MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — The No. 23-ranked University of Michigan softball team followed a familiar script en route to its eighth straight win, using powerful hitting and stingy pitching to defeat in-state foe Central Michigan, 8-0, in five innings on Tuesday (March 26) at Margo Jonker Stadium.
The Wolverines combined for 10 hits — their ninth game this season with double-digit hits and fourth in eight games — with four extra-base hits, including home runs from junior third baseman Madison Uden and senior designated player Mackenzie Nemitz.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Alex Storako (8-6) allowed just two hits — both on bunt singles — and struck out eight en route to her second complete-game shutout of the season.
The Wolverines manufactured the go-ahead run with Nemitz’s bases-loaded groundout in the first inning before using extra-base hits to push across two more in the third and five in the fourth.
Uden and Nemitz homered in the third and fourth innings, respectively, and both for the second time in as many games. Senior first baseman Alex Sobczak doubled off the right-center field wall two batters before Uden, who connected with a 1-2 pitch and sailed a no-doubt shot high over the right-field wall — her second home run of the season.
Senior center fielder Natalie Peters drove in a couple runs before Nemitz in the fourth, dropping a deep fly ball onto the track in right-center field, and freshman left fielder Lexie Blair singled to join her on base for Nemitz, who deposited a three-run blast onto the grass beyond the right-field wall. It was her third long ball of the season.
Central Michigan loaded the bases to threaten in the home half of the fourth, before Michigan used a great defensive play to get the third out on a fielder’s choice. A hot shot redirected off Uden’s glove at third base and toward sophomore shortstop Natalia Rodriguez, who picked it up and got it to second base just in time for the force out.
Storako struck out the side to close out the game in the bottom of the fifth.
Michigan (20-10) will return to the road this weekend to continue Big Ten Conference play when it heads to Piscataway, New Jersey, for a three-game series against Rutgers. U-M kicks off the weekend with a 3 p.m. slate on Friday (March 29) at the Rutgers Softball Complex.
Release by mgoblue.com