The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, March 15, 2017 — 7A

In final season, Christner sheds the pressure

Between 
innings 
against 

Arizona State on Feb. 26, the 
Michigan 
softball 
Twitter 

account posted a video of senior 
centerfielder Kelly Christner 
gathered around her fellow 
outfielders, 
dancing 
to 
Pat 

Benatar’s 1983 hit, “Love is a 
Battlefield.”

It was the final day of an 

arduous five-game Mary Nutter 
Classic, and time had just 
snatched a possible win against 
No. 1 Florida State away from 
the Wolverines. A drop-dead 
travel rule was imposed in the 
middle of the eighth inning — 
just as Michigan had its chance 
to score a runner from second 
and avenge its eliminating loss 
to the Seminoles from the 2016 
Women’s College World Series.

Visible 
frustration 
and 

disappointment would have been 
justified to see from the trio of 
outfielders before the final inning.

Yet, there was Christner, 

waiting for the song’s piano 
notes to cascade from the field’s 
speakers. When they did, she 
threw her arms up dramatically 
and turned around at the 
camera behind her, cracking up 
her teammates.

“I looked like an idiot,” 

Christner said. “But it’s just 
little stuff like that to try to 
loosen everyone up.”

But Christner hasn’t always 

been able to carry that relaxing 
sense of humor on the field.

***

It’s the second game of the 

2016 WCWS, and Michigan 
is down by a run to No. 3 
Oklahoma. Christner steps up 
to the plate with two outs and 
the bases loaded.

The pressure mounted — she 

could drive in a game-tying 
or go-ahead run. She takes 
two balls before taking a pitch 
down the heart of the plate and 
pulling another foul, evening 
the count at two. The fifth pitch 
of the at-bat is fired home and 
curves away from Christner, 
nipping the black of the plate. 
She never pulled the trigger, as 

the voice behind her screams 
“strike-three.” 
Christner’s 

frustration is apparent as she 
turns to the umpire, arguing 
the call with just a dejected 
look on her face. 

Michigan would never get 

that 
game-

tying 
run, 

losing its first 
contest 
in 

Oklahoma City 
before 
getting 

eliminated 
a 

day later.

***

This season, 

however, 
Christner 
has 

pulled 
the 

trigger on that powerful sense 
of humor.

It comes — just as her game 

does — from years of practice 
with her older sister, Katie, who 
played softball at Wisconsin 
from 2013 to 2016.

“Both of us like to have fun,” 

Katie said. “You can always 
see both of us dancing before 
games, and doing things and 
doing funny, weird stuff to 
make our teammates laugh.”

The Christner sisters grew 

up under the tutelage of their 
dad, a former college baseball 
player at Cornell. Their love 
of softball dominated their 
childhood, 
creating 
shared 

afternoons in the cage and on 
the diamond.

As they grew up with a love 

for softball, with countless 
teams, practices and days on 
the diamond between them, 
the logical college decision 
for Christner might have been 
Wisconsin, where she would 
get to play with her sister 
for three years. A visit to 
Michigan, though, persuaded 
her otherwise.

“The first time Kelly went 

to Ann Arbor, she fell in love 
with (Michigan) and its softball 
culture,” Katie said. “Even 
though we’re so close and she 
would’ve liked to have gone to 
school with me, visiting sealed 
it for her.”

Added Christner: “It would 

have been so much fun to have 

her at college with me, but I 
wanted to take her out of the 
equation and make the decision 
based 
upon 
every 
other 

factor. When I did that, it was 
Michigan all the way.”

Still, the two found playing 

one another in the 
Big Ten schedule 
quite difficult.

“One 
of 
the 

weirdest 
things 

I’ve 
ever 
gone 

through is seeing 
her on the other 
side,” Katie said.

Perhaps 
the 

time away from 
her sister drew 
Christner further 

from that enjoyment brought 
by those afternoons on the 
diamond with their father.

