steve hajjar

For many Michigan sports fans, the sports calendar starts with the beginning of football season on Labor Day weekend and concludes whenever the basketball season wraps up in late March or early April. Well I'm here in late April to tell you that following such a schedule results in missing out on some quality sports action, as the baseball and softball regular seasons are now hitting the home stretch and both Michigan squads are locked in tight battles for the Big Ten titles. As a helpful guide to cue in Michigan fans who haven't been following either sport too closely but are interested in watching games down the stretch, I've put together this piece that will serve as a short season recap of sorts for both sports. Let's kick things off on the smaller diamond, where the softball team is on a roll. 

Softball 

Michigan Softball is currently red hot, riding a five game winning streak and they are 15-1 in their last 16 after a sluggish start to the season. For those who may not be aware of the standings, here they are: 

The B1G is basically the three-horse race we thought it would be entering the season, with Michigan leading in the pole position for the moment. These three teams are the clear three best in the conference with not a ton of intrigue below that. The season will largely come down to Michigan's two series against Northwestern (this weekend) and Minnesota (Mother's Day Weekend), as Minnesota and Northwestern have already faced each other (a surprising Minnesota four game sweep). 

We'll return to those other teams in a moment but the next two sections will be a short recap of how Michigan has gotten to this point so far. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: good pitching, in multiple sports]