Michigan Softball's 2023 season kicked off last night with a 2-1 extra innings defeat to USF in Florida, before their slate of weekend games beginning this afternoon. A new season upon us means it's time for another Michigan Softball season preview, which I held off on running until today because I wanted to get a peak at the lineup from last night. The reasoning behind that decision is there is so much uncertainty with this squad, so many new faces and not the least of which being in the dugout. With Carol Hutchins retiring, Bonnie Tholl is beginning her tenure as head coach of Michigan Softball, and she presides over a roster that saw the majority of its batting order depart in the offseason, as well as both pitchers who logged the vast majority of innings. Several new transfers are in as well as a six player recruiting class, so this is going to have a very different feel of a season than a year ago. Today we'll break it all down: The Roster Pitching Where last
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.