Softball Does It With The Long Ball

26 runs scored, 5 allowed, 4 grand slams, 3 wins, 2 shutouts, 1 regional title captured. Softball turned in a dominating performance over the weekend, slicing through Wright State, Notre Dame, and Kent State to advance to next weekend's super regional.

All weekend, the Wolverines found ways to create big innings to pull away from their competition. In the opener against Wright State, Michigan dug themselves a 4-0 going into the bottom of the 3rd and were still down 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth when the Wolverines' bats exploded. Angela Findlay led off with a single, her sister Sam walked. Maggie Viefhaus flied out to left field, but pitcher Nikki Niemitz drove Angela Findlay in with a single and then Dorian Shaw was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Roya St. Clair was lifted for pinch hitter Marley Powers. All she did was hit a grand slam to center. A note from MGoBlue.com: "Powers is now batting .833 (5-for-6) in bases-loaded scenarios this season with three grand slams and 16 RBI." Holy crap.

Now, as awesome as a home run is, it can be a rally-killer. The bases are clear, so the defense doesn't have to account for that. No matter for the Wolverines. Teddi Ewing and Ali Giampaolo hit consecutive singles, while pinch hitter Angie Danis walked. Having batted around, Angela Findlay lined out to short. With two outs, Samantha Findlay drove in another run with a single. Maggie Viefhaus then stepped to the plate and drove Michigan's second grand slam of the inning over the wall in right center, putting Michigan up 13-5 and triggering softball's mercy rule. It was a ten-run inning.

Things were quiet for both teams through the first three innings of Saturday's contest against Notre Dame. With the Irish acting as the home team, Michigan got things going in the top of the fourth with a Samantha Findlay walk, a Viefhaus sac bunt, and a single by Nikki Nemitz, taking a break from pitching by acting as DH. Once again, Roya St. Clair was lifted for Marley Powers, and once again Powers homered. She's only a freshman, by the way, so Samantha Findlay should watch out for her home run records. Teddi Ewing then singled and was driven home when Ali Giampaolo tripled.

Michigan did it without the long ball in the fifth. They collected singles from both Findlay sisters, a double from Nikki Nemitz, and singles from Roya St. Clair and Teddi Ewing to put up a four-spot for the inning. Unlike Friday's game, it wasn't a walk-off, but a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning from the Irish gave Michigan the 8-0 victory in five.

Today's regional final against Kent State was another slow-starting affair. Neither team could get much of anything going. In the fourth, it took four walks issued by the Golden Flashes for Michigan to finally plate a run. Fortunately for the Maize and Blue, Jordan Taylor was throwing a one-hitter. Things finally broke open in the bottom of the sixth. Again, it was free passes to first coming back to bite Kent State. Both Findlay sisters and Nemitz walked, bringing up Dorian Shaw, who hit a grand slam to right field. Taylor finished her complete game shutout one-hitter without walking a single batter, facing only 22 on the day and collecting 11 strikeouts.

As the fourth overall seed in the tournament, the Wolverines have the luxury of staying at home this year for next weekend's super regional. They'll face the winner of the Knoxville regional. At the time of posting, the Lady Vols are up 1-0 on the Hokies after one, successfully executing a suicide squeeze (UPDATE: Virginia Tech used a four-run fourth to take down Tennessee 4-2. See you in Ann Arbor, Hokies).

Elsewhere at the Wilpon Complex, Michigan's baseball team took Northwestern down 11-2, setting a Big Ten record by winning 26 conference games this season. Ray Fisher Stadium will play host to the Big Ten tournament starting Wednesday, but Michigan won't see action until 7:05 PM on Thursday night.

Tournament Time For Softball

Last night, ESPN2 finally showed the Michigan softball team's exhibition game against Team USA from May 6. The Wolverines lost the game, but 5-1 is definitely a respectable mark to post against the best collection of softball players in the world. They even had runners on second and third in the bottom of the sixth, but Cat Osterman managed to get herself out of the jam.

This is the first time I've had a chance to watch th softball team this year, and for the most part they looked solid. It's weird seeing Samantha Findlay out at second base, but I trust Hutch to know what she's doing. Our pitching looked good, but not dominant. To my eye, Jordan Taylor's wind-up looks weird.

Finally, the Alumni Field renovation looks excellent. The team now has the kind of facility that it deserves. And it was great to see a raucous sell-out crowd for an exhibition softball game. Hopefully we'll have the same great environment when the Wolverines host the NCAA regional this weekend. I went to the one back in '05 and it was a blast; I'm now debating whether to make the drive in again.

