10 — Friday, April 10, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan set for
series at Rutgers
By CHRIS CROWDER
Daily Sports Writer
When the Michigan softball
team heads to Piscataway on
Friday to play Rutgers for the
first time, it
will be licking
its
chops,
ready to play
one of the Big
Ten’s
newest
opponents.
“We’re still
pretty excited
with Rutgers
being a new
team in the
Big Ten,” said
sophomore
left
fielder
Kelly
Christner.
“It’ll
be
awesome
playing them
for the first time. We’re excited
and ready to go.”
The
fourth-ranked
Wolverines (7-2 Big Ten, 34-6
overall) are hoping to keep some
momentum after an 11-1 win
against Eastern Michigan on
Tuesday. That performance was
one of their best of the year, as
they allowed only one hit while
racking up nine of their own.
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
was pleased with the effort, but
emphasized that what happened
on Tuesday is in the past and
will not dictate the outcome of
the upcoming series.
“I’d like to see us take bases
and pound the ball in the
ground,” Hutchins said. “And
you know, we didn’t hit the ball
over the wall at all and got 11 runs
(against Eastern Michigan). I’d
like to see us score runs — we
scored runs in every inning, but
that was (Tuesday).”
The midweek contest served
as a warm-up for the Wolverines
before their matchup with the
Scarlet Knights, an opportunity
to fine-tune their mechanics and
fundamentals.
“(The midweek games) keep
us loose, really,” said senior
pitcher
Haylie
Wagner.
“I
really just think we have these
midweek games to stay loose
and attack the team and just get
better each time.”
Rutgers (7-2, 20-9) would
rather not see Michigan get any
better
than
it is already
playing.
The
two teams are
tied for second
in the Big Ten
standings, but
the Wolverines
are
a
more
battle-tested
and
polished
team.
The
Scarlet
Knights haven’t played a ranked
team all season, while Michigan
has played nearly a third of its
games against teams in the top
25. Rutgers has played teams
near the bottom of the Big
Ten like Michigan State and
Indiana. The Wolverines played
Minnesota,
the
only
other
ranked team in the conference
last weekend, and won two out
of three in the series.
Rutgers is also not nearly
the powerhouse at the plate or
in the circle that Michigan is.
While the Wolverines are the
best or near it in almost every
batting and pitching category,
the Scarlet Knights are in the
middle of the pack.
But Rutgers does have one
of the best offensive players in
the Big Ten in outfielder Jackie
Bates. She boasts a .404 batting
average and is second in the
conference with a .883 slugging
percentage
—
just
behind
Michigan’s
junior
second
baseman Sierra Romero. Bates
also had a career-high eight RBI
in a 22-17 win against Michigan
State.
Despite scoring a Big Ten
season-high amount of runs in
the game, the Scarlet Knights’
pitching crumbled. In the fourth
inning
alone,
the
Spartans
scored 16 runs to take the lead,
16-14. Rutgers
answered
in
the
next
inning, scoring
eight runs to
eventually
win
the
unfathomable
game.
But judging
by
that
performance,
the Wolverines
are once again playing a team
with
a
less-than-satisfactory
pitching staff. If they hit as
well as they did Tuesday, there
shouldn’t be much trouble in
winning the series.
“I’d like to see them come
out ready to play, be aggressive
and dialed in, because that’s the
only thing they can control,”
Hutchins said.
Rutgers joined the Big Ten
last year, but it hasn’t been fully
introduced to the conference
just yet. When it plays Michigan
this weekend, it will be playing
the 17-time Big Ten champion.
As Michigan is vying for another
this year, it will be prepared
to give the Scarlet Knights a
taste of what the best of the
conference has to offer.
SOFTBALL
Michigan
at Rutgers
Matchup:
Michigan 34-6;
Rutgers 20-9
When: Friday 3
P.M., Saturday
1 P.M., Sunday
12 P.M.
Where: Rutgers
Softball
Complex
TV/Radio:
Saturday,
Sunday on BTN
Plus
“I’d like to see us
take bases and
pound the ball in
the ground.”