it stands right now, the team is 15-13 (1-2 in conference play), but despite the bumps, they're doing alright as it comes to the national picture. Let's break it down.

The season results so far: The team got started with a contest against USF in Tampa, a tough extra innings loss that saw it end on a walk-off wild pitch. From there they went to Leesburg, FL, for a tune-up against low level squads. Three of the four games ended in a run rule and then it was on to Clearwater for the big invitational tournament hosted by ESPN. That weekend went pretty well all things considered, Michigan notching a couple solid wins by defeating Louisiana and Mississippi State, while dropping games to ranked teams UCF, Duke, and Oklahoma State. Adjusting for quality of competition, that 2-3 weekend was fine for a rebuilding Michigan team. 

It didn't get any easier after that, with the team heading cross-country to Palo Alto, CA, to play a tournament hosted by Stanford. That's where things began to take a turn for the worse, a 1-4 weekend with losses to Boise State and Nevada, in addition to being swept by host Stanford. Michigan scored 5 runs in 5 games that weekend. The Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, CA, was a better experience as Michigan spent spring break in SoCal. They got revenge on UCF and then beat the hosts CSF, losing games in shutouts to ranked teams UCLA and LSU before picking up another one-run win over Seattle. 3-2 was not amazing, but it definitely could've been worse and building a resume is the objective. 

The Wolverines then traveled home, but weather quickly got in the way. They beat Kent State on March 9 but then had four home games canceled until they got to play Bowling Green nearly a week later, a run rule victory. St. Patrick's Day Weekend was spent down in Lexington, KY, where weather again intervened. Michigan beat Longwood 2-1 but lost to #14 Kentucky by the same score, while an additional game with Kentucky and a tussle with DePaul were canceled. Finally, the team kicked off B1G play last weekend against the Ohio State Buckeyes, a series that got postponed until Sunday/Monday and saw the Bucks take 2 of 3, their first series win against Michigan in decades (as an addendum, Michigan beat Oakland yesterday in a run rule). 

[AFTER THE JUMP: send offense plz... for both teams]

Michigan Softball's 2022 season came to a close this weekend at the Orlando Regional against UCF. The Wolverines were able to beat the South Dakota State Jackrabbits twice, but were unable to take a game from the host Knights. Michigan led 2-1 in the seventh inning of the first meeting with UCF, as the hosts were down to their final strike before an RBI double tied the game and sent it to marathon extras. In the 11th inning the Knights would walk it off, and they led wire-to-wire in the second meeting en route to a 9-4 victory. 

With Michigan's season coming to a close, this final Softball Roundup will do two things: first we'll examine the roster heading into next year, looking at the returning players and incoming recruits, and then the second half of the piece will take an eagle eye look at where the program now sits. That will include some difficult questions that now need to be asked about a program that hasn't made it out of the opening weekend in six years. 

Looking Ahead to 2023 

This Michigan team was decently laden with veterans, which was the reasoning behind the lofty expectations entering the season, something this group fell short of, unfortunately. As a result, we will likely see some considerable turnover in the offseason. The top three hitters on the team were seniors, Kristina Burkhardt, Lexie Blair, and Hannah Carson. Burkhardt is gone for sure, a grad student who is out of eligibility, while Carson and Blair both retain their COVID-shirts and the ability to come back for fifth years. If Blair is interested in returning, I think you have to open a spot for her on the roster. Taylor Bump, who didn't have a great offensive season but did lead the team in HRs, is also out of eligibility.

Audrey LeClair and Lauren Esman are both juniors and will be able to return, although neither of those two players had OPS clips >.800. Ella McVey, Annabelle Widra, and Elie Sieler were all freshmen and should return, though none had an OPS >.700. Keke Tholl and Sierra Kersten were sophomores, while Melina Livingston is maybe the biggest question eligibility-wise. Livingston played three seasons at PSU, 2019-21, before transferring to Michigan. She was listed as a "graduate student" on the roster, but she has only played four seasons of college softball and one of them was the COVID year. Does she have the ability to return? I'm not sure, but if she does, I'd be interested in bringing her .820 OPS and defensive versatility back. 

To summarize, Michigan will bring the bulk of the hitters back, but if neither Carson nor Blair return, the four hitters the Wolverines are losing are their three best, as well as their most powerful. For a team that struggled mightily on offense when the season was on the line, that is not a great indicator. We'll evaluate the incoming hitters momentarily, but let's next check in on the pitchers. 

Lauren Derkowski will be a big piece in the circle next season [JD Scott]

Michigan's veteran presence in the circle was centered on Alex Storako and Meghan Beaubien. Storako is in the Blair/Carson class, having played four years but retaining the COVID-shirt. She has the ability to return and it would seem to me that Michigan should be interested in making that happen, despite Storako's struggles in the second half of the year. Beaubien is in the same boat as Taylor Bump, having used her fifth year this season, so she is officially out of options. That leaves the three freshmen pitchers, Lauren Derkowski, Annabelle Widra, and Emerson Aiken (who didn't pitch much) as the nucleus of the pitching staff moving forward. Getting Storako back would blunt some of the weight falling on their shoulders, but either way, Michigan will be replacing at least 100 innings from Beaubien, and someone will need to step up to seize those.

The incoming freshman class is slanted towards hitting and it has a pair of high-level, blue chip prospects. Local kid Lilly Vallimont is the #5 player in the country out of Trenton High School, a slugging catcher who is the top catching recruit in America. She also plays shortstop and seems to have a mix of athleticism and power. Infielder Avery Fantucci is the #6 player in the country, a contact and speed hitter with great on-base ability and few strikeouts. Players in the top ten of the recruiting rankings typically step in right away and contribute, so I would expect both Vallimont and Fantucci to play from the jump. 

Maddie Erickson is the lone pitcher in the class, a two-way player who hits for power while being an excellent pitcher in Oregon HS softball. Janelle Ilacqua is from South Carolina, an infield prospect who is the #32 overall player in the country, and appears to be another speed and contact type, with a penchant for stolen bases. The class is rounded out with two IF/OF prospects, Indiana Langford, the #36 player in the class and someone Hutch compared to Abby Ramirez, as well as Maddie Ramey, the annual unranked local kid and a lefty hitter with a little power. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Existential questions]