Michigan
Indiana
Wolverines Hit the Road for B1G Showdown at Indiana
4/26/2018 2:25:00 PM | Softball
» No. 15 Michigan will head to Bloomington, Indiana, for a three-game series at Indiana; the series kicks off at 6 p.m. on Friday (April 27) at the Hoosiers' Andy Mohr Field.
» Michigan and Indiana are currently 1-2 in the Big Ten standings, with U-M carrying a 13-1 conference record and Indiana sitting at 15-2.
» Michigan has claimed each of its last 14 games and 32 of its last 33, batting .355 with 7.0 runs per game and a 0.96 ERA over the stretch.
THIS WEEK
Friday, April 27 -- at Indiana (Bloomington, Ind.), 6 p.m.
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Saturday, April 28 -- at Indiana (Bloomington, Ind.), 1 p.m.
Live Stats | BTN Plus
Sunday, April 29 -- at Indiana (Bloomington, Ind.), 1 p.m.
Live Stats | BTN Plus
The No. 15-ranked University of Michigan softball team (38-7, 13-1 Big Ten) will head to Bloomington, Indiana, for a three-game weekend series against Indiana (23-25, 15-2 Big Ten). The series kicks off at 6 p.m. on Friday (April 27) and continues with 1 p.m. slates on both Saturday and Sunday (April 28-29) at the Hoosiers' Andy Mohr Field.
• This weekend's matchup will feature the top two teams in the Big Ten Conference standings. The Wolverines sit atop the standings with a 13-1 record and are just 47 win-percentage points better than Indiana, which owns a 15-2 league record. U-M has lost a pair of Big Ten games to poor weather this season, while Indiana has not yet missed one.
• After going 6-6 through its first 12 games of the season, Michigan has since won 32 of its last 33 games and each of the last 14. U-M batted .225, averaged 2.9 runs per game and combined for a 1.24 earned run average over the first 12 games. Over the last 33 games, the Wolverines have posted a .355 batting average, averaged 7.0 runs per game and posted a 0.96 team ERA.
• Freshman left-handed pitcher Meghan Beaubien leads the nation with 27 wins -- two more than North Carolina's Brittany Pickett in second place -- as well her 10 shutout wins. She became the sixth freshman pitcher in program history to hit the 20-win milestone, doing so in just 28 total appearances. Michigan boasts 22 shutout wins on the season, ranking second nationally.
• Michigan ranks second in the nation with a 1.03 staff ERA, while Beaubien ranks top-10 nationally in several other categories, most notably ERA (0.74, fourth), hits allowed per game (2.75, second). Beaubien leads the Big Ten in every pitching category, while she, senior RHP Tera Blanco and freshman RHP Sarah Schaefer rank 1-2-3 in the Big Ten in both individual ERA and hits allowed per seven innings.
• Michigan also ranks second nationally with a team .988 fielding percentage -- just .02 behind first-place Oklahoma. Four U-M starters own 1.000 fielding percentages, including junior second baseman Faith Canfield and senior first baseman Tera Blanco. Last season, Michigan also ranked second in the nation with a .981 fielding percentage.
• Beaubien tossed an 11-strikeout, six-inning no-hitter in the series finale against Maryland. It was already the third no-hitter of her young collegiate career -- she combined for a fourth -- and the Wolverines' program-record sixth. Beaubien also carried a no-hitter in the sixth inning in the Maryland series opener, until the Terps reached on a two-out bunt single.
• The Wolverines have allowed just two unearned runs this season -- one on a passed ball against Notre Dame (Feb. 18) and one off the international tiebreaker in the eighth inning against Virginia Tech (Feb. 24). Michigan has not allowed a run off any of its 14 errors on the season.
• Junior catcher Katie Alexander batted .667 (4-for-6) with a 1.500 slugging percentage and .625 on-base percentage over the Maryland series. She tallied a triple and a home run and posted four RBI. Alexander currently owns a .358 batting average on the season -- an 85-point improvement on her previous career best average (.273 as a freshman). She also boasts career bests in runs (24), hits (38), home runs (five) and RBI (20).
• Junior center fielder Natalie Peters also had a big weekend in the Maryland series, batting .455 with a team-best six RBI. She registered her first collegiate triple -- which cleared the bases -- in the second slate as part of a career-best four-RBI effort.
• Sophomores Madison Uden and Haley Hoogenraad have been on a tear of late and in their first season in the Wolverines' everyday lineup. Uden ranks second on the team with a .381 batting average and went 3-for-8 with two RBI in the Maryland series. Hoogenraad is hitting .429 over the last 17 games since the Wolverines' ended their preseason tournament slate.
