EVANSTON — The Michigan softball team rarely needs to come back from an early deficit.
But, this weekend against Northwestern, the Wolverines did — twice.
And on Sunday, when junior Amanda Chidester belted a shot out of the deepest part of Drysdale Field for a grand slam, Michigan’s nerve-racking weekend was complete.
Senior pitcher Jordan Taylor held on by a thread for the final innings, and when the dust settled, the Wolverines were off to an undefeated start to the Big Ten slate with a 7-4 victory over the Wildcats.
“(Taylor) was a warrior all weekend,” Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said Sunday. “Thank God she was, because we weren’t.”
But the beauty of this weekend was the many heroes of the series sweep.
Saturday, it was sophomore Amy Knapp who delivered a solo shot in the seventh to give Michigan (2-0 Big Ten, 31-2 overall) the win. Sunday, it was Chidester’s blast. But Northwestern made sure it wasn’t going to surrender two victories to the Wolverines — the team with whom Northwestern expected to compete for the conference title.
In fact, when the Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Sunday, it looked like a weekend split was imminent. But Taylor had some words for her team whose bats had gone as cold as the below-freezing temperatures.
“We struggled a little bit, but we always seemed to start picking it up by the end,” Chidester said. “Taylor came in and gave us a few words of wisdom and fired us up.”
The motivation from their ace proved to do just the trick to spark the Wolverines’ rally. Two straight singles from junior Bree Evans and freshman Nicole Sappingfield, followed by a walk issued to senior Dorian Shaw loaded the bases for Chidester. And even an ice-cold wind blowing in couldn’t keep her from a fourth-career grand slam.
From that point on, Taylor bore down to ensure Michigan got its revenge from a 2009 opening weekend of conference play when Northwestern claimed a sweep. She worked methodically from the circle, breaking up any signs of life from a powerful Wildcat lineup.
But above all, it was the team effort that picked up the Wolverines when things looked grim. Trailing after four innings, it seemed something had changed in for Michigan. It stopped playing not to lose and “started playing to win,” according to Hutchins.
And that’s just when the tide had turned. Taylor, thriving off the productive at-bats of her teammates, grit her teeth and fearlessly attacked the Northwestern batters. Pitching out of tight jams, it became clear that the Wolverine lead — one that was extended by sophomore Ashley Lane’s RBI single — was not one Taylor would relinquish.
“We rely on a lot of different people,” Hutchins said. “We have a lot of different weapons. And I think, more than anything, we have Jordan Taylor.”