{"id":5002,"date":"2026-05-02T14:49:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/michigan-defense-strands-michigan-state-runners-on-base-to-secure-victory\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T14:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:49:07","slug":"michigan-defense-strands-michigan-state-runners-on-base-to-secure-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/michigan-defense-strands-michigan-state-runners-on-base-to-secure-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan defense strands Michigan State runners on base to secure victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>EAST LANSING \u2014 In softball, getting runners on base is vital to scoring runs. But it only matters if a team is able to bat those runners in.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the Michigan softball team was able to do that while Michigan State wasn\u2019t. By leaving 11 runners on base compared to the Wolverines\u2019 five, the Spartans weren\u2019t able to capitalize on their opportunities, costing them the game.<\/p>\n<p>In every inning except one, Michigan State left at least one runner on base. The Spartans ran into the bulk of their problems in the third and fourth innings, stranding three runners in both. In the fourth, with the bases loaded and two outs, junior right-hander Erin Hoehn struck out a Michigan State batter swinging to come out of\u00a0 the inning unscathed. In the fifth, in the same position, Hoehn forced a pop out to escape once more. By leaving the bases loaded in both innings, the Spartans forfeited a potential six runs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s momentum on our side,\u201d Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said. \u201cThat\u2019s key, being able to strand runners. And that\u2019s something that we haven\u2019t been really good at over the past month. But stranding runners is what we did today, and it just infuses belief in the rest of the team as well if Erin believes in the circle.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>That belief was evident, as the Wolverines themselves capitalized on opportunities where Michigan State didn\u2019t. Of Michigan\u2019s 11 hits, six were RBIs and three were home runs. The Wolverines never left more than one runner on base each inning, unlike the Spartans\u2019 innings that left the bases loaded. While Michigan wasn\u2019t perfect, it batted its runners in when it needed to, and that was the difference maker.<\/p>\n<p>Hoehn was important in preventing Michigan State from scoring those runs. She had five strikeouts over 33 batters faced and allowed only one extra base hit in a double in the bottom of the first inning. Pitching all seven innings, Hoehn allowed 10 hits but found the zone when it mattered, getting out of two tough innings and holding the Spartans scoreless in six.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cIf teams are getting back-to-back hits, that\u2019s when we get in trouble,\u201d Tholl said. \u201cBut the fact that (Hoehn) was able to make some great pitches at the proper times, and we played good defense behind her right and made some good plays in the outfield, and then we just kept coming at them. It wasn\u2019t our best offensive day, but we made the most of it with home runs from Putz and Vallimont.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wolverines\u2019 offense didn\u2019t have its best performance this game, but it scored when it mattered and had the defense to back it up. Michigan recorded no errors over the course of the game, holding strong steadily to prevent Michigan State from scoring. Rallying behind Hoehn, the Wolverines defense was a large part in stranding the Spartans\u2019 runners when it mattered most.<\/p>\n<p>When Michigan\u2019s lineup wasn\u2019t producing as it wanted it to, its defense needed to step up. It did just that Sunday, preventing Michigan State from turning trips to base into runs to propel the Wolverines to an important rivalry win.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EAST LANSING \u2014 In softball, getting runners on base is vital to scoring runs. But it only matters if a team is able to bat those runners in. On Friday, the Michigan softball team was able to do that while Michigan State wasn\u2019t. By leaving 11 runners on base compared to the Wolverines\u2019 five, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4593,1169,222,619,1080,361,4592,911],"class_list":{"0":"post-5002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-base","9":"tag-defense","10":"tag-michigan","11":"tag-runners","12":"tag-secure","13":"tag-state","14":"tag-strands","15":"tag-victory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5004,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002\/revisions\/5004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}