Michigan Earns Outright Big Ten Softball Championship
Wolverines clinch No. 1 seed for next week’s Big Ten Tournament
ROSEMONT, Ill. — The Michigan softball team earned the outright Big Ten Conference Championship, its 10th in 11 seasons and the 20th in program history, following an 8-0 win in five innings over visiting Ohio State on Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Wolverines also clinched the No. 1 seed for next week’s Big Ten Tournament.
Michigan moves to 18-2 in Big Ten action this year and 43-9 overall, having won 37 of its last 40 games. The Wolverines close out the regular season at 6 p.m. (ET) Sunday with the finale of their three-game series at home against Ohio State which will be televised live on BTN.
Faith Canfield and Haley Hoogenraad each drove in three runs in Michigan’s title-clinching win on Saturday. Both students had RBI in the Wolverines’ four-run second inning, with Hoogenraad adding a two-run home run in the third inning, and Canfield securing the victory on a two-run double to right center in the fifth inning. Meghan Beaubien was the winner in the circle, allowing one hit and one walk with five strikeouts in five innings to move to 32-3 this season.
The 2018 Big Ten Softball Tournament will take place May 10-12 at Goodman Diamond on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. The complete tournament bracket will be released Sunday following the completion of all regular-season games, with the top 12 seeds advancing to this year’s event and all 11 Big Ten Tournament games televised live on BTN.