Time and time again this season, the Michigan softball team has shown that it can win games in just about any way possible. The Wolverines can surmount deficits. They can stuff innings with homers early and often. They have the second-best team ERA in the Big Ten, so they’ll happily engage in a low-scoring pitching duel.
But on Tuesday against Oakland (21-14 overall), Michigan (33-14) only needed a single inning to get things done. Relying on the same winning strategy that has benefited them throughout the season, the Wolverines rode the momentum of one explosive inning at the plate in a 9-4 win over the Golden Grizzlies.
“We did not play our best ball today,” Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said “But we are still doing things well enough to score runs to get victories. … We’re going to go back to the drawing board and say ‘Okay, these are some of the things we need to shore up offensively, defensively, in the circle,’ and really get our focus back on point.”
The Wolverines, despite walking off the diamond at the Oakland Softball Field victorious, reaffirmed a point of improvement that’s inflicted them at times this year. Although Michigan was coming off of a sweep against Nebraska on Sunday, the Wolverines’ offense started slow facing Oakland.
A matchup against the Golden Grizzlies’ pitcher Maraina Smith, who had a 14.21 ERA over just 5.4 innings before the game, made it seem like Michigan’s offense would set ablaze early.
But it didn’t, and the Wolverines trudged through three scoreless innings tallying only one hit as their bats went cold. After a weekend series of outstanding offense, Michigan was lethargic at the plate.
“Coming off a big weekend, we have to find ways to keep our energy consistent,” Tholl said. “And so my message was, ‘We cannot allow our play to dictate our energy. We need to have energy from the very first pitch and keep it consistent throughout the game.’ I thought that we were lagging in the energy category to start.”
Down 1-0 after the Golden Grizzlies blooped an RBI single into left field, Michigan needed a spark. With how the Wolverines have been hitting lately, it could’ve came from anyone. Senior catcher Keke Tholl could’ve stepped up to the plate and bombed a ball to extend her team lead in home runs. Sophom*ore third baseman Maddie Erickson, one of Michigan’s most consistent bats all season, could’ve roped a double to get things going.
But Keke’s hit went straight into the Oakland shortstop’s glove, and Erickson flied out. So instead, the responsibility to wake the Wolverines’ offense was on freshman right fielder Ella Stephenson.
Stephenson, who has won Big Ten Freshman of the Week in three of the past four weeks, doesn’t seem to mind the pressure. She blasted an RBI triple to the left-centerfield fence in the fourth inning, knotting the score at 1-1 and continuing her emergence as yet another offensive threat for Michigan.
The one-run triple simply wasn’t enough. After four innings against the Golden Grizzlies, Michigan was still tied with a team it hadn’t lost to in the 10 previous meetings.
So, the Wolverines got to work again in the top of the fifth. With redshirt freshman first baseman Lilly Vallimont walked after four pitches and junior shortstop Ella McVey singling down the third base line, Michigan had another chance to ignite.
The Wolverines seized it, as junior left fielder Ellie Sieler, sophom*ore pinch-hitter Avery Fantucci and Erickson crushed three doubles in succession, ballooning Michigan’s lead to 6-1. That triple-double was the dagger, and the Wolverines returned to their dugout knowing that they had essentially clinched a victory against a poor-hitting Oakland team who wasn’t primed to have an offensive explosion anytime soon.
“I thought we picked it up, our energy, even a little bit before we scored those five runs,” Tholl said. “We started to have better contact on the pitches and made some things happen. … We had much better at bats from that time on.”
Two frames later Michigan’s bats continued to roll. With the bases loaded, a single from Stephenson scored two, and another walk for Vallimont extended the lead to 9-1.
After scoring an RBI single in the sixth inning, the Golden Grizzlies tacked on two more runs in the seventh to cut the deficit to five. But by then, the game was already comfortably in the Wolverines’ control.
Thanks to the fifth inning flurry, spurred by Stephenson’s triple the inning prior, Michigan found another way to win.
And it only took one inning.
