Wolverines to Kick Off Spring Break with Five Games at UC Santa Barbara

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan softball team (6-3) will kick off its annual spring break trip with a five-game appearance at the UC Santa Barbara Tournament this Friday through Sunday (Feb. 23-25) at Campus Diamond. Michigan opens play against Northern Colorado (2-7) at 11:30 a.m. PST and Sacramento State (6-3) at 2 p.m. PST on Friday (Feb. 23), faces those same teams again at 9 a.m. PST and 11:30 a.m. PST on Saturday (Feb. 24) and wraps up with an 11:30 a.m. PST slate against host UC Santa Barbara (3-7) on Sunday (Feb. 25).

Notes

• Michigan posted a 2-2 record last weekend at FAU's Joan Joyce Classic (Feb. 16-18), earning a pair of shutout wins before sacrificing a pair of low-scoring shutout losses. U-M's tournament finale was wiped out with the Wolverines one out away from an official game -- and a win -- in the top of the fifth.

• U-M posted season highs with 11 runs and 10 hits, including four doubles, in its 11-0 five-inning win against Maine last Friday (Feb. 16). Seven different Wolverines tallied hits, including Ellie Sieler, Indiana Langford and Avery Fantucci with two hits apiece.

• Michigan's pitching staff owns a stellar 0.92 earned-run average on the season and earned a pair of shutout wins against Seton Hall, 3-0, and Maine, 11-0, at the Joan Joyce Classic. U-M also allowed no earned runs in a 2-1, 10-inning decision against No. 17 Florida over the opening weekend.

• Junior right-handed pitcher Lauren Derkowski owns a 1.04 ERA, including a 0.64 ERA over a 1-1 showing at the Joan Joyce Classic. She posted a 2-0 record over the USF Tournament (Feb. 9-11) with a 1.31 ERA, 13 strikeouts and a .207 opposing average. She pitched a complete-game, 10-inning win against No. 17 Florida on her 21st birthday after allowing just one run -- none earned -- off six hits and three walks while striking out four Gator batters.

• Michigan struggled with consistency from the plate over the first two weekends but improved nearly 100 points from week one to two and owns a .209 team average on the season and averaged 2.89 runs per game -- aided largely by the 11-0 win over Maine. The Wolverines also had two runs and six hits wiped out when their Joan Joyce Classic finale was called.

• Sophomore Maddie Erickson batted .400 (4-for-10) with a pair of doubles and two RBI at the Joan Joyce Classic, tallying hits in three of the Wolverines' four completed games, including two against Louisville. Erickson leads Michigan with a .304 average on the season with seven hits, including three for extra bases, and four RBI. She posted the game-tying solo homer in the seventh inning against Oregon State to tee up the Wolverines' walk-off win.

• Langford owns a .296 average (8-for-27) through the first two weekends with four runs and two RBI. She was the most affected by the Wolverines' called finale last Sunday, losing a hit and two runs scored against Seton Hall.

• Michigan rallied from initial deficits in three of its five games at the season-opening USF Tournament, including a dramatic two-run seventh en route to a 2-1 walk-off win against Oregon State in the finale. U-M also scored five runs over the sixth and seventh innings against Illinois State (5-3) and posted the go-ahead run in the sixth against Bethune-Cookman (2-1). Michigan scored 10 of its 12 opening-weekend runs in the sixth inning or later.

• Six Wolverine freshmen made their collegiate debuts over the opening weekend -- all five true freshmen and sophomore/freshman Lilly Vallimont, who missed all of last season with injury. Notable among the freshman performances: Vallimont registered U-M's walk-off RBI single against Oregon State; Conway, who scored the winning run against OSU, posted a three-run homer against Bethune-Cookman and drove in the winning run on a groundout in the 10th inning against Florida; Lexi Dellamonica scored the winning run in the 10th against Florida; Ella Stephenson registered the game-tying RBI single against Illinois State; Erin Hoehn posted her first collegiate win against Oregon State and save against Illinois State.