One of the Michigan softball team’s hallmarks this year has been its clean fielding. The Wolverines have committed only 44 errors over the entire season and have consistently kept themselves in games with calm, steady fielding.
But the Wolverines’ strength became a weakness of theirs Saturday as the fielding struggled mightily against the offensive power of Texas and under the pressure of a tight Central Florida game. Michigan made mistakes that, while sometimes not counted as errors on the stat sheet, were nonetheless blunders that cost the Wolverines chances to keep the Longhorns in check in the 16-4 loss and may have cost them the game against the Knights
Michigan’s first recorded error occurred in the third inning. Texas left fielder Kaydee
Bennett chopped a ball to junior third baseman Maddie Erickson. Erickson couldn’t corral the bouncing ball, and Bennett was able to safely reach first.
On the surface, the mistake seemed innocuous. Yes, Erickson had bottled grounding the ball and the runner had reached the base. But junior shortstop Avery Fantucci caught Stewart stealing shortly thereafter, seemingly canceling out the error. Stewart was out one way or another, and the error was of no consequence.
But the error proved to be a symptom of a problem rather than a one-off as Michigan was plagued by errors throughout the day. It was an unusually poor fielding performance from a team that holds the 13th-best fielding percentage in the country at .976. In fact, it was so poor that it dropped the Wolverines six places to the 19th-best fielding percentage and brought their average down to 0.974.
“We opened the door for Texas,” Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said. “You can’t allow a team like Texas opportunities, and we did so in a four-pitch walk, and we did so in a fielding error that really opened up the game.”
Errors from the Wolverines cost them runs against both Texas and UCF throughout the day. Just after Erickson’s error in the third against the Longhorns, senior left fielder Ellie Sieler failed to catch a long ball into left field, giving the Longhorns a double with both runners in scoring position. Shortly after, Texas designated player Reese Atwood hammered a three-run home run to center field. Had Sieler secured the catch, it would have been only a solo home run and Michigan would have been down a much more manageable one run instead of three.
It was more than just fielding errors, however. Against the Longhorns game, Michigan had two instances where the team miscommunicated — a rare occurrence. In the fifth inning, Fantucci seemingly didn’t realize that Texas left fielder Kayden Bennett was still running after a single, allowing Bennett to take an extra base. In the seventh, a miscommunication between two fielders let an easily catchable fly ball drop to the ground, giving Texas yet another base. Michigan made careless errors that, while certainly not typical, were nonetheless harmless.
Against UCF, despite the errors being less frequent, they were arguably more costly. Texas might have scored those runs without any mistakes from the Wolverines, but Michigan gave the Knights far too much with its errors as five of UCF’s ten runs were unearned. The top of the fourth inning proved particularly brutal to the Wolverines as two errors from Fantucci loaded the bases, which the Knights cleared. Michigan responded in the bottom frame with four runs of its own, but in a game that the Wolverines lost by just two runs, it’s hard not to look at those as missed opportunities to shut UCF down.
“Only five of the 10 runs scored against us were earned,” Tholl said. “It’s just the way the game is, not for lack of effort. Sometimes the ball does take it on hop, and sometimes it’s just not your best day, and that’s what we experienced today.”
While Michigan had its backs against the wall in both games on Saturday, it failed to compete defensively enough to keep itself in the game. Dropped balls turned into lost opportunities that cost the Wolverines their season.
