Michigan Blanks Ohio State for Regional Title, WCWS Berth

Sunday, May 19

Ann Arbor, Mich.

1:00 PM

Michigan

50-9

Ohio State

55-14

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan Blanks Ohio State for Regional Title, WCWS Berth

5/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

By: Rich Marion

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Alumni Field)
Event: NCAA Softball Championship Regional 6 (Championship Game)
Result: #11 Michigan 4, #20 Ohio State 0
Records: U-M (50-9), OSU (55-14)
Next U-M Game: Thursday, May 23 -- vs. Arizona State at Women's College World Series (Oklahoma City, Okla.), 6 p.m. CDT

• Boxscore

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 2-seeded University of Michigan softball team defeated No. 3 seed Ohio State this afternoon (Sunday, May 19) by a score of 4-0 in the NCAA Regional 6 championship game at Alumni Field to earn its second consecutive trip to the Women's College World Series (May 23-27) in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The Wolverines capitalized on three Ohio State errors, scoring three unearned runs, including the first two of the game in the third inning. Michigan starter Nicole Motycka (Sarasota, Fla./Cardinal Mooney HS) earned her second win of the regional by shutting out the Buckeyes over 4.1 innings, while Marissa Young (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS) relieved Motycka in the top of the fifth and recorded the last eight outs for the win. Michigan second baseman Kelsey Kollen (Cerritos, Calif./Santa Ana Mater Dei HS), who earned the regional's Most Outstanding Player award, went 2-3 with two runs scored in the win. All-tournament selection Wendy Allen of Ohio State paced the Buckeyes with a 2-3 day at the plate.

The Wolverines opened the scoring in the bottom of the third inning with a Mary Conner (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion HS) single followed by a Kollen double to left. Meghan Doe (Tucson, Ariz./Sabino HS) attempted to bunt for a hit, but an errant throw by the OSU third baseman allowed Doe to advance all the way to third and gave Michigan a two-run lead with Conner and Kollen crossing the plate on the play. A strikeout and a groundout ended the Michigan rally.

In the top of the fifth inning, Ohio State had its best scoring opportunity of the contest. With one out, the Buckeyes put runners on first and second after a walk to Breana Pozzi and a single to leftfield by Sarah West, effectively chasing Motycka from the mound. Young, having come on in relief, made the second out of the inning as she fielded a ground ball on the first-base side of the mound and threw out the lead runner at third base to leave runners on first and second with two outs. On the next at-bat Young threw a wild pitch, allowing the base runners to advance one base, and then eventually walked Ohio State leadoff hitter Anna Smith to load the bases.

With all-tournament selection Wendy Allen looming on deck, Ohio State's Jennifer Link made a bid to tie the game as her grounder to the right side eluded the Michigan first baseman, but Kollen ranged far to her left to field the ball on the run and dove to tag first base with her glove, beating Link to the bag by a half-step to end the threat.

The bottom of fifth saw Michigan add two insurance runs to push its lead to 4-0. Kollen hit a one-out triple down the rightfield line and then Stefanie Volpe (Plymouth, Mich./Plymouth-Salem HS) singled to rightfield to record the lone RBI of the game for the Maize and Blue. Volpe scored on the next play when Ohio State's centerfielder misplayed a Monica Schock (Rialto, Calif./Eisenhower HS) single and the ball rolled to the wall.

In the top of the sixth and seventh innings, the Buckeyes could not advance a runner past first base and Young recorded two strikeouts in each inning, including one to end the game.

The Wolverines now advance to WCWS for the sixth time in eight years and will face Arizona State in opening-round action on Thursday (May 23, 6 p.m. CDT) at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

N O T E S

• Joining Most Outstanding Player Kelsey Kollen on the all-tournament team were Wolverines Nicole Motycka, Melinda Moulden (LaCrescenta, Calif./Crescenta Valley HS), Monica Schock and Marissa Young.

• Nicole Motycka has now tossed 23.2 consecutive scoreless innings, and her 17th straight victory gives her 22 on the season, which is the most wins by a freshman pitcher in Michigan history.