Though 
there’s 
no 
way 

to know for sure, one thing 
is certain: that bond from 
childhood has become vital 
to 
Christner’s 
senior-year 

resurgence. Her older sister’s 
perspective 
and 
words 
of 

wisdom have given her the 
necessary mindset to start the 
season so strongly, with less of 
an emphasis on statistics.

“My sister told me: nobody 

asked what her batting average 
was, but they ask how it made 
(her) into a better person,” 
Christner said. “So, I think all 
of us have tried to focus on that, 
working on letting (softball) 
make us better people.”

But in case anyone does 

ask Christner what better in 
college — partially thanks to 
her sister’s advice — she’ll 
be able to give them a damn 
impressive answer.

***

Christner and fellow seniors 

Megan Betsa, Abby Ramirez 
and Lindsay Montemarano all 
live together in an off-campus 
house — just as they have since 
their sophomore seasons. On 
the field, they have experienced 
two runs to the WCWS and 
three Big Ten championships. 
Off it, friendships and life-long 
bonds have strengthened like 
an aluminum bat cooling from a 
molding fire.

“A lot of people think we 

get sick of each other because 
we’re literally with one another 
24/7,” Christner said. “But 
we’ve gotten to know each 
other so well now that we know 
how to handle one another in 
certain situations. I think that 
helped on the softball field and 
helped us come even closer 
together.”

The roommates have learned 

each other’s quirks — Christner 
knows “almost every song” or 
the story behind Ramirez’s 
walk-up track, “Gasolina.”

But the willingness to speak 

bluntly is one of the first things 
her teammates will concede 
about Christner’s personality. 

“She’ll 
tell 
you 
how 
it 

is,” Betsa said. “She doesn’t 
sugarcoat things, so you don’t 
have to worry about that.”

As her senior year progresses 

and Christner continues to 
pick her spots to be blunt, 
she’s 
forced 
to 
reflect 
on 

her career. And having gone 
through a final season herself, 
Katie knows exactly what will 
become most nostalgic for her 
sister.

“I think she’ll miss the fun 

times with her teammates the 
most on and off the field,” she 
said. “The bus trips — and 
everything that doesn’t look 
too enjoyable on the surface — 
you realize were fun.”

Maybe her three senior 

housemates were the perfect 
catalyst to help her remember 
that this season, following a 
year in which the fun had 
escaped Christner entirely.

After Christner broke 

out to hit .393 with 21 
home runs and 67 runs 
batted her sophomore 
season, the accolades — 
including All-American 
honors, 
a 
place 
on 

the All-Big Ten First 
Team, and a nod for 
NCAA all-tournament 
team — piled as high 
as 
expectations 

for the next year. 
And 
following 
a 

national 
runner’s 

up finish and a 

return of a plethora of key 
players, the pressure stacked 
upon Christner and the rest of 
the Wolverines in 2015.

But the stress of reliving a 

breakout season affected her, as 
a focus on matching statistical 
benchmarks 
backfired. 

Christner’s average dropped 
80 points, and she hit just six 
home runs in her junior season.

“I think she put a lot of 

pressure 
on 
herself,” 
said 

Michigan coach Carol Hutchins. 
“You feel like you’re supposed 
to be hitting .400, hitting home 
runs, and be an All-American. 
And she allowed that to build 
into the expectations.”

Added 
Christner: 
“This 

past summer, I looked at my 
sophomore year to junior year, 
and I saw obvious mistakes 
that I made last year. So this 
summer, I really worked on 
getting back to that swing I had 
sophomore year.”

With her sister’s advance and 

swing 
new 
changes, 

2017 
has 

been a renaissance of sorts for 
the senior. Twenty-two games 
into the year, Christner is 
hitting .476 with for home runs 
and 22 runs batted in — on-pace 
for the team’s triple crown.

“I think it’s hard to watch 

anyone struggle,” Megan Betsa 
said. “You want to see them do 
well but can’t do it for them. 
She did a good job working 
through it, as you can see her 
performance now.”

