Michigan softball wins NCAA tournament opener, 2-1, over South Dakota State
Lexie Blair's two-run single in the fifth inning proved to be the difference as Michigan softball defeated South Dakota State, 2-1, in the opener of the NCAA tournament regional play in Orlando, Florida.
Alex Storako allowed a run on three hits and three walks over 6⅔ innings, striking out three for U-M (37-16). Meghan Beaubien relieved Storako with two out in the final inning, and after giving up a walk, struck out Emma Osmundson to clinch the game.
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Michigan will now play at 11 a.m. Saturday against regional host Central Florida (No. 16 seed in tournament), which beat Villanova, 6-0, on Friday.
U-M defeated UCF, 6-0, in Clearwater, Florida, back on Feb. 18 in an early season tournament.
This four-team regional is a double-elimination event over this weekend. If Michigan wins Saturday, it will advance to Sunday with two opportunities to win once more and advance to the super regionals. If it loses Saturday, it will face a must-win situation at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when Annabelle Widra led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Ella McVey then hit a bunt single and Kristina Burkhardt singled to center to load to bases. After a fielder's choice cut down Widra at home, Blair's single down the left field line scored McVey and Burkhardt.
Grace Glanzer allowed two earned runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three for SDSU (40-12), the Summit League champions, who will play the UCF-Villanova loser on Saturday in an elimination game.
In the top of the sixth, Storako gave up a one-out solo home run to Cylie Halvorson, but answered that with a strikeout and a groundout to end the frame.
Oakland drops opener to Northwestern
For 2½ innings Friday, Oakland softball hung with No. 9-seed Northwestern in the first round of its NCAA tournament regional, hosted by the Wildcats in Evanston, Illinois. But after the Golden Grizzlies tied the game in the top of the third, Northwestern scored in the bottom of each of the third, fourth and fifth innings, including a five-spot to finish off a 9-2 rout.
OU will face Notre Dame, which lost 11-1 to McNeese State earlier Friday, in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The winner of that game will play the loser of Saturday’s 1 p.m. game between Northwestern and McNeese at 6 p.m. Saturday in another elimination game. Should OU win both of those, the Golden Grizzlies would need two wins Sunday (at 4 and 8:30 p.m.) to advance to the super regional.
OU was held to four hits by Northwestern’s Danielle Williams, who also had eight strikeouts. Madison Jones, the star of OU’s Horizon League clinching win last weekend, went 1-for-3 with a run scored, and catcher Jen Krizka went 1-for-3 with the Golden Grizzlies’ lone RBI; their other run scored on a wild pitch by Williams.
For the Wildcats, who were the Big Ten regular-season champs before losing to Michigan in the conference tournament, Maeve Nelson did the major damage, with two homers — one in the third and one in the fifth — for four RBIs.
Contact Kirkland Crawford: kcrawford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @HiKirkHere.