Indiana beats Michigan softball for the first time since 1996, snapping Wolverines' two-year home regular season winning streak
They piled on the field like they had won a Big Ten or national championship instead of another regular-season softball game.
But for Indiana, the celebration was understandable. The Hoosiers ended a losing streak as old as some of the players on the field. Eighteen years passed since the last time Indiana had won at Michigan.
Fifteen years had gone by since the Hoosiers had beaten the Wolverines at all.
All of that is now done.
Indiana snapped a 35-game losing streak to Michigan on Saturday
afternoon, beating the third-ranked Wolverines, 5-4, in the second game
of a doubleheader at Alumni Field. Michigan won the first game of the
twinbill, 2-1.
So the joy and excitement came with the victory. The Hoosiers hadn’t
done that in Ann Arbor since 1993 and overall since 1996.
“Let me tell you something,” Indiana coach Michelle Gardner said. “I beat, with my previous school (Nevada), Arizona when they were number 1. That’s a big deal, right? We beat some huge teams, that is a big deal, beat Fresno State.
“This is probably the biggest win of my career and I mean that wholeheartedly.”
The reasoning is easy to see when you walk into Michigan’s locker room and see Gardner’s name — then Michelle Bolster — on the wall as the Wolverines’ best player and pitcher in 1988.
She was one of the first standout pitchers for Carol Hutchins at Michigan from 1984-88 — the Big Ten Player of the Year as a senior — and helped Hutchins become the all-time wins leader at Michigan just four years into her tenure.
Then she coached for two years under Hutchins and then at Milan High School before entering college coaching.
Now, in her third season at Indiana (20-14, 2-2 Big Ten), she did something the Hoosiers
haven’t done since she was an assistant at Bowling Green — beat Michigan (33-3, 3-1).
“I just told her congrats and gave her a hug,” Hutchins said. “I’ll tell her I’m proud of her later in a text or something.
“We’ve had a lot of good conversation and are pretty close.”
Gardner realized her team might have a chance in the top of the eighth, when senior first baseman Sara Olson hit a solo home run — her second home run of the day — to give the Hoosiers a 5-4 lead.
Olson drove in all five Indiana runs, giving support to pitcher Morgan Melloh, who dominated Michigan with 14 strikeouts.
It was then, even after Indiana blew chances to put the game away with errors in the fifth and seventh innings that allowed Michigan to tie the game.
“Yes, it’s a huge win. I have the utmost respect for Hutch and her program and obviously I was a part of it,” Gardner said. “But oh my gosh, it’s huge. We need this. We need this.”
Michigan, though, didn’t make this easy.
The Wolverines usually don’t. Saturday marked their first regular-season loss at home since April 27, 2008, when they lost to Northwestern, 2-1.
The Wolverines came back in the bottom of the fifth, using two Indiana errors to tie the game at 2, capped by a single to center field by Amanda Chidester.
Michigan rallied again in the bottom of the sixth, apparently having runners on the corners after a Bree Evans single to center field with two outs. Then Gardner went to the field and argued the call, saying her players were interfered with.
Umpires agreed and reversed the call, calling Alycia Ryan out heading to third, leading to a Hutchins ejection.
“I felt it was the wrong call, period, and I felt they got talked into it,” Hutchins said. “It was big.”
Michigan tied it in the bottom of the seventh when Amy Knapp drove in a run and then Indiana second baseman Ashley Warrum bobbled a grounder from catcher Caitlin Blanchard, allowing the tying run to score.
Then Indiana responded, again, giving the Hoosiers their biggest win in a long time.
“We all struggled,” Blanchard said. “I think we were trying too hard and not just playing our game like we can.
“It obviously caused it not to go well.”
Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein
Comments
Lorain Steelmen
Sun, Apr 3, 2011 : 7:29 p.m.
Wow, where do we begin? As an Ohio HS & tournament ump, I can say the crew 'eventually' got the call correct, as Ryan clearly interferred with the IU ss. But the plate ump should have immediately called dead ball, and hammered the runner. Coach Gardner, was only advocating for her team. Hutch would have done same thing. Hutch must have been practicing her French, which led the firstbase ump to toss her. I would have done the same thing. Umps will let a coach 'vent a bit', then try to reign them in. But in the end, they can not, permit unsportsman like conduct. My observation was, that BOTH games were very poorly officiated by this crew. I am certain by that point, on a cold raw day, that both coaches were extremely frustrated. IU was definitely the aggressor on saturday, working on a 37 game AA losing streak. From a coaching standpoint, (and I have coached Ohio HS ball,) I knew that Melloh would pose huge problems for our young hitters. Hutch could have gone to a 'short' game, in game 2 as the IU infield MUST have been cold. (and vulnerable). But she did not. Key vets in the UM lineup were AWOL, and a bit too selective, although I thought Evans gave a gritty performance, all day. Taylor was a 'rock' in the first game. I agree with Hutch, that Jordon should get a pass in game 2. As it was, she darn near pulled it out. But Sarah Olsen has given her headaches before. I would have stayed with Spierman another inning, before giving Steph the hook. I didn't see the need to bring Taylor 'in cold'. If it's not 'broke', don't fix it. Not knowing how much JT had warmed up, before entering, in the 6th inning. Spierman was already warm and seemed to be holding her own, after a rocky first inning. So where do we go from here? The answer...we go back to being 'Michigan', and play one pitch softball. BUT, this team must remember, that no one in this league is going to 'mail it in'. Good luck ladies, learn from this experience & come back hard against the Boilermakers next
semperveritas
Sun, Apr 3, 2011 : 1:50 p.m.
mr engineer----it's convenient to rail on umpires. it happens all the time at all levels, but this time you need to look at the players' / coaches performance. after fighting back from two run deficits (twice) we gave up home runs to IU's cleanup hitter. no umpire was involved in that. opposition coaches walk shaw all the time. it seems as if it would have been prudent to consider walking their girl after her first home run. nobody was on base, and jordan taylor was pitching. coaches 'pitch around' batters all the time. we didn't-----we paid. can' blame umpires all the time----nor should we.
Engineer
Sun, Apr 3, 2011 : 1:04 a.m.
The refs were terrible in the second game. Period! We had players on the corners and a rally underway when suddenly the Indiana coach stops play and goes out on the field and apparently made a nice payment to the refs cause 5 minutes later they put it to Michigan. If it was interference then they should have made the call when it happened not 5 minutes later. I hope the big ten reviews this and these clowns never work a big ten game again. I am sure though that Indiana will have them at their place all the time. I have never seen anything like this in 40 years of watching sports. Sad to see a game taken from us. Could be costly in the big ten race and it was WRONG! The refs should be fired!
macjont
Sun, Apr 3, 2011 : 3:27 a.m.
Refs? Don't they call them umpires?