Sports: Softball

Facing early deficits, Wisconsin can’t overcome strong UM pitching, 3 rain delays

The University of Wisconsin softball team doesn’t like to make excuses.

The Badgers didn’t let the wind take all the blame in losing to Notre Dame two weeks ago. They also admitted they could have done more in the games against Illinois and Ohio State where bad officiating was a factor in the losses.

But a series in which rain created swamps on the warning track and delayed the games three times? UW head coach Chandelle Schulte is willing to point some fingers at the weather in the Badgers’ losses to Michigan Saturday.

“We spent more time raking and drying off the field than playing softball,” Schulte said. “So that prevented us from gaining any momentum and Michigan took advantage of that to win game one.”

The series was originally scheduled to be played Saturday and Sunday but Sunday’s forecast of rain pushed the games to a Saturday doubleheader. The second game was delayed by lightning in the sixth inning and though scheduled to be finished Sunday, was eventually called through 5 1/2 innings.

Since the Badgers finished the minimum of five innings in that game, it goes in the books as an official completed game. Not playing Sunday meant Schulte and the grounds crew spent the afternoon cleaning up the mess Saturday’s storms left at Goodman Diamond while trying to forget the mess the softball team made during play.

Rain delays seemed to do nothing but hurt the Badgers. Wisconsin had just given up the first run of the game in the fifth inning in the early match when a delay was called. Fifteen minutes later the second Michigan run scored on a Leah Vanevenhoven wild pitch, and the rest of the game tumbled from there, even after Letty Olivarez entered the game in relief.

The second game lasted all of four pitches before another half hour rain delay was called. The field suffered as a result of the downpour and the rest of the game was played in varying degrees of rainfall.

Vanevenhoven doesn’t have the best control, a fact that was exacerbated by the rain. The southpaw constantly struggled to find the strike zone, as evidenced by eight wild pitches and eight walks.

Even pitches at the beginning of at bats were all over the place. A number of Vanevenhoven’s pitches went over the head of or behind the batter.

The ball was seemingly replaced after every pitch as the rain made it difficult for the pitchers to find a grip.

Fatigue may also have been a factor, as Vanevenhoven started four consecutive games going into the series, where she started both of those games as well. Since April 18, Vanevenhoven has logged 34.1 innings in the circle, in addition to playing outfield when not pitching.

“Leah pitched well, but a combination of her pitching so many innings in the last two weeks and the weather conditions caused her to lose some of her control,” Schulte said. “And it showed late in game one as Michigan rallied off some keys hits and scored on some wild pitches and passed balls.”

Olivarez struggled in relief as well, with 41 of her 89 pitches being balls. The junior is also not known for her control and was battling flu-like symptoms which left her out of the starting lineup.

While it didn’t affect the Michigan pitchers as severely, the rain may have been part of the reason UM’s Jordan Taylor walked two batters. Taylor averages only about one batter walked per game. Taylor also had a slightly inflated 50-33 strike-to-ball ratio and often requested a dry ball after throwing a pitch.

The weather seemed to be just one more example of the Badgers being unable to catch a break. While the wet infield dirt deadened the ball on a couple of Wisconsin’s bunt hits, it also played a part in errors by shortstop Katie Soderberg and second baseman Livi Abney. Often the ball took a bad skip off of a dry patch of ground or got stuck in the sloppy parts, making it difficult to field the ball.

In facing a Michigan team that doesn’t make errors or walk batters, Wisconsin needed to play nearly perfect to compete. The weather only made UW’s slim chances of accomplishing the feat that much worse.