Kornacki: Homers, Big Plays Spark Michigan's Weekend Sweep
4/30/2017 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 30, 2017
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Emotion isn't something that can be bottled, pulled out of the dugout and opened by coaches when needed.
Now, University of Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins can fire up a team with the best of them -- and I'm talking about any coach in any sport.
Still, there is nothing that brings the fire out in a team better than big plays and big home runs.
The Wolverines got plenty of them in sweeping three games from Indiana over the weekend at Alumni Field, where they remain unbeaten this season (16-0) and on a 35-game winning streak.
They continued hitting homers -- belting eight against the Hoosiers -- while opening up an offensive element that had been lacking for this team. Michigan has connected for 11 homers in its last five games for an abrupt turnaround from the three it had hit in the previous dozen games before this power surge.
"The long ball has not been our forte this year," said Michigan associate head coach Bonnie Tholl. "Using the long ball to score our runs showed how we can come at you from different angles. We'd really been a station-to-station team this season, and to me that's turning the page on our season. It's an exciting step."
The Wolverines, led by Sierra Romero, had one of the premier power-hitting teams in the nation the last several years. Michigan had an 86-25 edge in homers last season en route to the Women's College World Series, but that advantage is only 38-22 this year.
Michigan got four homers in Saturday's (April 29) 8-0 win over the Hoosiers in what became a run-rule shortened contest when even sophomore slap hitter Natalie Peters got into the act with her first over-the-wall homer by pulling one to rightfield to end the game in the sixth inning. She had an inside-the-parker earlier this season. First baseman Tera Blanco hit three-run and solo homers to push her total to six, and catcher Katie Alexander smacked a solo shot for her second of the year.
The long ball was required to pull out a 2-1 win Friday evening (April 28) in the second game of a doubleheader, after playing a big role in taking the opener, 7-1.
The solo shot sophomore catcher Alex Sobczak sent on a line into the tall pine trees located beyond the wall in left-center to tie the score, 1-1, in the bottom of the fifth inning was a jolt of offense and emotion.
Sobczak ran around the bases after watching her second homer of the season sail out, and she slapped both hands as she neared second base. She slapped a low five with Hutchins, coaching third base, as she rounded the bag and headed for home. Sobczak's head bobbed from side to side as she took the final strides before celebrating at the plate with teammates.
"It is so fun to see your team waiting there for you," said Sobczak (SUB-jeck). "And this was my first home run at Alumni Field, so I was super excited."
That leadoff homer came immediately after Blanco had pitched her way out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the top of the fifth.
The first out was easy. Blanco got No. 5 hitter Rachel O'Malley to pop up and Sobczak caught it in foul territory.
The big play and the big strikeout followed.
Blanco, who plays first base when not pitching, charged the ball Sarah Thompson hit weakly in front of the plate and in one motion scooped the ball with her glove and flipped it directly from her glove to Sobczak's for a dramatic forceout.
"Tera's a phenomenal athlete," said Sobczak. "She flipped it with her glove and I knew we had the girl. We just had a really good mindset and knew we were going to get it done."
Blanco said, "We practice those plays in practice all the time, and so it came natural to me."
Tholl added, "That second out of the inning was where you felt the (sellout) crowd come alive. We all build off that and it puts a lot of doubt and pressure on the opponent."
Blanco had one more out to get, and got ahead of Katie Lacefield with a 1-2 count. However, the lefthanded hitter knuckled down and battled. Lacefield worked the count full and fouled off several pitches before Blanco got her to flail at the 10th pitch of the at-bat to go down swinging.
"I basically just trusted what I had and knew it was going to be good enough," said Blanco (16-3, 2.02 ERA). "I relied on that, and that's what got it done."
Sobczak and first baseman Aidan Falk, who would provide the game-winning homer in the sixth inning, charged Blanco to congratulate her. Sobczak shouted, "Let's go!" before running to the dugout to take off her catcher's equipment and find her bat.
"You can get momentum from the defensive part of your game to help you offensively," said Tholl. "The emotion you saw from getting out of that bases-loaded jam was not contrived. It was absolutely authentic. And when you know you've done a great job defensively of stopping your opponent's momentum, it does nothing but shift the momentum in your favor.
"It gives you energy, and that's exactly what it did. We took that good momentum to the plate, and in the very first at-bat Alex Sobczak hits a homer."
She channeled into her swing all of that energy from the stand the Wolverines had just made and yet was controlled enough to avoid getting in front of the ball and pulling it foul overswinging or missing it entirely.
"I was so proud of Tera doing that," said Sobczak, Michigan's 2015 Michigan Miss Softball at Mercy High in North Farmington. "So, I was super pumped, and we rely on one another's bats, and I just knew that it was my turn to contribute to the team. I went up there with a good mindset and drove the ball."
Blanco added, "She was right on time with that swing, and the ball was just launched."
With one out in the sixth, Falk hit her fourth homer of the season for the go-ahead run, lifting a high shot to the opposite field near those same pines Sobczak trimmed.
"It's always so fun to round third base and see everyone screaming there," said Falk. "I was out of breath at home plate because I got so many squeezes. It's one of the greatest feelings to know we turned this game around to our direction.
"We all fed off the energy of getting out of that bases-loaded situation. We pulled together more as a team and just stuck together."
Faith Canfield's team-high seventh homer was a solo shot in the first game on Friday, and freshman Madison Uden hit a two-run homer for her first collegiate round-tripper.
And so the No. 19 Wolverines (37-10-1, 17-3 Big Ten) are coming down the stretch with momentum fueled by emotion.
"Everyone had an intensity about them," said Sobczak. "Everyone knew we were going to get it done, and it really showed on the field."
Uden said, "It's a relief knowing that your team can do it, and all of us know our roles and that we're going to come through. We shouldn't worry."
Blanco added, "The biggest thing that we did well was being together. We have each other's back no matter what."
Tholl said that belief in one another is central to the team's success.
"It's an emotional game," said Tholl, "and we ask our kids to invest emotionally in games together. It sets the tone, and it should set the tone for the rest of the season because why would you want to stop investing emotionally with each other?
"We have to continue to ride that wave."
