Those are Groenewagen type numbers.
I watched her against Northwestern. Mid-high 60s velocity, paints the corners effortlessly, throws at three speeds with a great change, drop, and a fabulous rise, best in the B1G by a significant margin IMO.
Storako and Beaubien will split the starts. Beaubien is another of those lefty spinners with a great change. She was considered Michigan’s ace coming into the year. It‘s not like Beaubien has pitched poorly this year; she’s just been overshadowed a bit by Storako’s dominance. Every game in that series will be a great pitching matchup.
MN would almost need to go undefeated in their last 12 games to overcome MI for the BIG title, which seems a nearly impossible task. MI won't lose to PSU or whoever else they play.
Me too. He built a true powerhouse at St. Thomas. In fact, his record is pretty much unmatched at the D III level. Three national championships (two of which were at UST) and a 977-187 career record.
True. Given the poor pitching of Rutgers, I see no way Michigan drops a game to them. Penn State’s problem has been offense and fielding. They have one pitcher who could possibly hold Michigan down in a game, but they’d almost have to scratch out a 1-0 win on a walk, bunt, error, etc., because their hitting is so bad.
Exactly right. The only way to take a championship is to win big when it really counts.
Hard to know how to react to that. Aside from obvious health concerns, wonder how Gophers coaches feel about missing the series?
Unless the Gophers can somehow make up at least two of the Wisconsin games and win them both, they will likely need to sweep Michigan to win the B1G unless Michigan falters. 7-1 puts us at 32-8. So all Michigan needs to do is sweep Rutgers and Penn State and knock off Michigan State in a makeup game they will have 33 wins and we can only catch them by winning all four against them.
I suspect they will get in a double header against Wisconsin before the Penn State series. If so, 3 and 1 against Michigan would do it.
Let’s also hope Michigan stays Covid-free for the next 12 days or so!
And the U should allow double vaccinated fans to attend the Michigan series to build a crowd and create a home field atmosphere.
If she never plays and is quite talented (as some people have argued), why should she stick around and ride the bench? I was a college athlete and wouldn't have been a bench warmer for 4 years. Who would?
I think this helps answer an earlier question. Players may not develop much in college. You come with the tools or you don't. And so it's about recruiting the talent. The players just play like they always have no matter the coach. (I'll have one caveat to that, pitching may develop)
I agree with you; I too studied Stanford's schedule. With her recruiting skills, she could have been in the run for national honors and dominance in the BIG if she'd stayed at MN. Winning big in the PAC 12 is hard, with lots of established programs already on top and not likely to let go. But more power to her, if she can do it.
If we go 3-1 against Michigan we will both be at 8 losses but Michigan will have 2 more wins. Assuming they beat Michigan State Wednesday. So yes, the Wisconsin games are huge. If we don’t get it done this weekend, then it won’t matter. Let’s go get the sweep. Go gophers.