***

Fast-forward 
to 
that 

Mary 
Nutter 
Classic 
last 

February. The Wolverines find 
themselves in a similar position 
— down in the latter innings — 
against an inferior team in New 
Mexico State. A loss could have 
had demoralizing effects. With 
runners on first and second and 
Michigan trailing by two runs, 
Christner makes a return to the 
plate. 

But this time, she remembers 

the joy of playing softball 
— the type she felt on 
the empty Illinois field 
with her sister and dad 
— and she ignores the 
pressure.

The 
pitch 
comes 

toward 
home. 

Christner 
picks 

the bat off her left 
shoulder and takes 
an aggressive cut. 
The softball blasts 
through 
the 
air 

and 
clears 
the 

fence, giving the 
Wolverines a lead 
they 
wouldn’t 

relinquish.

Kelly 

Christner 
is 

just 
playing 

softball 
now 

— maybe more 
dancing 
in 

centerfield 
has 
its 

rewards.

“I needed 

to just have 
more 
fun 

with 
it,” 

she 
said. 

“It is just a 
game.”

The risk Michigan took

M

ichigan junior right-
hander Tera Blanco 
struck out the final 

batter of the game Saturday 
against Kent State, capping 
off a complete-game, two-hit, 
13-strikeout masterpiece. If that 
wasn’t enough, Blanco helped 
her own cause, knocking in 
three runs with the bat en route 
to a 5-1 win for the 19th-ranked 
Wolverines. 

The outing was what her 

season was supposed to look 
like.

For a team that came into 

the season with question marks 
throughout its lineup and in 
search of pitching depth, Blanco 
represented a rare opportunity 
to provide stability in both 
areas. 

So far, Blanco has struggled to 

juggle the extra responsibility, 
serving as an example of her 
entire team’s issues.

“It’s a lot to handle mentally, 

probably, I think that’s the 
biggest thing,” Blanco said. “Just 
controlling your mind, and just 
relaxing, taking one pitch at a 
time. That’s how I deal with it.”

As a stalwart in the middle 

of the order for last season’s 
offensive juggernaut, Blanco’s 
production ballooned, as she 
posted a .404 batting average, 
with a slugging percentage 
(.748) and home run total (12) 
that trailed only the legendary 
Sierra Romero for best on 
the team. She was a key cog, 
instrumental to the offensive 
success of a team that made it 
to the Women’s College World 
Series.

An experienced, productive 

hitter, Blanco seemed set to 
match or exceed her strong 
production from a year ago, and 
provide a stabilizing force in the 
middle of the Wolverines’ order 
that lost much of its veteran 
presence. But last season is long 

in the rearview mirror — the 
Wolverines already equaled 
their loss total (seven) from 
the entire 2016 season — and 
as Blanco continues to learn, 
past success does not guarantee 
future production.

She now sports a .218 batting 

average and managed just two 
extra-base hits over the first 22 
games, prompting a demotion 
in the lineup as Michigan coach 
Carol Hutchins tries to find 
her spark from last season. 
Blanco’s on-base plus slugging 
(OPS) sits at a startlingly low 
.688, nearly half the number 
she posted in her breakout 
sophomore campaign (1.285). 
It’s a small sample size, and 
Blanco could very well turn her 
season around at the plate going 
forward.

But maybe we should have 

seen this coming. 

Blanco thrived last season in 

her specialized role: playing first 
base and hitting behind some 
of the best players in program 
history. She pitched on occasion 
— amassing a total of just 29.1 
innings in mostly low-pressure 
situations. 

This season, with the 

graduation of right-hander Sara 
Driesenga, Hutchins slotted 
Blanco into the second spot 
in the rotation, in addition to 
her regular position at first 
base. Given her pedigree as a 
top pitching recruit — ranked 
the No. 1 pitcher in 2013 in 
the softball hotbed of Orange 
County, Calif., according to the 
Orange County Register — the 
move seemed natural. 

