Michigan
Michigan State
Wolverines to Wrap Midweek Series Wednesday at Michigan State
5/4/2021 2:34:00 PM | Softball
» No. 19 Michigan will wrap its home-and-home against Michigan State with a 5 p.m. slate on Wednesday (May 5) at Secchia Stadium in East Lansing.
» U-M defeated the Spartans, 6-1, in the first head-to-head game this season, highlighted by Haley Hoogenraad's inside-the-park homer and Alex Storako and Meghan Beaubien's 14 combined strikeouts.
» Taylor Bump and Lou Allan are batting .517 and .500, respectively, over the last 10 games and share the team lead with eight homers apiece.
THIS WEEK
Wednesday, May 5 -- at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.), 5 p.m.
TV: Big Ten Network+ | Live Stats | Live Video
The No. 19-ranked University of Michigan softball team (28-5, 28-5 Big Ten) will play the second half of its home-and-home against Michigan State (10-19, 10-19) on the road Wednesday (May 5), traveling to East Lansing, Mich., for a 5 p.m. slate at Secchia Stadium. The game will be streamed live on Big Ten Network+.
• The Wolverines earned a 6-1 decision in their first slate against MSU on April 14, rallying from an initial deficit to claim their first home contest in 695 days. Fifth-year senior Haley Hoogenraad gave U-M the lead with a two-run inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the second before U-M extended its lead with runs in each of the final three frames. Junior catcher Hannah Carson went 2-for-3 with an RBI double, while senior LHP Meghan Beaubien and junior RHP Alex Storako combined for 14 strikeouts.
• Michigan's offense has made significant strides since its first couple weeks of the season. After hitting .279 as a team over the two Florida weekends -- a 12-game stretch -- the Wolverines have collectively batted .325 over the 21 games since. Nobody is hotter of late than senior third baseman Taylor Bump and senior first baseman Lou Allan, who are batting .517 and .500, respectively, over the last 10 games.
• Allan leads the Wolverines with career highs in home runs (eight) and RBI (34). Allan, who missed large portions of two seasons with injury, also owns a career-best .370 batting average -- a 107-point improvement in her previous best (.263, 2019). She is on a seven-game hit streak, including multiple hits in each of the last six, and tallied multiple RBI in all four games of the Penn State. Allan also knocked out a three-run, walk-off homer to seal U-M's come-from-behind win in the Saturday nightcap against Northwestern the previous weekend.
• Bump shares the team lead with eight home runs this season -- all of which she recorded over the last 14 games. She homered in both games of Saturday's doubleheader at PSU and saw her 11-game hit streak halted in the series finale on Sunday. She had tallied multiple hits in four straight games.
• Michigan leads the nation with a 1.08 team earned-run average. Individually, junior RHP Alex Storako ranks fourth nationally with a 0.64 ERA, while senior LHP Meghan Beaubien is 33rd with a 1.36 ERA. The Wolverines have earned shutouts in 13 of their 33 games this season. U-M previously led the nation in 2008 when All-Americans Nikki Nemitz and Jordan Taylor combined for a 0.88 ERA.
• Storako and Beaubien also rank among the nation's top strikeout pitchers. Storako ranks fourth nationally with a 12.5 strikeouts-per-seven-innings average, while Beaubien is 24th with a 10.1 average.
• Michigan is playing a conference-only schedule in 2021 and, for the first time under the current 14-team field, will face every Big Ten team this season. Until the start of this season, U-M had not played a conference opponent since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which prematurely ended last season after just 23 games. As such, Michigan remains the reigning Big Ten and conference tournament champion. In sweeping the 2019 titles, the Wolverines earned their second straight outright championship -- and 21st overall -- with a near-perfect 22-1 regular-season record and added its first Big Ten Tournament title since similarly sweeping the conference crowns in 2015.
• Head coach Carol Hutchins is in her 37th season at the helm of the Wolverines. She has compiled a 1,659-530-5 record over her 38 overall seasons as an NCAA head coach. Hutchins ranks as the second-winningest coach in NCAA softball behind Arizona's Mike Candrea (1,666-430-2). She previously became NCAA softball's all-time coaching wins leader when she earned her 1,458th with an 8-0, five-inning win at Indiana on April 2, 2016, and, more recently, became the first to reach 1,600 wins with a 6-2 decision at Ohio State on April 13, 2019.
