It's been a little while since I last wrote about softball- the rush of postseason basketball and hockey got in the way. The last update was March 10th and at the time, Michigan was 13-6 and coming off the most difficult portion of the schedule. Though they had fallen a bit short of the ideal scenario, the team was still in discussion for being able to host a regional, if they were close to perfect the rest of the way, something that the team has done routinely in past years. Unfortunately, that has not happened. In the past five or so weeks, Michigan has gone 14-7 against a slate of middling opponents, submarining any chance of hosting a regional and also tanking hopes for a fourth-straight regular season B1G championship. What went wrong? And what is a realistic hope the rest of the way? Let's investigate: A Quick Recap We said at the time of the last update that softball was returning home for the easy portion of the schedule. The team handled the first week or so of cupcake opponents, sweeping Kent State at home and pitching shutouts of both Oakland and Toledo, before run-ruling Western Michigan. There was one more easy MAC opponent on the schedule in Miami (OH) before B1G play got going and that game represented the beginning of this current spiral. I will admit that the RedHawks are one of the best teams in the MAC and thus are not completely downtrodden, but it is still a game that Michigan should not, under any circumstances, be losing... let alone by four runs. Alex Storako was slapped around for four runs in 1+ inning, and Lauren Derkowski didn't do much better, while the Michigan bats only mustered three runs in a dispiriting 7-3 loss. The Wolverines then welcomed Nebraska to Alumni Field, who has been one of the NCAA's better hitting teams this season, and the Huskers affirmed their place as a legitimate B1G contender by sweeping the Wolverines. The series only lasted two gams due to weather, but Nebraska put up 10 runs in those two games, while continuing to pitch well and emerged with a pair of victories. A three game skid after already dropping 6 games in the non-conference pushed Michigan to the brink in terms of national implications, and that's before you remember they were then staring down a battle with #9 Northwestern in Evanston. [JD Scott] Michigan had a 3-1 lead going into the 6th inning against NU in the first game before Alex Storako allowed back-to-back solo homers to tie it, and the 'Cats eventually won the game in extras. The next day's game was suspended by weather and resumed on the Sunday of that weekend. Again Michigan carried a two-run lead into the sixth thanks to timely hitting from Kristina Burkhardt and Sierra Kersten, and again homers off of Storako blew it, as a Rachel Lewis three-run blast gave Northwestern the winning runs. The Wolverines did salvage the final game with an 8-3 win, but by this point Michigan had begun B1G play 0-4, and in most years, 4 losses is too many to win the conference. Things were already bad at this juncture, but they have not gotten that much better. Against B1G opponents who Michigan typically makes easy work of like Penn State and Maryland, the Wolverines only managed to take two out of three games. They dropped the final game to the Nittany Lions 3-2 and the first game to Maryland by an ugly 5-1 score. In most years, winning the conference requires being perfect against every team not in the upper echelon, and then maybe dropping a game or two to teams in the upper echelon. Michigan dropped four against the top tier and has been far from perfect against the middle tier. As of now, they sit 7-6 in the B1G, six games back of Nebraska for first with only nine games to play. Not happening this year. [AFTER THE JUMP: Where things went wrong]
Related Keywords
Miami , Florida , United States , Oklahoma , East Lansing , Michigan , Evanston , Ohio , Nebraska , Minnesota , Maryland , Wisconsin , Lexie Blair , Lou Allan , Nittany Lions , Meghan Beaubien , Sierra Romero , Lauren Derkowski , Carol Hutchins , Annabelle Widra , Alex Storako , Mariano Rivera , Kristina Burkhardt , Melina Livingston , Hannah Carson , Rachel Lewis , Audrey Leclair , Lauren Esman , , Kent State , Alumni Field , Sierra Kersten , Penn State , Sierra Romero Michigan , Old Storako , Flo Softball ,
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.