#14 M Softball vs MSU Live now on BTN [M wins 8-0 in 5 innings]
Vital game on right now, the standings in the Big Ten sit at:
1. Michigan 15-2 (now @ MSU, 3 vs OSU)
2. Minnesota 15-3 (3 vs PSU)
3. Indiana 16-4 (3 @ Rutgers)
No room for error.
This is a makeup game from earlier this season due to weather. Michigan lost to Western Michigan yesterday (with a lot of bench players in the lineup including Shafer as pitcher). That officially ends any outside chance of hosting a regional. Michigan will be an absolute nightmare of a matchup for whichever team we are sent to in the post season.
Wow, Blanco just got NAILED by a pitch.
At work cant watch, but GO BLUE
will be a nightmare matchup in the regional, when they struggle to take 2 out of 3 from a below .500 Indiana team, get taken to the woodshed by Western, and struggle to beat MSU.
The hitting on this team is not strong enough to win a regional. Remember they were beaten easily by Washington in a regional last year.
The pitching staff is top 4 in ERA.
The 3 teams above them in ERA are all postseason teams.
Hitting isn't on fire or anything, but they're 19th there.
There are 5 teams with better batting averages who they might see in the postseason.
Obviously these stats aren't adjusted for their opponents (and the Big Ten generally isn't good at softball) and I haven't followed the season all that closely, but they don't appear to be doomed in the early postseason.
defense is also top 3... which is huge in softball. the infield does not allow infield singles, and we have a lot of batters (rodriguez, peters) who make them happen for us....
Top of 4th, 2 on, no out. Winning this one would be sweet. Would be fantastic to get another B1G championship.
0-0 right now
Elite pitching does a lot for you but this team feels a year away due to the offense. Any elite hitting freshman coming in next year?
Bases loaded with 1 out for Falk
Two score on a Hoogenraad single through the infield, past the "stud" MSU second baseman (who did have some good plays so far)... 2-0 Michigan
M tags another run on an infield single by DH Gonzalez.
The MGoBlue softball page has a bad link for live stats (par for the course).
So you can get to it via the MSU site.
http://www.msuspartans.com/gametracker/launch/gt_wsoftbl.html?event=159…;
3 runs just crossed the plate, still 2 on with 2 outs
end of the inning but 3 big runs. Some clutch 2 out hitting by the bottom of the order.
we Win the B1G regular season and tournament we still don't have a shot to host a regional?
our RPI is in the 30s, no shot.
is largely dependent on RPI, and a team must be in the top 16 RPI ranking. Last year Minnesota ended the season ranked in the top 10 polls, won the BIG regular season and tourney titles, but did not host a regional. Minnesota was #17 in RPI and had to travel to Alabama to play #16 RPI Crimson Tide.
Minnesota wasn't just top 10, they were ranked #1. AND the committee released their early poll, like they do in basketball now, and had Minny in the top 8 both times.... and then mysteriously dropped them completely out in the final bracket (during that time, Minnesota did NOT lose and won the B1G regular season title and Tournament over Michigan).... it was crazy. they probably didnt have any subs on their way to tuscaloosa.
That seems an odd choice to lose on purpose when your status hosting a regional might be in the balance....?
the WMU game. They wanted to save the #1 pitcher for today's game against MSU. UM played their regular lineup in the field, and they could only score 2 runs. Plus our #2 and #3 pitchers did not have a good outing. WMU just took them to the woodshed yesterday.
I agree with pretty much all of this. I will add that SEC teams, with a couple of notable exceptions, do an excellent job of avoiding games against quality non-conference opponents. You absolutely have to give credit to Florida for being willing to play the toughest home non-conference schedule that they can put together. (Their unwillingness to play NC games north of the Florida-Georgia border is a separate issue).
With teams like Michigan being increasingly shut out of quality non-conference games, the SEC is gaming the RPI the same way that they do in baseball. The NCAA baseball committee is more willing to ignore RPI and give credit to good teams with tough non-conference schedules than the softball committee is. Baseball has also built a "home field advantage" adjustment to their RPI, and softball refuses to do so.
Result: the SEC gets the easiest path to the WCWS, and the tournament seeds in softball are a self-fulfilling prophecy to a much greater extent than any other sport. Home advantage is huge.
Had we played the Mary Nutter tournament this year as usual, I think our non-conference schedule (and in turn, our RPI) would have been fine as that always pits us against several high quality, high RPI teams. For whatever reason, we replaced that with that Texas Invitational tournament instead. Maybe they got squeezed out like you said, I don't know. But Hutch usually schedules the hardest non-con she can get.
I think possibly Hutch took into account the fact that Michigan would have a true freshman starting pitcher, and wanted to make the early season just a little bit easier than usual. Hopefully the schedule gets back to the way it was next year.
But I still stand by the assertion that quality SEC programs like Tennessee and Alabama (and, lately, Georgia) are avoiding the top-level competition.
inside the park home run by katie alexander, 8-0 Michigan
triple and scored on throwing error
lol, she cleared the bases and scored on her own hit, close enough!!!
by mercy-ing you!!!!
the MSU softball field is nicer than i recall, did they renovate recently?
Go Blue!!!
Bucknuts. You go ladies.
M Baseball is up 10-0 on EMU in the 6th in Ypsi.
I was at the debacle that shall not be named last night.
Total turnaround in less than 24 hours. Couldn't have asked for a better response. Fantastic in every facet of the game!!!
Michigan has swept MSU for the 9th straight season and is now 9-0 all-time at Secchia Stadium. This was Michigan's 90th win in the series, holding a dominant 90-28 all-time record against MSU.
Softball academy is tomorrow for the team and then they'll face OSU on Friday at 6pm.
Hugely important win, no doubt, and glad to see them do it in dominant style after some rough games the last few days. Gotta keep it going over the weekend to really make it count. Home stretch here, margin for error is nil.