io. Tuesday, May 29, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, May 29, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 13 By the numbers: deciphering the 2012 softball season 'M' eliminated from NCAA Tournament Dingell & others praise Research Corridor report Time for a pop quiz. When was the last time the Michigan softball team lost 17 games or more in a season? (Go ahead and try asking Siri - she won't have the answer.) GREG If you GARNO guessed 2001, -- then you're cor- On rect. Give your- Softball self a point at home. Next question: how many years in a row have the Wolverines been eliminated in the postseason by an SEC team? (Google won't be much help either.) . Congratulations to those indi- viduals who said that 2012 was Michigan's fourth consecutive year. Final question: What were the two offensive categories Michi- gan led the Big Ten in during 2012? (Don't waste your time looking on Wikipedia either.) The answers are: at-bats and runners left on base. So what does this all mean? Well for this year's softball squad, it was the first time in over 10 years that they had lost 17 times in a season and were once again outmatched by an SEC opponent. Despite good pitching and solid hitting numbers, Michigan ulti- mately lost because it left 421 total runners on base this season. The Wolverines, facing scru- tiny for playing an easy schedule last year, competed against more ranked opponents ahead of Big Ten play to be ready for postsea- son play. They took on teams from the SEC and Pac-10, risking early losses for late season victories. Michigan faced 16 qualifiers in the NCAA tournament in their first 26 games before arriving home to play. I overlooked the losses to unranked teams early on. And I was rewarded with middle of the season losses to mediocre Big Ten teams like Min- nesota and Illinois, and poorly played games against Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan. Leaving a total of 421 runners on base this season was a theme this season - and the players knew it. Against Illinois, Michi- gan stranded 29 runners on base during a three-game series in which they lost two games. Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said they needed eon- fidence to help build momentum and said they needed to relax at the plate, wait for their pitch and put the ball in play. But in the end, she was left scratching her head. "If I knew how, I would have fixed it by now," Hutchins said after a May 11 victory over Pur- due, during which the Wolverines left 10 runners on base. But the only thing Hutchins and Michigan didn't know how to do, was lose. Having lost just 14 games in the last two seasons, the Wolverines were in an unfamiliar place. Seniors Amanda Chidester and Bree Evans had never lost more than 12 games in a single season. This season they lost 12 before the end of April. Michigan was unaccustomed to the feeling and didn't post its longest winning streak until the end of the season. But this team still succeeded. "Our goal this season is to be the Big Ten champion and con- tend for a College World Series," Hutchins said at the beginning of the season. The Wolverines won the Big Ten title and advanced to the Super Regional after one of the toughest Regionals this year. They lost to the No. 2 team in the nation on its home field. Let's be honest - this team knows it's tal- ented and knows how to win. Its coach has a proven system of get- ting her athletes to compete as a team. No matter what expecta- tions we as media or fans set, it won't matter this season, or the next one. Michigan had its week- end to reminisce and will move on to the next without any pres- sure. I have faith the Wolverines will come back even stronger next year, like they did in 2002, when they came back to make a run to the Women's College World Series after losing 17 games the year before. Bonus question: Which team has the reigning Big Ten coach of the year, pitcher of the year, fresh- myn of the year, hasn't had a los- ing season in over 25 years and is primed to win its sixth consecu- tive conference championship? (You won't need any help to answer this question). By COLLEEN THOMAS Daily Sports Editor The Michigan softball team looked like it wanted to force a rubber game. After just two innings, the 21st- ranked Wolverines jumped out to a 3-1 lead on Alabama, but the 2nd-ranked Crimson Tide rallied late, earning a berth to the Wom- en's College World Series and eliminating Michigan from the NCAA Tournament in a 4-3 final. Michigan got an early boost in the first inning from senior first baseman Amanda Chidester when she knocked a pitch from Alabama hurler Jackie Traina over the left field fence. That RBI made her just the second Michigan softball player to reach the 200 RBI mark in a career. The Wolverines tacked on two morein the bottom of the second frame on RBIs from senior third baseman Stephanie Kirkpatrick and senior center-fielder Bree Evans - whose 15-game hitting streak was the longest by a player all season. But Michigan's early lead wasn't enough. Alabama's pow- erful hitting was too much for Michigan's pitching staff. The Crimson Tide worked the pitch count to their advantage, forcing Wolverine lefty Haylie Wagner to throw 128 pitches in Friday's matchup. With the score at 3-1, Alabama's offense got rolling in the top of the fifth inning on a two-run home run by shortstop Kaila Hunt, which tied the game. Though Wagner was having success against the Crimson Tide batters early in the game by pitch- ing to the corners; she wasn't able to hold off one of the best offenses in the nation. "Earlier in my at-bats, (Wag- ner) hadn't been throwing to me, and earlier in the game, I know that I made mistakes, so I needed to step up for my team," Hunt said of her home run. "She gave me the pitch, and I just took advantage of it." But that wasn't the end of the scoring. Alabama knocked in another run on an RBI triple in the top of the sixth. Seven Michigan batters later, the Crimson Tide punched their ticket to Oklahoma City. "Hats off to Alabama," said Michigan coach Carol Hutchins. "(Jackie) Traina notched it up there late in the game. She wasn't on her A-game, but boy she got on it. It's been fun to be here; it's been a fantastic tournament. I'm so proud because we came to play. We came to win, and we didn't get it done, but that's awll that you can ask of your kids is to play to win." But the Wolverines might not even