Lineup change helps spark Michigan softball surge
Ann Arbor — Michigan coach Carol Hutchins never has changed her lineup as much as she has this year as she’s worked to pinpoint just the right combination.
But her bold move last month after a 1-0 loss in 11 innings at Wisconsin seems to have ignited the Wolverines, the No. 2 seed in the three-day Big Ten Tournament they are hosting beginning Thursday. They will face on Friday the winner of Thursday’s Michigan State-Indiana game.
Minnesota, ranked No.2 nationally, is the top seed. The tournament concludes Saturday with the two semifinal games and championship, with the winner earning an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. All Big Ten tournament games will be televised by the Big Ten Network.
Since Hutchins decided to bench five starters the day after the 11-inning loss, albeit temporarily, the Wolverines found their bats and, apparently, their motivation, winning the final nine regular-season games. They outscored opponents 88-6 during that stretch.
“I took five starters out of the lineup on (that) Saturday and we scored 10 runs,” Hutchins said. “And I inserted them back in and they had a little better intensity, focus and their sense of urgency, and they’ve had it since. I don’t know if that’s the factor (for the turnaround). They would probably say no, it’s just a coincidence we’ve scored a lot more runs and swung better. You could say, ‘What about the opponents you’ve had in this period?’ We went to Maryland and scored one run off their pitcher one day and we were on the verge of losing Game 3 and came back in the seventh inning. You always credit the opponent, but we are much better since then.
“I’ve done a few things like that (lineup change). A little shock value is always good for the coaching soul.”
The Wolverines’ bats have come alive since Hutchins’ soul-enhancing lineup move.
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They batted .424 as a team — seven players were over .400 — and hit 25 home runs, during the nine-game stretch to end the regular season. They averaged 9.8 runs in those games and 2.57 the previous seven games.
“I’ve liked how we’ve been playing since that first Wisconsin game,” she said this week. “We counted the other day, since we reorganized the lineup for a day, in that nine-game stretch I think we’ve scored 88 runs. In the six-game stretch before that we had only scored like 15. With that being said, I feel like they’re playing with better passion, with better energy and enthusiasm, but it’s going to get harder.
“This tournament, more than anything, the reason we have it — the coaches voted it back in — it’s a tuneup for the NCAA Tournament. You want to be playing your best ball in May. The teams that are standing when it gets to Super Regionals and it gets to the World Series, they’re not necessarily the best teams, but they’re the teams that are playing the best. Our goal is to peak. This is a good time. We have shown signs of it. I’m not willing to throw it out there yet, but we have shown signs that this is where we need to be at this time of year.”
Hutchins lost plenty of firepower from last season’s team, including Player of the Year Sierra Romero and outfielder Sierra Lawrence. But as she has pointed out multiple times, Michigan won a national championship in 2005 without the two Sierras, and the program has been successful for years, so without them the Wolverines should not slip.
What she saw last month was a team that was underachieving. Hutchins said it was her “gut feeling” that she needed to do something to get their attention.
“I think we were all capable of being much better than we were,” she said. “We were settling for mediocrity. I told them, I’m not afraid to lose. The people sitting in the dugout watching this deserve a chance, because they can get zero. We got zero runs in a night we had 46 at-bats and only hit three balls out of the infield. I said, why not somebody else do it?
“We started Leah Crockett, who’s never started a game in her life. I said, ‘I’m not afraid of losing, so quit playing afraid to lose and go out there and get your job done. Everybody has a part to do for us and the whole message is, just do your part.’ I thought it was time. I actually was going to do it at Maryland and I did not. I didn’t know if they would respond to it. But whether they did respond to it or not, I can’t answer for them other than I’m here to tell you if you don’t do your job, there’s other people who will go out there and at least give it their best shot. I’m not afraid to do it. Have I ever taken five out of the lineup? I don’t know if I’ve done that. It needed to be a bold move. They definitely got the message. Whether they agreed with it or not, I didn’t care.”
Kelly Christner, a two-year captain, was one of the starters who did not start that game against Wisconsin, although she did later enter the game.
“I think she was just trying to do something completely out of the box because she was switching the lineup, but nothing was really working consistently,” Christner said. “I think she was just trying to do something different. I don’t know if that’s what fired us up, but I think we’ve all just finally clicked together as a team. Hopefully we can keep that going.”
Shortstop Abby Ramirez called the extra-inning loss at Wisconsin and then the lineup move a collective “wakeup call.”
“We can’t just come into games — not that we did — but we need to know that we need to not take any pitches off and from the first inning we can’t give away our at-bats,” Ramirez said. “From the first inning we have to attack. That’s the biggest thing we took from it was the loss the night before because we couldn’t score a run that day, and I think that taught us a lot, almost giving us a kick in the butt to start the next two games.”
Purdue originally was scheduled to host the Big Ten tournament, but complications came up, Hutchins said, and when the Big Ten finally came around to ask Michigan to host, she gladly accepted.
Michigan has played 17 of 52 regular-season games at home, where the Wolverines are unbeaten. They played three of the last four weekends on the road and originally would have been playing the Big Ten tournament on the road.
“You think I’m happy to be home?” Hutchins said. “Yeah, we’re all happy to be home. We’re tired. We’re road weary. We had one home weekend in April. It’s exhausting for everybody. And I’m the oldest, so I’m the most exhausted. It wears on them, trust me. And we get less practice when you’re leaving on Thursday. You lose a day of practice. When you’re on the road that much you lose a lot of days.”
This is the first time since 2008 Michigan has won outright or shared the Big Ten regular-season title. The Wolverines won it seven times outright. Minnesota, the top seed, is No. 2 nationally.
Hutchins is not automatically placing Michigan in the championship against Minnesota. The Wolverines must beat the winner of MSU-Indiana, then potentially face No. 3 Ohio State in the semis.
“Minnesota is a long way off,” Hutchins said. “But I don’t feel like we’re the favorites at all. We’re the underdog, and I kind of like it that way. All the pressure’s on them; that’s my opinion.”
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Big Ten tournament
When: Thursday-Saturday.
Where: Wilpon Complex/ Alumni Field, Ann Arbor
What: 12-team single-elimination, winner earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Television: BTN will broadcast every game.
Tickets: They range from $8-$12 and are sold out for Friday and Saturday. There are tickets for Thursday. For more information call (734) 764-0247 or (866) 296-MTIX or email to mtickets@umich.edu.
Schedule
Thursday
First round
Game 1 -- No. 8 seed Northwestern vs. No. 9 seed Purdue, 11 a.m.
Game 2 -- No. 5 seed Nebraska vs. No. 12 seed Penn State, 1:30
Game 3 -- No. 7 seed Michigan State vs. No. 10 seed Indiana, 4:30
Game 4 -- No. 6 seed Wisconsin vs. No. 11 seed Iowa, 7
Friday
Quarterfinals
Game 5 -- No. 1 seed Minnesota vs. Game 1 winner, 11 a.m.
Game 6 -- No. 4 seed Illinois vs. Game 2 winner, 1:30
Game 7 -- No. 2 seed Michigan vs. Game 3 winner, 4:30
Game 8 -- No. 3 seed Ohio State vs. Game 4 winner, 7
Saturday
Semifinals
Game 9 -- Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 1
Game 10 -- Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 3:30
Championship game
Game 11 -- Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 6