8 - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 8 - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom I STAFF PICKS The Daily softball beat makes its predictions for the season Casandra Luke Alex Pagni Pasch Hermann Michigan overall record 42-10 43-9 43-9 Michigan Big Ten record 14-5 15-4 16-3 Michigan MVP Nemitz Taylor Taylor .9 &Mchiansupiseplaye Bashe Bashe Kikatick Big Ten Regular Season Charpion Michigan illinois Michigan Big Ten Regular Season Runner-Up llinois Michigan Ohio State Big Ten Tournaent Champion Michigan Michigan Michigan Big Ten MVP Taylor Taylor Taylor Big Ten surprise team enn State Illinois Ohio State Dominant pitching duo is key to Blue's success ByLUKE PASCH in Ann Arbor three years ago - recently decided to strict Daily Sports Writer "one-pitch softball." enforce the "crow-hop rule, "It provides the basics for which says that the pitcher' 6 I I I ly s Expectations sky high forMcia With Big Ten season approaching, 'M' hopes to avenge WCWS disappointment By ALEX HERMANN Daily Sports Writer As the most recent Michigan sports team to have won an NCAA national championship - now almost five years ago - the Michi- gan softball team knows all about high expectations. In 2005, an extra-innings home run blast gave the Wolverines their first-ever softball championship, catapulting the program onto the national scene as the first team east of the Mississippi River to win the Women's College World Series. Since then, Michigan has fielded three Big Ten championship teams and advanced to at least the NCAA Super Regionals every year. Last season, the Wolverines made their first trip back to Oklahoma City since their NCAA championship, but ultimately couldn't repeat their miraculous performance from four years before. With essentially the entire ros- ter back from ayear ago and anum- ber of experienced players, this may be the program's best chance to return to glory. And nobody has made that expectation clearer than the Mich- igan players themselves. "Our team is on a mission," sophomore outfielder Bree Evans said. "We want to win it this year and we know that we're capable of winning it. We're going to do any- thing we can to win the national championship this year." It's a team that has all the tools. With veteran leadership, a certain amount of experience and arguably the best pitching duo in the nation, the fourth-ranked Wolverines are expected to do damage this year, in the conference and in the nation. Already, Michigan has shown its talnet level on the national stage. Heading into Wednesday's home opener against Bowling Green, the Wolverines (22-5) have won 13 of their last 14 games including wins against some of the top teams in the nation. Currently, Michigan's top five players in the lineup are all bat- ting above .300, and all nine play- ers were regulars in the lineup a year ago, including four first team All-Big Ten hitters and one second teamer. "We obviously have big goals in mind," senior pitcher Nikki Nemitz said. "We just want to fight and battle every game. We have a lot of senior experience, and I think that's going to help us." With six seniors and 12 upper- classmen total, the Wolverines' veteran leadership has already manifested itself in positive ways. Michigan has already found itself in four extra-innings games this year. The Wolverines have managed to win three of those games, including against No. 2 Arizona last weekend and against then-No. 8 UCLA more than a month ago. Against the Wildcats, senior centerfielder Molly Bausher drove in the team's lone run in the eight inning to propel the team to victory. But as many teams before them have abruptly discovered, expec- tations, past accolades and even senior leadership don't necessar- ily translate to victories in early June. Michigan has had difficulties at the plate in the early season against some of the better teams they've played. In their five losses, the Wolverines have averaged less than three runs per game. Clearly, Michigan's pitching won't always be able to carry the team to victo- ry, and at crucial points down the stretch the team's bats will have to be ready to step up. For now, in order to keep their eyes on the ultimate prize, the Wolverines simply have to focus on themselves. "We're not focused on the other team, we don't care about the other team," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "We're all about playing Michigan softball." And though the Michigan soft- ball program may still be defined by what happened five years ago, when Samantha Findlay blasted a home run over the leftfield fence to secure the program's first national championship, the cur- rent team now looks to expand on that legacy - complete with its own chapter. For as long as there have been baseball and softball diamonds, pitchers have ruled. It's a concept that's lived on through the timeless phrase, "Pitching wins championships." But average spectators may not enjoy sitting through low-scoring games. It's for this reason that the most glamorous jobs in baseball and softball tend to be associ- ated with the big-bopping corner infielders and outfielders (with some exceptions - see Jennie Finch). Then again, those same fans who love scoring would be just as thrilled to see their team play in the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City this June. Michigan coach Carol Hutchins knows a thing or two about grooming a pitching staff for the WCWS. In 2005, she imparted her "orie-pitch softball" philosophy on then-Wolverine starter Jennie Ritter en route to the program's first NCAA cham- pionship. Sports Illustrated later named Ritter the ninth-best Michigan athlete of all-time for her integral role in the team's suc- cess. But that was then. Here's an in- depth look at the Wolverines' set of dominant pitchers in 2010: NIKKI NEMITZ, SENIOR, LHP College softball coaches natu- rally look for their players to progress each spring and off- season. But this lefty will have a tough time eclipsing the numbers she put up in her 2009 campaign. Nemitz finished with career highs in most major pitching cat- egories - wins (28), strikeouts (306) and opponents' batting average (.150). Surprisingly, her formidable 1.07 ERA was a three- point downgrade from her sopho- more season. She attributes those results to the pitching mantra that's gov- erned her play since she arrived everything that we try to do," Nemitz said. "If you're thinking about a pitch that abatter crushed in the last at-bat, then the results will never show up. You have to focus on the moment - on what you can control." And Nemitz shouldn't have to focus on too much else - she has just four pitches in her repertoire: curveball, screwball, changeup and rise ball. Instead of over- whelming hitters with a variety