come this far if it weren't for its star duo of freshman pitch- ers. Right-hander Sara Driesenga didn't make a single post-season appearance, but her role as the designated player in the clean-up spot was a boost to the Wolverine offense. Wagner, however, finished the season with the record for fresh- man wins - 32 - and the most appearances in the circle with 50. Her performance racked in conference accolades, as she was named both the Big Ten Fresh- man and Pitcher of the Year this season. But it wasn't the rookie duo who led the team this season. "We had a senior class who had been to the World Series convinc- ing kids how difficult it is because their freshman year they just thought it was easy," Hutchins said. "We push them hard every day and try to get the message through that you've got to be at your best when it's difficult. I thought the seniorsneeded to take it upon their shoulders that no matter what we needed them to not only perform, but they had to be the heart and soul of the team." A few weeks ago, a trip to the Super Regional looked unlikely for a faltering Michigan squad, but Hutchins said this team pulled together in the end. "I thought the last three or four weeks of our season, they really did that, and they started playing well," she said. "They started being selfless. This team was one of my favorite groups." Specific plans for space remain undecided By STEVE ZOSKI Daily News Editor Just 18 days before he becomes the longest-serving U.S. con- gressman in history, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) stopped by Ann Arbor to visit local business- es and participate in a press con- ference praising a new report that suggests research at an alliance of three of the state's universities is competitive with research at similar three-way partnerships between universities throughout the country. Dingell joined Stephen For- rest, the University's vice presi- dent for research; Jeff Mason, executive director of the URC; Kenneth Nisbet, executive direc- tor of the University Tech Trans- fer; and Laura Schrader, CEO of 3D Biomatrix - a biomedical company that grew from the Uni- versity and has developed three- dimensional cell cultures - to hold the press conference at the North Campus Research Com- plex. The press conference dis- cussed the findings of an Ander- son Economic Group report called "Benchmarking Michi- gan's URC." The report explores the state's University Research Corridor, an alliance forged in 2006 between the University, Michigan State University and Wayne State University in order to accelerate economic develop- ment. The report compared the URC with six similar alliances includ- ing clusters of universities in northern California, southern California, Illinois, Massachu- setts, North Carolina and Penn- sylvania. The URC ranks first in stu- dent enrollment and number of degrees granted - 32,157 in the 2009-10 academic year - and awards the second most high- tech and high-demand degrees, according to the report. The report also found that the URC is in the lower half of peer groups for technology transfer activi- ties, in which university research receives patents and transfers into the private sector for com- mercialization. Dingell joked before saying that the University has spear- headed American innovation. "My remarks are going to be extremely brief at this time, and I will hope that our participants in this conference are going to handle everything so that my remarks will be held to a mini- mum to inflict the minimum dis- comfort on my audience," Dingell said. "Having said these things, the University of Michigan is a tremendous engine for economic development. What this country needs to do is what the president has said: 'out-innovate, out-com- pete, out-educate.' " Dingell said the URC is critical to the future of the U.S. and its place in the world. "Places like the University of Michigan or the University Research Corridor in Michigan are goingto do the things we have to have done to have success," he said. "To see to it that the Unit- ed States continues to retain its rightful place and expands that place in terms of seeing to it that we produce jobs, the technology and the opportunities that are going to make this country the leader in the world." Dingell added that the URC will continue to help create the jobs of the future, including "high-tech" jobs that are essen- tial to human development. Forrest said that improving the regional economy will affect Michigan and, in turn, the entire United States as well. "What I see around us is we're on the edge of an explo- sion in innovation," Forrest said. "I believe this explosion will drive the revitalization and the diversification of the regional economy that will have ripple effects ... across the entire great lakes region and really across the entire nation." Forrest added that the URC acts as a catalyst for the regional economy and is at the same level as the best in the country, accord- ing to the benchmark study. "The conditions are right for this ecosystem that we're build- ing. The infrastructure is in place, the connections are there. The dynamic innovation ecosys- tem ... is certainly being estab- lished right here in Michigan - and the URC is a key element of that ecosystem," Forrest said. Forrest said private sector collaboration is important and added that there are already plans to build an industrial park. "We want to merge our efforts with the private sector so we can start an industrial park here in Ann Arbor that will be mostly based on technology, but it will be open-source for all comers from around the region and around the world." he said. "I believe that Michigan is now gaining the recognition it deserves as a hot- bed of innovation that will rival and perhaps even surpass Silicon Valley." Prior to the press conference, Dingell visited Downtown Home & Garden at 210 S. Ashley St. and Lily Grace Cosmetics at 306 S. Main St. In an interview with The Michigan Daily after the event, Dingell said the merchants he spoke with earlier in the day were concerned with healthcare. Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje was scheduled to attend but was absent. The city council votes on the budget today. I $1 off ANY smoothie size Limit One offer per customer with coupon. m l Cannot be combined with any other offer Vaid at Barry Bagels Ann Arbor location ONLY. 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