WEST LAFAYETTE — The No. 8 seed Michigan softball team had been here before.
The Wolverines had won 22 Big Ten regular season championships and 11 conference tournaments in their program’s storied history — the most recent of which came in the form of a Tournament championship last year.
But this time, it felt different. Because Michigan hadn’t just won its 12th Big Ten Tournament, it had done so against No. 2-seeded UCLA — the gold standard of college softball programs. The same opponent the Wolverines had defeated twenty years earlier to win its sole national title, who Michigan now calls a conference rival as a consequence of the reshaping of the landscape of college athletics.
The Wolverines (38-19 overall, 15-11 Big Ten) shut down the Bruins (49-10, 17-6), 2-0 off the back of an imperious outing from its pitching staff to defend their Big Ten Tournament title.
It took senior right-hander Lauren Derkowski just seven pitches to assert her presence in the circle. In the bottom of the first inning, Derkowski retired three batters in quick succession, setting the tone for her resolve from the circle which would come to anchor Michigan throughout the championship game.
But on the other end for UCLA was right-hander Addisen Fisher who faced nine Michigan batters and retired all nine through the first three innings of the game, quickly settling into a duel with Derkowski.
But finally, at the top of the sixth inning, Michigan drew first blood.
Following a single from junior second baseman Indiana Langford that landed her on second base after an error from the Bruins’ left fielder, sophomore second baseman Jenissa Conway stepped to the plate.
Just as she had done all season, Conway combined with Langford for the 1-2 punch. She slammed a double into center field that sent Langford home for the game’s first run. The Wolverines had broken the deadlock.
Freshman first baseman Lauren Putz followed up the tandem with a groundout to Fisher, but in the process, she advanced Conway to third. Conway would tack on a run of her own on the next at-bat, as sophomore right-fielder Ella Stephenson drove her home with a single. Fisher, rattled, was pulled in favor of right-hander Taylor Tinsley.
But Derkowski wasn’t alone. In a continuation of the trend that had characterized Michigan’s pitching approach all season, the Wolverines’ coaching staff opted to bring in sophomore right-hander Erin Hoehn in relief. Hoehn immediately picked up where Derkowski left off, with three consecutive outs at the bottom of the sixth.
Tinsley, on her end, kept Michigan’s bats silent through the top of the seventh to keep UCLA treading water.
But Hoehn did what Derkowski had done all game, three more times — a pop up into center field and two pop flies to first base.
And with junior third baseman Maddie Erickson’s throw to junior first baseman Madi Ramey to retire Bruins left-hander Kaitlyn Terry, the Wolverines had officially repeated the history they had made in 2005 — making a statement against the sport’s most decorated program to shock the softball world and claim a championship.