• Michigan has now won 16 straight contests since losing 3-2 at Northwestern on April 19. The 16-game winning streak is one win shy of matching the fourth-best mark in the school history. The 1997 and '98 Michigan teams won 17 straight. The school record of 22 straight victories was set by the 1993 Wolverine squad.

• Ohio State's NCAA Regional final appearance was its best tournament run in school history.

• Buckeyes centerfielder Anna Smith finished her 2002 campaign with 105 hits, which is the ninth-best single-season total in NCAA history.

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head Coach Carol Hutchins
On the game ... "I am so proud of my team. Ohio State is a great softball team. Beating them this year has made us the team that we are because we had to get up for the challenge. They are a great team. My kids are tough and they play for Michigan. That is all you can ask of your group. They stay together. This has been one of the most fun years that I have ever been involved with and it is because of the kids. We have great kids. The secret to our success is that the people in the program are good people. I am really excited for my kids. I credit the seniors a lot for keeping us together all year but it was a total team effort. Every game we played somebody new would step up and get it done for us. That is what we need to keep doing."

On Kristine Himes' error that led to U-M's first two runs ... "Hines has been one of the best third basemen that we have faced in years. She just eats it up over there. I am sure that is a disappointment for her. We called for a bunt and we were hoping that they would check the runner and that Meghan (Doe) would beat the throw to first. It was critical in the game and I thought that it was critical to score first. We did not want to be in a situation to come from behind and we obviously did not want to have to play a second game today. It enabled me to utilize (Nicole) Motycka as long as she was effective and then come right in with Marissa (Young). If we get behind it makes a tougher decision what to do with your pitching. It worked in our favor that way."

Michigan Junior Pitcher Marissa Young
On going back to Oklahoma City ... "The biggest thing with this team is that there are no regrets. We are not looking back on last year. A lot of kids that we have this year like (Nicole) Motycka and (Jessica) Merchant were not there last year. We are feeding off of each other and we are really happy with the way that we have been playing. We are playing together, everybody is giving each other a lot of confidence and we have been having a lot of fun out there. We are going to take that with us."

Michigan Senior Second Baseman Kelsey Kollen
On her diving play at first base ... "It was a routine groundball. I saw that (Melinda) Moulden did not get to it so I fielded it like normal but I noticed that she was not at the base. (Jennifer) Link is a fast kid so I knew that my only chance of beating her to the base was going to be to dive for it because I knew that I couldn't beat her in a foot race."

On winning at home ... "I think it is most fun because Hutch put us up to a challenge before the Big Ten Tournament. We had never won both tournaments in the same year. It is awesome to have our fans out here and with the band it just could not be any better."

Michigan Senior Third Baseman Stefanie Volpe
On going back to Oklahoma City ... "We are going to go up from last year. We have been winning constantly, playing well together and hitting well. We are going to carry that with us to Oklahoma."

On winning at home ... "Not many seniors can say that they leave Alumni Field and win and get a hit in their last at-bat and go out a champion. It is a good feeling."

Ohio State Head Coach Linda Kalafatis
On the game ... "We needed to come out here and play our best game and did not do it. I think the scorers missed an error. We had four errors in that game. We did not handle the ball. We cannot give Michigan second chances. I thought our pitcher pitched well enough to win. We had a couple of opportunities and did not swing at good pitches. I do not think that we were mentally tough like we needed to be today. Michigan proved today again that they were the better team this year and they deserve to go. I hope they go on and represent the Big Ten well."

On the season ... "I am proud of my team. This is the first time we have been here. We were one day away from going to the College World Series. The better team won but I thought we showed remarkable toughness to get to this point. We are still young in a lot of spots. We will keep building. Michigan has set the bar at where you need to be in the Big Ten to make it. We are going to keep working until we get there."

Ohio State Sophomore Outfielder Wendy Allen
On their season ... "We had a great season. Against any other team we hit the heck out of the ball. We made a lot of outstanding defensive plays like the double play last night against Washington. Our team is awesome but I think we have this mental block. I think we will just build on it next year."