5/22/06- Ritter Continues Dominance as Michigan advances to the Super Regional

The The University of Michigan softball team clinched a trip to their second straight NCAA Super Regional thanks to the incredible pitching of Jennie Ritter and the timely hitting by Alessandra Giampaolo and Grace Leutele. Joining Michigan in the Ann Arbor Regional was No. 2 seed Oklahoma, No. 3 seed Kent State, and No. 4 seed Youngstown State.

Starting off the Ann Arbor Regional on a damp Friday afternoon at Alumni Field against the Youngstown Penguins, Alessandra Giampaolo began her fantastic performance throughout the regional with a solo home run in the bottom of the second to put Michigan on top, 1-0. The Wolverines added another run in the third when Becky Marx flied out to deep left field with Tiffany Haas at third. Haas tagged up from third and made it safely to home. Giampaolo continued her RBI barrage with a double in the fifth to score both Samantha Findlay and Michelle Weatherdon, pushing the cushion to 4-0.

Jennie Ritter pitched Michigan’s first ever tournament no-hitter against Youngstown State. Her shutout of the Penguins included 15 strikeouts, and only one walk separated her performance from a perfect game. That would be only the beginning of her stellar pitching that sustained throughout the weekend. Michigan then advanced to play University of Oklahoma who beat Kent State 1-0 later that day.

Michigan returned to Alumni Field Saturday afternoon to face the high-flying Oklahoma Sooners. Neither team was able to scratch a runner home in regulation. The Wolverines did have numerous chances including two runners on in the first and in the fifth. Jennie Ritter held the Sooners in check for the duration of the ball game, including stretching her shut-out performance to extra innings. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth with no runs yet recorded, the Wolverines notched the winning run when Alessandra Giampaolo doubled to the wall in right center to drive in Rebekah Milian and keep Michigan in the winners’ bracket.

Jennie Ritter recorded her 29th win of the season. She accomplished this feat in convincing fashion, striking out 15. She currently ranks second in the nation in ERA percentage with an eye opening 0.64. She is just .22 behind Texas’ Kat Osterman. As Michigan exited Alumni Field, the action continued for the other competitors. In other scores from Ann Arbor, Kent State beat Youngstown State 8-0 in five innings. The Penguins finished the regional 0-2 and were eliminated. Kent State faced Oklahoma for the right to play Michigan in the final day of action. The Golden Flashes were dominated by the Sooners who thumped them 9-1 in five innings. That set up a rematch of the previous day with Oklahoma vs. Michigan.

On a wonderful Sunday afternoon for softball, the Sooners and Wolverines took the field with high hopes of advancing to the Super Regional. This game provided more sparks than the previous meeting between these two softball powers. Michigan struck first in the top of the fourth when Grace Leutele doubled to left field to drive in Samantha Findlay for the game’s first run. Oklahoma would not let the Wolverines maintain the lead for too long as sophomore Savannah Long singled up the middle with the bases loaded to drive in senior Kristen Vesely and junior Norrelle Dickson and take the lead, 2-1. Michigan then enjoyed Rebekah Milian’s single to drive in Stephanie Bercaw who doubled earlier in the inning to bring the Wolverines back into a tie ball game. Neither team scored another run until the eighth inning.

Grace Leutele came through again as she smacked one out of the park for a two run blast to put Michigan up in the top of the eighth. With that bomb over the outfield fence, she claims to be only the second Wolverine in the history of the softball program to hit 30 home runs in her career. This one could not come at a more crucial point because it put Michigan in position for a second straight trip to the Super Regional. Tiffany Worthy was not satisfied, however, with a two run lead. She slapped another one out of the park to add to the Michigan lead and to record back-to-back homeruns. Jennie Ritter now looked poised to claim her 30th win of the season and yet again lead the Big Blue to the next round. She did just that, striking out the side in the bottom of the eighth and once again finishing off another stellar post-season performance.

With Jennie Ritter’s 30th win came another outstanding feat. She struck out a single game school record 19 batters. She has had an outstanding career at Michigan and today’s performance was no exception. Michigan and Coach Hutchins now face an uphill battle as they advance to the NCAA Super Regional in Knoxville, Tennessee to face the No. 8 overall seed Tennessee Volunteers. The Volunteers swept through their Knoxville Regional, posting three decisive victories over Tennessee Tech, 6-4, Virginia Tech, 9-1, and No. 18 ranked Louisville, 8-1.

The Super Regional is a best two-out-of-three series with the winner moving on to experience the 25th annual Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Michigan and Tennessee have not met this season but they competed last year in the WCWS. Tennessee won the first game, 2-0, but Michigan ultimately earned the right to advance to the championship series by defeating the Volunteers in the second game, 3-2.
The Vols enter the tournament this season with the nation’s best batting average: an astounding 0.354. They also return Monica Abbot from their 2005 WCWS run who comes into the tournament with a 0.82 ERA and a 37-7 record. The Wolverines and Volunteers will play this series next Friday (May 26) and Saturday (May 27). The game times have not yet been announced.

Joining Michigan in the batch of the Big Ten teams earning the right to continue their seasons in the NCAA Tournament are Indiana, Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State, and No. 4 overall seed Northwestern. The Northwestern Wildcats, hosting the Evanston Regional, earned a trip to the Super Regional when they defeated Southern Illinois, 4-0 and beat Notre Dame twice, 9-0 and 7-4 in the elimination game. The Wildcats now will face Massachusetts in the NCAA Super Regional. The Indiana Hoosiers traveled to the Austin Regional on the campus of the University of Texas. The Hoosiers did not, however, advance to the next round as they lost to Texas, 3-0 and then fell to Utah in the elimination game, 5-1. The Iowa Hawkeyes hosted the Iowa City Regional and, like the Hoosiers, were ousted in just two games, losing to Nebraska, 1-0 in ten innings and then falling to Illinois State, 3-2 in the final game.

The Penn State Nittany Lions put up a good fight in their Hempstead, New York Regional but lost their first game to Hofstra, 5-4, then came back to beat Long Island, 2-1. The Lion’s season ended though as they lost to No. 6 overall seed Arizona State, 5-0 in the Regional Championship Final. The Ohio State Buckeyes also had disappointing results. The Buckeyes traveled to the tough Tucson Regional that featured No. 24 ranked Auburn and No. 3 ranked Arizona. Ohio State faced Arizona in their first match but dropped a 6-3 decision and then lost to Auburn, 4-0, ending the Buckeyes’ season.

Finals: Michigan 4 Youngstown State 0 | Michigan 1 Oklahoma 0 | Michigan 5 Oklahoma 2 | Ann Arbor Regional Champions

Go Blue!

Alex Brooks
ajbrooks24@adelphia.net