And in the beginning of the 

season, the extra responsibility 
didn’t concern Hutchins.

“I don’t think (pitching and 

the loss of offensive production) 
has to go hand-in-hand,” 
Hutchins said at her season-
opening press conference. “Tera 
improved last year. She spent 
most of the preseason pitching, 
but she was first-team All-
American because of her bat. … 
Tera’s definitely a gamer.”

In retrospect, though, 

expecting her to match 
Driesenga’s 130-plus innings 
with an earned run average 
near two, while still producing 
offensively at the same rate, may 
have been naive.

To her credit, Blanco has 

undoubtedly matched, or even 
exceeded, expectations on 
the mound. With an ERA of 
2.08, she continues to provide 
a compliment to senior right-
hander Megan Betsa to create 
a formidable rotation that has 
become this team’s strongsuit. 
Her efforts this past weekend 
even earned her the Big Ten 
Pitcher of the Week Award.

But the offense — which has 

mustered just 1.8 runs per game 
against nine ranked opponents 
this season — misses her bat 
dearly, which has shown few 
signs of life in the beginning of 
the season. Perhaps that’s just 
an inherent consequence of 
Blanco’s expanded role.

Fortunately for the Michigan 

softball team, the story of 
the 2017 season has yet to be 
written — nor will it be written 
for awhile. But it seems hard to 
imagine a happy ending to that 
narrative without an offensive 
rejuvenation from Tera Blanco.

That’s no easy task, and the 

road forward won’t be any 
easier on the right-hander. 
There is a certain attention to 
detail incumbent upon starting 
pitchers — scouting opposing 
lineups, mixing pitch selection, 
recalling past at-bats, etc. — 
that can inevitably be mentally 
consuming. When combining 
that with hitting in the lineup 
on a regular basis, you invite the 
danger of spreading a player’s 
talents thin. Sometimes being a 
“gamer” isn’t enough.

That was a risk the 

Wolverines were willing to take.

Now they’re paying the price 

for it.

Marcovitch can be reached 

at maxmarco@umich.edu or 

on Twitter @MMarcovitch10

A breakdown of the Big Ten race

Last 
season, 
the 
Michigan 

softball team clinched its ninth-
straight Big Ten title after playing 
like the top team in the conference 
all season long. 

This 
season, 
though, 
is 
a 

different 
story 
for 
the 
now 

nineteenth-ranked 
Wolverines 

(14-7-1). Michigan no longer looks 
like the dominant Big Ten team. 
Not only is a 10th-straight title 
not a shoo-in for the Wolverines, 
but Minnesota — who edged 
out Michigan, 4-3, for the 2016 
tournament 
championship 
— 

appears to be the front runner for 
the conference crown this year.

Michigan’s 
first 
encounter 

with rival Minnesota — the 
only higher-ranked team in the 
conference — won’t be until the 
Big Ten Tournament in May, so the 
Wolverines will have ample time to 
improve.

Last season during conference 

play, the Wolverines were upset by 
both Northwestern and Nebraska. 
While those losses did not prevent 
Michigan from taking its 19th 
conference title, Minnesota is 
better than ever, and the team with 
the ability to generate offensive 
production against both strong 
opponents and smaller teams — an 
element the Wolverines have had 
problems with so far — will be able 
to come out on top this year.

The Daily broke down the teams 

that have the opportunity to make 
waves in Big Ten play and compete 
for the conference title this season.

No. 8 Minnesota (22-2)
Though it may get cold in 

Minnesota, the Golden Gophers 
don’t seem to be cooling down 
anytime soon.

With an elite .341 batting 

average, Minnesota ranks first in 
the conference and has collected 
227 hits over its 24 games played. 
The Golden Gophers return ace 
right-hander Sara Groenewegen, 
who boasts a 0.71 earned-run 
average — the best of any Big Ten 
hurler.

