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.”