Schedule for the weekend:

Friday, May 16
Game 1 -- #2 seed Notre Dame vs. #3 seed Kent State, 4:30 p.m.
Game 2 -- #1 seed Michigan vs. #4 seed Wright State, 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 17
Game 3 -- Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, Noon
Game 4 -- Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 -- Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner, 5 p.m.

Sunday, May 18
Game 6 -- Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 7 (if necessary) -- Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 3:30 p.m. Michigan's games on Saturday and (we hope) Sunday will be carried on the Big Ten Network. Game 4 would be streamed for free at BigTenNetwork.com.

Pick Six: Hitting For Contact

Full credit for several of these must be given to mgo.licio.us, just as valuable to the Michigan fan as MGoBlog is.

1. Softball bows out. We would've seen more of the three-game series against Baylor if the CSTV app didn't collapse into buffering every 15 seconds, but maybe we're glad we didn't. Lorilyn Wilson and Nikki Nemitz got rocked 9-0 in the opening game, Wilson taking the start and the loss. The Wolverines clawed out a 3-0 win Saturday to stay alive, but went down 4-0 in the rubber match. Baylor's top pitcher is a beast, not allowing an earned run for the series, and 1B Ashley Monceaux had 5 RBI, more than Michigan as a team.

2. Michigan gets at-large bid to NCAA baseball tourney. A season that began with a great deal of promise (and a Big Ten regular season title) fell apart down the stretch and into the Big Ten tournament. Getting swept out of the tournament when you're the #1 and hosting, well, it's a little embarrassing. That left the boys just shy of the magic number of 40 wins, but they still managed to get a #2 seed. But not all #2 seeds are created equal. Truth is that they're essentially the #32 seed nationally, playing in Nashville against the #33 seed in Memphis (which, you know, wouldn't have a small home crowd advantage), and even if they win, they then face national #1 seed Vanderbilt. We guess we're saying that if you're a Michigan baseball fan, don't build your weekend around breathless updates from Vandy. All of that said, Michigan is building something nice here, and with the facilities upgrades on schedule to be completed for next season thanks to the generosity of the Wilpon family, this could be, hopefully, the beginning of a return to baseball glory for Michigan.

3. Kelly Baraka is gainfully employed with the Kalamazoo Xplosion of the Continental Indoor Football League (Mascot: Xplodey the Coyote. No, seriously). We're glad for Baraka that he's no longer literally working at McDonald's, like he was last year. The Xplosion play their last home game of the regular season this Saturday, 7:00PM at Wings Stadium. Fear not if you can't make it; the Xplosion's 8-1 record guarantees them at least one home playoff game (HT: MSC).

4. Brian's Big Ten Network fisking is a must-read about something that, in the abstract, isn't a bad idea, but is lurching into existence in as disastrous a manner as possible, fueled by the hubris Jim Delaney's been dripping everywhere.

5. Crisler could get minor updates for 2007-08 season. We could not be more excited. The reality is that Michigan was not going to quickly get a new basketball arena built quickly, or is there even, necessarily, the money or desire to do so. However, there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with Crisler Arena that could not be seriously improved with some TLC. The lighting thing is huge. Crisler Arena has always looked poorly lit on television and it's a dark and shadowy place when you go there to watch a game. We're not saying it has to be Florida bright in there, but bringing in some experts to make the changes needed to make Crisler look better on television could be a small but important step to improving recruiting. The sound system upgrades are just an additional need. We just hope it doesn't mean that additional speakers mean additional calls for NOISE! NOISE! LOUD NOISES! The band is there for a reason.

6. Braylon Edwards pledging $1 million to fund scholarships. We realize that this is kind of old news, but we just wanted to take a moment to salute Braylon Edwards, one of our favorite Michigan players ever, for making a major financial commitment to improving the educational opportunities for deserving students. We realize that many athletes do good work like this and stories of them are put out there, but in an era where so many NFL players are being help up in the media as exemplars of bad behavior, it's nice to see stories like this. We're hopeful that this kind of thing can make a real difference in the lives of these young people.

