TAMPA, Fla. — The No. 18-ranked University of Michigan softball team kicked off the 2018 season with a pair of shutout wins, blanking UAB, 7-0, and Georgia State, 8-0, in six innings on the opening day of the USF Wilson-Demarini Tournament Friday (Feb. 9) at USF Softball Stadium.
Freshman LHP Meghan Beaubien (1-0) was spectacular in her debut, tossing a six-inning no-hitter in her first collegiate start against Georgia State with 11 strikeouts and just one walk allowed. Beaubien also posted a pair of strikeouts in the seventh inning of the preceding game against UAB. Senior RHP Tera Blanco (1-0) earned the win in the opener, striking out four while allowing no runs on four hits and four walks.
Junior second baseman Faith Canfield headlined the Wolverine offense from the leadoff spot, going 4-for-8 on the day with a home run in each game and four total RBIs. Senior first baseman/right fielder Aidan Falk posted three hits on the day and went 2-for-3 with three RBIs in the UAB contest.
Michigan waited little time before plating its first run of the 2018 campaign with Falk’s two-out single up the middle in the first inning against the Blazers. She contributed to the Wolverines’ five-run third with a two-run single to right field — after a Canfield leadoff hit and sophomore outfielder Thais Gonzalez‘s second in as many plate appearances. U-M also scored on a hit-by-pitch, pinch-hit single from sophomore Abby Skvarce and subsequent wild pitch.
Canfield smacked her first of two opening-day home runs with a one-out solo shot in the sixth inning. The homer pulled Michigan just one run shy of the run rule, but the Wolverines couldn’t push across another.
Beaubien entered to close out the UAB game and, after hitting the first batter faced and a pair of soft infield singles, she dealt back-to-back strikeouts and a forced game-ending groundout to get out of the bases-loaded jam.
She carried the momentum into the second slate with 10 strikeouts over the first four innings against Georgia State. The Panthers did earn baserunners with a pair of early-inning errors and a hit batter, but Beaubien did not allow a runner past second base all game.
The Wolverines built their lead with two runs in the second and three apiece in the fourth and sixth frames. Junior catcher Katie Alexander drove in the first and winning run with an RBI fielder’s choice and added an RBI single up the middle in the fourth. Gonzalez also drove in a pair on a two-run single to right-center field in the fourth.
Canfield used another sixth-inning home run — a three-run rocket to left field — to push U-M’s lead to eight runs. With two homers through two games, she is on pace to hit 54 this season.
Michigan (2-0) continues competition at the USF Wilson-Demarini Tournament with a pair of games Saturday (Feb. 10), when they take on No. 2 Florida at 11 a.m. and host University of South Florida at 3:45 p.m. at the Bulls’ USF Softball Stadium.
Release by mgoblue.com