For the entire season, the Michigan softball team has been itching for a win against a ranked opponent. Yet, time and time again the Wolverines have fallen short. While Sunday’s game against No. 8 UCLA didn’t rewrite what has become Michigan’s narrative, it was the Wolverines’ closest attempt.
What has proved costly for Michigan is its inability to offensively produce when it needs it the most. And that was the biggest underlying issue against the Bruins on Sunday.
For the first two innings of the game, the Wolverines came out swinging. In the bottom of the first inning, with sophomore center fielder Jenissa Conway on second base, sophomore right fielder Ella Stephenson was up at the plate. With two strikes, and unphased, Stephenson swung a two-run home run that just barely scraped by the left foul line. Determined to stay ahead, Michigan had struck first.
But UCLA immediately responded with three runs of its own in the top of the second inning, frazzling the Wolverines. When it came time for Michigan to respond, it slowly loaded up the bases while also tallying two outs. But junior second baseman Indiana Langford misread the situation and forced the third out at home. Only one Wolverine managed to score.
And with the game tied, offense suddenly stood at a standstill.
“I think the second inning … we got caught in a pickle,” Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said. “It really stopped our momentum there, and we had a lot of innings to recover, and we just did not, could not do anything, could not do enough offensively.”
To give the Wolverines some credit, they faced the No. 6 and No. 8 pitchers in the Big Ten in Bruins Kaitlyn Terry and Addisen Fisher, respectively. Both pitchers knew how to work the zone and change the eye plane to keep Michigan off the board.
Following the second inning, the closest the Wolverines got to scoring a run was second base. Sporadically, they would find ways to get on base, mainly thanks to Stephenson. Up until the extra inning, Stephenson got on base whether through a walk or a single. But no one in Michigan’s lineup could bring her home.
What was worse was the fact that from the third to eighth inning, UCLA had eight strikeouts, a large part of the reason being the Wolverines sputtering in their offensive production. The other part, though, was the five runners left on base.
“We faced really top pitchers who threw it up and then they changed the eye plane and threw it down,” Tholl said. “It’s a really good combination. We just did not strike the ball when we needed to.”
What helped soften the blow was an impressive defensive performance Michigan put up, pushing the game to extra innings. But in order to win, the Wolverines needed a run, and they just couldn’t swing their bats in a way that did so.
In the eighth inning, down only one run, redshirt sophomore catcher Lilly Vallimont got on base through a hit-by-pitch. Following Vallimont, senior left fielder Ellie Sieler walked. With two runners on base, Michigan had a chance to finally get its win. But junior third baseman Maddie Erickson struck out swinging, cementing one of the most devastating losses of the season.
Offensive production has proved to be the thorn in Michigan’s side this entire season. With one final shot to get that coveted ranked win, Michigan has to combine what has been an outstanding defensive performance with the offense to match it. Otherwise, it will end the season with nothing but close losses — and at the end of the day, that doesn’t really count for much.
