{"id":5052,"date":"2026-05-05T18:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/michigan-to-rematch-ohio-state-in-big-ten-tournament\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:49:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:49:26","slug":"michigan-to-rematch-ohio-state-in-big-ten-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/michigan-to-rematch-ohio-state-in-big-ten-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan to rematch Ohio State in Big Ten Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Following its first sweep of the year against Michigan State, the Michigan softball team is set to play a familiar opponent in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>With a 11-13 record, the Wolverines secured the ninth seed and will face rival Ohio State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Having won the series against the Buckeyes earlier this year, Michigan enters the matchup with the necessary tools to subdue Ohio State. But in single-elimination format, the Buckeyes\u2019 red-hot form and power at the plate may pose problems for the Wolverines.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After a regular season full of ups and downs for Michigan, its regular season ended on a positive note \u2014 comfortably dispatching the Spartans. While the offense stalled at times, the Wolverines utilized oppressive pitching to limit Michigan State to just three runs in\u00a0 three days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur kids are in a good space,\u201d Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said Friday. \u201cThey\u2019re willing to compete, they understand the significance of the games that we play moving forward. And\u00a0 I want them feeling good about what they\u2019re doing and welcome the opportunity to have games on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>In their regular season matchup, the Wolverines were able to narrowly defeat the Buckeyes 2-1 in the series. The rivals traded run-rule victories, as Michigan took <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/softball\/michigans-offense-builds-off-ohio-states-defensive-errors-winning-11-1\/\">Game 2<\/a> 11-1, while Ohio State won 13-2 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/softball\/michigan-overpowered-by-ohio-state-in-13-2-run-rule-defeat\/\">Game 3<\/a>. In Game 1, both teams traded blow after blow \u2014 culminating in a 8-7 lead for the Buckeyes in the seventh inning. However, junior center fielder Jenissa Conway unleashed a walk-off no-doubter over the bleachers to snatch a 10-8 victory over Ohio State.<\/p>\n<p>But while Conway was able to steal victory before, the Wolverines will need to play at their highest level if they want to move on in the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The eighth-seeded Buckeyes come into the matchup playing their best ball. In its last two series, Ohio State overcame No. 25 Washington while also taking a single shutout 3-0 win over Oregon despite losing the series. The Buckeyes\u2019 leaned on their explosive offense all season, and continue to show just how dangerous their batters can be. The numbers back it up, as Ohio State have crushed 119 home runs this season along with posting a .308 team batting average.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(The Buckeyes are) a team that hits 30 more home runs than we do, so we know they\u2019re a prolific extra-base hitting team,\u201d Tholl said April 10. \u201cThey hit the ball over the fence, so we expected them to throw punches. The message was to throw a punch back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Junior right-hander Gabby Ellis was able to completely nullify Michigan State\u2019s lineup. However, against a lineup as powerful as the Ohio State, the Wolverines\u2019 circle may have their hands full.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>This conundrum was on full display in Game 3 of the regular season series, as the Buckeyes ran rampant against Michigan\u2019s struggling bullpen. The Wolverines cycled through four pitchers \u2014 Ellis, freshman right-hander Grayson LaMarche, junior two-way player Erin Hoehn and sophomore right-hander Kat Meyers \u2014 and still were unable to find an answer for the Ohio State\u00a0 power. Facing the likes of Ohio State shortstop Abbie Wilhelm,who went 3-for-4 with three home runs in her last outing against Michigan, and right fielder Hadley Parisien, the Wolverines\u2019 defense will need to remain steadfast to circumvent Ohio State\u2019s robust slugging.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Buckeyes provide the Wolverines with the perfect test. If Michigan\u00a0 intends to make a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament and compete for its\u00a0 third consecutive Big Ten Tournament championship, it will need to overcome a formidable opponent first.\u00a0<\/p>\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>Following its first sweep of the year against Michigan State, the Michigan softball team is set to play a familiar opponent in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. With a 11-13 record, the Wolverines secured the ninth seed and will face rival Ohio State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[515,222,1023,4623,361,259,421],"class_list":{"0":"post-5052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-big","9":"tag-michigan","10":"tag-ohio","11":"tag-rematch","12":"tag-state","13":"tag-ten","14":"tag-tournament"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052","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=5052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5054,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052\/revisions\/5054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}