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Thursday, July 9, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS
Everything you missed from a shortened softball season

Thursday, March 12, 2020 was 
what Michigan softball coach 
Carol Hutchins described as 
“the worst day of every coach’s 
career.” 
The 
day 
COVID-19 
brought the entire world of 
sports to a sudden stop. 
That 
was 
87 days ago. 
By now, the 
softball season 
would be over, 
the champions 
would 
have 
been crowned 
in 
Oklahoma 
City 
and 
someone 
would 
have 
carelessly asked Hutchins if she 
had any plans to retire after her 
37th season as the head coach of 
Michigan softball.
None 
of 
that 
actually 
happened. In its place, all we 
have are trends, hypotheticals 
and predictions based on just 23 
games.
The good news: That’s enough 
information to tell you all of the 
storylines and excitement you 
missed as a result of the abrupt 
and untimely end to the season.
Lexie 
Blair: 
Sophomore 
slump or slow start?
One of the most interesting 
early-season developments was 
sophomore 
outfielder 
Lexie 
Blair’s early hitting struggles. 
As a freshman, Blair posted a 
.406 batting average with 54 
RBI and 22 doubles. Entering 
her sophomore season, there 
were high expectations for Blair 
to perform at the elite level she 
established in 2019.
Blair herself held those same 
expectations.
“For me, in the beginning, 
I was just putting a lot of 
unnecessary 
weight 
on 
my 
shoulders,” Blair told The Daily 
in February. “Trying too hard 
not to disappoint the team 
after the (freshman) year I had. 
Trying to live up to expectations 
when really I just needed to get 
out and just play the game like I 
know how.”
Yet, in her first 13 games of 
2020, Blair was hitting at just 
a .175 clip and lost her leadoff 
spot, eventually sinking down to 
eighth in the lineup.
After 
her 
uncharacteristic 
start she made a phone call to a 
former teammate; whatever was 
said on that call appeared to help 

Blair regain her confidence.
Over the final 10 games of 
the season, Blair went 15 for 35, 
posting a .429 batting average. 
Those final 10 opponents were 
some of the best in softball 
including No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 
Washington, No. 3 Texas and 
No. 21 UCF. So not only was 
Blair trending upwards at an 
impressive rate, she was doing it 
against harder competition.
To say Blair would have ended 
at or above her .406 average from 
her freshman year had the 2020 
season been played in full would 
be a strong assertion, yet it was 
certainly possible considering 
Blair’s upward trajectory.
Now, Michigan will have to 
wait until the 2021 season to 
decide whether Blair is truly 
the star-studded slugger from 
her freshman campaign or the 
strong but streaky hitter she was 
as a sophomore.
Abby 
Skvarce: 
A 
true 
designated hitter
In softball, there’s a position 
titled “designated player,” which 
fills a slot in your lineup that 
can be used somewhat flexibly, 
but when your designated player 
holds the highest batting average, 
on base percentage and second 
highest 
slugging 
percentage 
among starters and bats cleanup, 
she should definitely be called 
your designated hitter.
Senior Abby Skvarce appeared 
in 37 at bats, which is more 
in a shortened season than in 
any of her previous three full 
seasons. And it’s pretty easy to 
see why Hutchins gave more 
nods to Skvarce this year than 
ever before — an on-base plus 
slugging 
percentage 
at 
.786 
tops all other starters while she 
knocked in seven runs, all on 
a team that struggled to find 
consistent offensive production.
Despite extended eligibility 
granted by the NCAA to spring 
athletes, Skvarce will not be 
returning in 2021. This means 
that after three years in the 
system 
and 
finally 
proving 
herself as a viable offensive 
contributor in her senior season, 
Skvarce is never going to suit 
up as a Wolverine again. And a 
COVID-inflicted season ensured 
we wouldn’t find out what 
Skvarce could really do with a 
full year as a starter.
Julia “Juju” Jimenez: The 
Future 
face 
of 
Michigan 