HSR Field Trip: NCAA Softball Regional

Photos from MGoBlue.com, Chris Schwengler and Amir Gamzu

The softball postseason is upon us, with the team looking to repeat 2005's triumph at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. As the overall #9 seed in the tournament, the Wolverines earned the right to host a regional in Ann Arbor, which was held this weekend. Louisville, Oregon State, and Eastern Michigan filled out the four-team bracket of the double-elimination regional. I couldn't make it to Michigan's Friday night opener against Eastern (which they won 3-0), but I sat in with the Alumni Band for our other games.

Saturday opened with a rain delay, sending us into Oosterbaan to wait it out. What makes softball different from other sports I've played for is that starting pitcher Lorilyn Wilson was the one to tell us our new start time. To be fair, football, basketball, and hockey don't usually have rain delays, but softball seems to have a tighter relationship with the band.

Lorilyn Wilson: Pitcher/Meteorologist

For the most part, Wilson had a good day against the Cardinals. In the first, she got her first pair of outs relatively easily, but then the Louisville shortstop managed to just turn on a pitch and drive it over the left field fence. She looked rattled after that, but a coach's visit to the circle settled her down and she imposed her will on Louisville for the next four innings.

Meanwhile, Michigan took back the lead on their next set of at-bats. Back-to-back singles and a Louisville error got the first run across and a Teddi Ewing base hit brought Maggie Viefhaus home. They then cracked the game open in the fourth with a big two-out rally. Rebekah Milian drew a walk, Samantha Findlay singled, then Angela Findlay (her sister) put an RBI single into center, bringing up Tiffany Worthy. Worthy took a nasty foul tip right on her thigh, walked it off, and then deposited the 2-2 pitch into the Louisville bullpen to clear the bases and score three.

Worthy's home run was the game-winner, but Louisville tried to make it interesting. Lorilyn was looking gassed in the 5th, allowing another solo home run to lead off the inning and then loading the bases on a walk and consecutive(!) hit batters. Freshman Nikki Nemitz came on to put out the fire, allowing one run on a sacrifice fly, but avoiding the big inning that had been brewing.

That was it as far as scoring went, and the Wolverines came away with the 6-3 victory. It wasn't the end of the second-guessing, though. Louisville elected to keep their best pitcher in the game even after it became 6-1, even though they must have suspected a loss might be in the cards, and thus would need to play the Oregon State/EMU winner for another shot at the Wolverines in the final. Instead of resting her for that game, they gambled that they'd either find a way to beat Michigan or that Pitcher #2 would be enough to handle the Beavers or Eagles. Things didn't work out that way, as the Beavers prevailed in both of their Saturday games to get their shot at the Wolverines.

In Sunday's game, the Michigan wasted no time in jumping on top of the Beavers to a tune of 5-0 after the first inning. Rebekah Milian hit a one-out single right through pitcher Brianne McGowan's five-hole, which really seemed to rattle her. Sam Findlay took her from an 0-2 count all the way to a walk, then she took Angela Findlay's hit and threw it to second base, where no one was covering, as the play was either at third to get the lead runner or first to get the hitter. She then walked Tiffany Worthy to load the bases, bringing up Maggie Viefhaus, who sent the 2-0 pitch deep to center. GRAND SLAM! The Oregon State centerfielder, Natalie Johnson, saw her playing career flashing before her eyes and leapt up the fence going after the ball, but she wasn't going to reach it without a ladder (Not that she didn't try her best. Her teammate in right had to rush over and grab her legs to keep her from tumbling down on the other side).

The Wolverines added a run in the second, with Viefhaus again coming through. Her base hit into right let Angela Findlay score from second and gave the band an easy music cue for "Hawaii 5-0." The third was a tough inning, as Michigan managed to load the bases with no outs, but let the Beavers get away, wasting the opportunity on infield grounders and a pop fly. However, they did tack on another run in the fourth when Molly Bausher's bloop single to left gave Michelle Weatherdon enough time to score from second.

And that was it. I haven't mentioned what Oregon State did at bat because they didn't really get anything going. Lorilyn Wilson had eight strikeouts, no Beavers made it past second all day, and only two made it that far. She just mowed them down all afternoon in a dominating performance.

The Victors

The Wolverines are off to Waco, TX to take on the Baylor Bears in the NCAA Super Regional starting Friday, with a shot at making the Women's College World Series. The real question is whether they have a chance at repeating their awesome run through the 2005 tournament, and it's one I'll leave for an upcoming post, as this one is way too long already. For now I'll just say that college softball is a lot more fun than is commonly known, and that being part of the Alumni Band is the best way to experience it.