WEST LAFAYETTE — When right-hander Lyndsey Grein stepped into the circle for No. 1 seed Oregon in the third inning, the No. 8 seed Michigan softball team had reason to worry, despite the 2-0 lead it held at the time.
After all, Grein wasn’t particularly accustomed to losing. Touting a 26-2 record and 1.82 ERA, alongside pitching in a 9-1 run rule victory over the Wolverines on April 5, she had no reason to believe that would change. But two innings later, the Ducks had made yet another pitching switch as Michigan had chased Grein from the mound at the culmination of a fifth-inning offensive surge that propelled the Wolverines to a monumental upset victory.
“It started with (junior second baseman Indiana Langford) getting a leadoff walk,” Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said. “That was a tough at bat. She showed some emotion right there, and I think it fired us up. And then the next person gets out, but then the next person gets a hit. We had runners on first and second. We just rolled from there.”
Langford normally utilizes her explosive speed to get on base, but in her first at-bat of the fifth inning, she opted for a more measured approach — working Grein for a walk to give the Wolverines a runner on base.
That walk would set the rest of the inning into motion. Shortly after, freshman designated player Lauren Putz’s single put her on base and advanced Langford into scoring position. And when sophomore right fielder Ella Stephenson stepped to the plate, she continued the surge with a single. Oregon tried to field the ball out of play, but an errant throw allowed Langford to put Michigan up 3-0.
While Grein had been able to outfox the Wolverines with her pitching style earlier in the season, this time, Michigan knew what it was facing. The Ducks’ ace opted for a drop ball approach, targeting the bottom of the zone. But despite that strategy’s success all season, the Wolverines were able to exploit it to their advantage. Grein gave up three hits in quick succession, allowing Michigan to put three runners on base immediately after Langford’s score.
“We were just really looking for something in the zone,” junior third baseman Maddie Erickson said. “Great pitching staffs like that are gonna pound the zone. And we were ready for it.”
And with the bases loaded, Oregon made its change in an attempt to stem the bleeding, substituting Grein for left-hander Staci Chambers. But the Wolverines, with their three baserunners, maintained their consistency at the plate as Putz and freshman outfielder Cece Thorington — pinch running for Stephenson — added two more runs.
By the end of the fifth inning, the Wolverines led 5-0 — a lead the Michigan defended to shock the Ducks and advance to the next round. Entering the fifth inning, Oregon could’ve hoped to fight back from the 2-0 deficit, but the Wolverines’ offensive explosion and chase of the Ducks’ ace from the circle put Oregon on the backfoot, a position which it never recovered from.
“We went up there, we had a really good mindset,” sophomore right-hander Erin Hoehn said. “We knew what it took. We faced her(Grein) before, and we went up there and just had belief in ourselves the whole time. And that’s really what got the job done for us.”
And despite being shut down offensively by Grein before, the Wolverines put on a fifth-inning offensive clinic that helped it earn its biggest victory of the season — and keep its season alive.
