Through the first month of the Michigan softball team’s season, it seemed like there was only one way it could win.
Aside from a few outliers, the Wolverines needed outstanding pitching to earn themselves victories. But even in some early games that featured great performances in the circle, Michigan’s offense couldn’t always be trusted to pull ahead. Its offense was dragging it down.
Now, however, with the Wolverines’ offense hitting its stride — and then some — things are different. Their hitting has not only driven their Big Ten success, but it has also given them a versatility they were previously lacking.
“I think that (the players) have embraced the grit,” Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said April 20. “… They’re loving the fact that they can find different ways to win, and they feel really good about their game.”
In last weekend’s series sweep of Nebraska, that adaptability was on display. After a series opener marked by middling small-ball offense on both sides, the Wolverines picked up the pace a bit on Saturday and then exploded for 11 runs on Sunday.
Michigan tallied just four extra-base hits in the combined 15 frames of the first two games, but racked up just as many in the six innings of Sunday’s run-rule win. Even though power hitting hasn’t always come along with the offensive outbursts, it hasn’t mattered much.
Against Central Michigan on April 10, the Wolverines scored five runs with two doubles being their biggest hits of the night. A week later, one double was all Michigan needed to get past Michigan State.
Consistency throughout the lineup and the ability to pass the bat have allowed the Wolverines to be more than productive with singles, bunts and walks. After all, it’s still Michigan softball. There’s still a reliance on the small ball.
“We want to make sure that we are a fully-designed, power, speed and short game type of offense,” Tholl said March 25. “And that’s what we’re going to continue to develop.”
Another thing that the wins over the Chippewas and Spartans showed is that the Wolverines can still win games with their pitching. Michigan allowed only one combined run in those games, with contributions from not only its ace junior right-hander Lauren Derkowski, but also freshman right-hander Erin Hoehn.
Friday’s win over Nebraska, too, saw the Wolverines in a low-scoring affair that’s been atypical for them in conference play, as they scored just two runs through seven innings.
Thanks to shut-down pitching from Derkowski and graduate right-hander Hannah George, Michigan restricted Nebraska’s offense — one much more prolific than Central Michigan’s or Michigan State’s. And the Wolverines’ sluggish performance at the plate didn’t get in the way of a win.
With Michigan’s offense finding consistency and its pitching staying steady, the Wolverines have proven in recent weeks that they can’t be counted out of a game. While early in the season, major deficits to then-No. 17 Texas A&M, then-No. 18 UCLA and even Sacramento State proved too great to overcome, Michigan has since flipped that script.
All three of the Wolverines’ wins in their series sweep of Iowa were comebacks — two of which were from five or more runs behind. In each game, whether by getting its bats hot or slowing the Hawkeyes’ offense down in the circle, Michigan found a way to win.
“We can carve out those scrappy wins,” freshman utility player Ava Costales said April 19. “We always have it in us to come back. We’ve come back from seven-run deficits and have come back to win. … We just have that confidence that we can do that.”
The Wolverines’ ability to win in different ways is one of many things that separates the team now from the one it was a month ago — and from the rest of the Big Ten. Michigan is currently just one game out of first place in the Big Ten standings and is riding a nine-game win streak.
And with the versatility the Wolverines have displayed recently, there’s no reason why their current hot streak should end anytime soon.