softball 
The 
freshman 
came 
in 
and 
did 
nothing 
short 
of 
impress. Jimenez, the No. 20 
overall prospect according to 
FloSoftball, 
walked 
into 
the 
building more than just ready to 
play — she was ready to start.
Offensively, she boasted 12 
runs, seven RBI, seven doubles 
and a .263 batting average. Sure, 
the numbers don’t jump off the 
page, but for a freshman batting 
leadoff, it’s nothing to scoff 
at. Not to mention, when Blair 
couldn’t find a rhythm, it was 
Jimenez who Hutchins turned to 
as the answer for the first spot in 
the batting order. 
“Juju didn’t make it any bigger 

than it was,” Hutchins told The 
Daily in February. “Which was, 
‘I’m batting.’ She doesn’t care 
when.”
That mentality is exactly what 
a team looks for in their batters 
— just bat.
But Jimenez moving into the 
spot of her upperclassmen wasn’t 
just in the batting order, it was 
also in the field. Just two games 
after being moved up into the 
leadoff spot, Jimenez shifted over 
from second base to shortstop. 
The previous shortstop, junior 
Natalia Rodriguez, who swapped 
positions with Jimenez, had held 
the starting position at shortstop 
for two years prior to the sudden 
mix-up.
Why? Hutchins never gave
a straight answer. But when 
commenting 
on 
Jimenez’s 
capabilities, she described them 
simply as “her swag on the field.”

With her freshman year cut 
short, we were unable to flesh 
out just how good Jimenez could 
be. One thing is for sure, though: 
Jimenez will see the field plenty 
over the course of the next 
three years. Jimenez’s dynamic 
fielding ability paired with her 
stoic hitting confidence is the 
perfect recipe for a star player 
that can anchor the Wolverines’ 
lineup, something they’ve been 
missing since Sierra Romero in 
2016.
The rest of the season: how 
far would Michigan have gone?
First, I need to acknowledge 
that with a 15-8 record, the 18th 
ranked 
Wolverines 
still 
had 
not played a single home game. 

In 2019, Michigan entered its 
home series at 12-10 en route to 
a 33-3 record down the stretch, 
including a 17-2 record at home. 
So, were the 2020 Wolverines 
poised to make a similar run? 
In short: yes.
The trend of winning in the 
latter half of the season is not 
uncommon for Michigan, and 
there’s a pretty simple explanation 
for why — besides ‘home field 
advantage,’ (which does help). 
The Big Ten, and other regionally 
close opponents, are simply not 
as good as the SEC, PAC-12 and 
other 
southern 
and 
western 
teams that the Wolverines face 
off against earlier in the season.
That’s not to say the Big Ten 
is a bad conference, there are 
certainly some contenders like 
Minnesota, 
Wisconsin 
and 
Northwestern that would give 
Michigan a run for its money. 

Even then, those teams weren’t 
performing as well as what may 
have been expected at the start 
of the season with only No. 22 
Wisconsin ranked.
Based on the first 23 games 
of the season, the Wolverines 
appeared to be the best team in 
the Big Ten. I believe they would 
have claimed the Big Ten regular 
season title for the second year 
in a row and had a chance to 
grab 
the 
repeat 
tournament 
championship trophy as well. 
In the tournament, the largest 
barrier 
would 
have 
been 
Wisconsin’s 
powerful 
offense 
containing Kayla Konwent and 
Stephanie Lombardo, somewhat 
of a mismatch to Michigan’s 

lower-scoring pace.
In the NCAA tournament, the 
Wolverines would have seeded 
well enough to host a regional in 
Ann Arbor. This year, I could see 
them getting past the first stage 
but likely falling in the super 
regional when the competition 
truly ramped up.
So no, COVID-19 did not 
prevent you from seeing another 
Michigan softball World Series 
run. What it did take away was a 
chance to gauge the trajectory of 
the team and the core players it 
has to build around in the coming 
years.
But like everything else right 
now because of the pandemic, 
those answers are unknown — so 
like everyone else, we’ll just have 
to wait.
Stoll 
can 
be 
reached 
at 

nkstoll@umich.edu or on Twitter 
@nkstoll.

NICHOLAS
STOLL

ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
Senior designated player Abby Skvarce found herself as a player at the begginning of her last year as a Wolverine.