Minnesota’s skills aren’t just 

limited to the circle, however, with 
powerhouse 
infielders 
Maddie 

Houlihan, Sydney Dwyer and 
MaKenna Partain leading the 
way in the batter’s box. Houlihan 
earned Big Ten freshman of the 
year honors last season and posted 
a .464 batting average during 
conference play. Dwyer currently 
leads the Big Ten in runs batted in 
with 32 and bats a commanding 
.417, while Partain sports the 
second-highest batting average in 
the conference at .486. 

Early season highlights for 

Minnesota 
include 
overtaking 

No. 13 Louisiana State University 
(3-0), demonstrating the Golden 
Gophers’ ability to hold their own 
against other ranked opponents — 
an area in which the Wolverines 
have struggled. 

If its performance so far is any 

indication, Minnesota looks to 
have the tools to compete for a 
Women’s College World Series 
berth and holds the biggest 
threat to Michigan’s quest for a 
10th-consecutive conference title.

No. 24 Wisconsin (20-2)
Riding a hot 11-game win 

streak, 
Wisconsin 
should 
not 

be 
underestimated 
entering 

conference play, boasting its best 
start in program history and 
earning 
a 
USA 
Today/NFCA 

Coaches top-25 ranking as of this 
week.

The team that lost to Indiana in 

the first round of last year’s Big Ten 
Tournament appears dramatically 
improved. So far, the Badgers have 
suffered just two losses, one of 
which to No. 12 James Madison. 

Wisconsin is blessed with a key 

element that many Big Ten teams 
lack: pitching depth. Right-handers 
Kirsten Stevens and Kaitlyn Menz 
post the second and third best 
ERAs in the conference, 0.77 and 
1.41, respectively. Though only 
a freshman, Menz has seen 13 
starting appearances in the circle.

Utility player Chloe Miller 

leads her team and conference 
in multiple offensive categories, 
including a batting average with a 
.543 clip and hits with 38. 

Michigan State (15-7)

Michigan State, one of the 

lowest seeds heading into the 
Big Ten Tournament last season, 
now claims the second-highest 
batting average in the conference 
at .337 heading into Big Ten 
play. Individually, outfielder Lea 
Foerster and utility player Kaitlyn 
Eveland post top-10 conference 
batting averages, with .457 and 
.420 clips, respectively.

However, the Spartans have 

serious concerns in the circle with 
a 4.43 ERA — one of the highest in 
the conference — which is likely 
to hurt Michigan State when it 
faces conference opponents with 
powerhouse hitters. 

Illinois (12-7)
Illinois is off to a strong start this 

season, with a winning record and 
a majority of its seven losses coming 
at the hands of ranked opponents.

Minnesota knocked the Illini 

out of the Big Ten Tournament in 
the second round last year, after 
sitting in the middle section of the 
conference throughout the season.

This season, though, Illinois has 

already shown its promising future 
at the top of the standings, sporting 
the fourth-best batting average at 
.320, the fifth-best ERA of 3.29 and 
the second-best fielding percentage 
of .974 in the conference.

Ohio State (10-6)
Ohio 
State’s 
pre-conference 

performance has been marred 
with inconsistency, with tough 
losses to ranked opponents as well 
as lopsided victories, often splitting 
games against the same team.

While the Buckeyes sit around 

the upper quartile of the Big Ten 
offensively with a .293 batting 
average, they really thrive in the 
circle, ranking third with a 2.21 
ERA due to right-handers Shelby 
Hursh and Lena Springer. The 
pitching duo sport the fourth and 
seventh best conference ERAs of 
1.53 and 2.24, respectively.

If Ohio State can foster greater 

offensive production from players 
other than outfielder Alex Bayne, 
who is tied atop the conference 
with seven home runs, it will have 
a chance to compete with the top of 
the Big Ten. 

MAX MARCOVITCH

Daily Sports Writer 

On Softball

ANNA MARCUS
Daily Sports Writer

MARK CALCAGNO

Daily Sports Writer

“I needed to 
just have more 
fun with it. It is 

just a game.”