of pitches, as many of the best pitchers do, she relies on superb command and an excellent veloc- ity drop-off on her changeup. That formula has been notice- ably effective, since an offense that only needs to cross the plate a couple of times in seven innings is a happy offense. JORDAN TAYLOR, JUNIOR, RHP Taylor possesses one of the nation's filthiest curveballs. And she isn't particularly modest about it either. "The curveball was working really well today, which is pretty normal," she said after a com- plete-game shutout over Mary- land last month. "My curveball is usually very effective." Then again, a pitcher who can toss a one-hit shutout against No. 2 Arizona's lineup, which show- cases three .420-plus hitters, doesn't really need to be modest. Taylor has surpassed expecta- tions thus far in her junior cam- paign. And should she keep up her current pace, her end-of- May numbers when the WCWS approaches will rival those of Rit- ter's 2005 record-breaking statis- tics - 280-plus innings pitched, 35-or-more wins and 450 strike- outs. But there is one issue that can prevent Taylor from reaching those lofty goals. It seems superficially incon- sequential, but the NCAA has back foot must stay on the ground dragging during the pitching motion. Pitchers are barred from lifting their foot and replanting it back on the ground to push off of. Unfortunately for Taylor, the rule isn't particularly conducive to her style of pitching, and the rest of her season's success may rely on a combination of leni- ency from the umps and a slight revamp of her pitching motion. Last weekend alone she threw 12 illegal pitches, the penalty for which is a free base for all base runners, and she was handed her second loss of the season. "I've been pitching like this since I was 16 years old," Taylor said. "It's not quick mid-week fix, let alone a mid-season fix." Regardless, Taylor will con- tinue to keep hitters on their toes, as the rule change doesn't detract from her six-pitch arse- nal. She throws a curveball, chan- geup, back-door curve, rise ball, drop ball and screwball, all of which hold their own against the nation's best. THE BALANCE Michigan's pitching duo is uniquely dynamic. Not only are Nemitz and Taylor premiere pitchers in the Big Ten and NCAA, but they also complement each other in an unprecedented, even eerie, manner. That can be the difference- maker between the Wolverines and other elite pitching staffs. They pitch from different sides of the mound. They have differ- ent release styles and heights. one relies on control pitching, and the other on breaking move- ment. They have different looks for different opposing offenses. "There's no number one pitch- er. We have two All-American pitchers," Hutchins said. "And that's our greatest strength." Tana' 2 CSlT tV0& 15 vt 2 dtma F 7 qqr y j N± Nern l p TEAM LEADERS Batting Average Evans ................355 Viefhaus .............333 Shaw's leadership, i ower valuable for Wolverines By CASANDRA PAGNI Daily Sports Writer Teams have toyed with various methods to slow down the power of junior slugger Dorian Shaw. They've pitched around her. They've pitched her inside. They've pitched aggressively. Either way, Shaw finds a way to touch the bases. Twenty-seven games into the season, Shaw has already ham- mered out 10 home runs. Boast- ing the team's highest slugging percentage at .784 and leading the team in walks (16), the first base- man is certainly a Wolverine to watch out for this season. An immediate contributor to the team, Shaw has started at first base since she arrived in Ann Arbor and now has 131 games under her belt. From the early-season five- game tournaments to the difficult conference schedule ahead, the physical game can wear on any- one. But over the past three years, Shaw has learned the importance of the mental game, regardless of what happens on the diamond. "My freshman year, I was mak- ing so much out of 'I'm supposed to be doing this' and 'I'm sup- posed to be doing that,' " Shaw said. "I was doing more thinking than playing. One thing that I've learned is controlling my emo- tions and controlling my mind while I'm on the field. That's something that I had never been taught before, until I got here. "When you get here, everybody on the team is good, everybody can play and everybody can do the physical things. It's the mental game thattputs you above, because you have to have the mental- toughness and abil- ity to bounce back because there is so much failure." Now anupperclass- man, the slugger has proven herself to her team and coaches. As a natural leader, Shaw embraces the fact that her teammates turn to her when they need advice, encour- agement or a differ- ent perspective. On a team with six seniors, Shaw feels comfort- able relating to both the younger and older Wolverines. "At this level, sometimes you might just need a little reas- surance when you're not having a great day," Shaw said. "I can go to a freshman and be like 'Hey, you Jno o~ belong here, you ca Junior Dori play with us. You're just as good as anybody else out here.' More than anything, the experience of going through the ups and downs of the game is what is going to help us. We all know what it feels like to have a crappy day or a really good day but (we don't) get too high or low on ourselves." Though the most consistent Michigan unit this season has 4 4 RBI Findla ..... Shaw .. . ... . ... . .. 28 27 ARIEL BOND/Daily an Shaw has 10 home rats through 27 tames thus tar this season. Last your, she had 14 through the entire season. 4 ERA Taylor ............... 1.22 Nemitz ... . .. ... 1.91 Strikeouts Taylor. . .... ..... . 156 Nemitz .............. 86 been the pitchers, throughout her years at Michigan, Shaw has pro- vided a consistent presence from the middle of the lineup. Last season, Shaw's bat heated up in the postseason, as five of her 14 total home runs came dur- ing NCAA Tournament play. Only four home runs shy of last year's season total, Shaw looks to keep her foot on the gas pedal this sea- Using the team's run into the Women's College World Series last season as motivation, the junior is hoping that her mental game can give her the extra edge in the batter's box and in the field. "You can't just be happy to be (in the postseason)," Shaw said. "You can't just make it to the dance, you have to want to win and always be competing because the team that's going to win is the team that literally wants it the most. Any team can has the capabil- ity, the talent, the players. Hutch always tells us 'Other teams give scholarships, too.' They have good players. It really comes down to who actually has the desire. If your not going to grind to get it, then everything you have done for the past year seems like it was all for naught."