Wolverines' Fall Ball Slate Features Home Matchups Against Kentucky, MSU
8/14/2019 10:56:00 AM | Softball
• 2019 U-M Softball Fall Schedule
UPDATE:Â Due to inclement weather in the forecast, U-M's game at Michigan State has been moved to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan softball team and head coach Carol Hutchins on Wednesday (Aug. 14) announced the program's 2019 fall softball schedule, highlighted by four games at the Wilpon Complex, home of Alumni Field, including a three-game weekend series against Kentucky on Sept. 21-22. Admission is free to all fall exhibition games.
Michigan and Kentucky are perennial NCAA Tournament teams, with the Wolverines making their 25th straight NCAA appearance in 2019 and Kentucky appearing in its 11th straight under head coach Rachel Lawson. The Wildcats posted a 36-24 record last season and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals, where they fell to No. 3-seeded Washington.
Kentucky previously traveled to Ann Arbor for a three-game fall series in 2014. The Wolverines took two of three games, claiming the rubber match, 6-3, behind three-hit, three-RBI effort from Sierra Romero, who homered in her first two plate appearances of the contest.
The Wolverines also will play their annual home-and-home fall series against Michigan State. U-M will travel to East Lansing for a Wednesday, Oct. 2 slate at Secchia Stadium that will begin at 5 p.m., before it wraps fall competition a week later, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, with a 5 p.m. home matchup at Alumni Field.
Michigan will not participate in the Traverse City College Tournament this fall.
The fall slate provides U-M softball fans their first opportunity to see the 2020 Wolverine lineup, which will feature 15 returning letterwinners from the 2019 squad that swept the Big Ten Conference regular-season and tournament titles. Team 43 also welcomes a talented six-member freshman class that combined for 15 All-America accolades and includes five nationally-ranked prospects.
The Wolverines lost five starters to graduation but return four starting field players and a pair of starting pitchers, including junior left-hander Meghan Beaubien, a 2018 NFCA First Team All-American, and three All-Region honorees in sophomore left fielder Lexie Blair, sophomore RHP Alex Storako and senior third baseman Madison Uden.
