Erin Hoehn and Hannah George stayed ready.
Despite being the Michigan softball team’s top alternatives to junior right-hander Lauren Derkowski in the circle, the freshman and graduate right-handers Hoehn and George, respectively, haven’t appeared in a game in two weeks. It’s been all Derkowski.
But in today’s NCAA Tournament elimination game against Kentucky, Hoehn and George’s numbers were finally called. And they delivered, holding the Wildcats to just two runs on 8 hits in Michigan’s 4-2 win. Derkowski didn’t need to throw a single pitch.
Although George closed out the final inning of the Wolverines’ prior game against Northern Colorado, Wolverines’ coach Bonnie Tholl elected to start Hoehn against Kentucky. Having contributed early as a freshman, however, Hoehn is no stranger to the spotlight and tough SEC competition. Earlier this year, Hoehn held fourth-ranked Florida to only one earned run in four-and-two-thirds innings, the highlight of a strong freshman campaign.
Today, Hoehn started to carve her own path to stardom. She held the Wildcats to just two runs — both unearned — in four innings of work and didn’t concede a single walk.
Most importantly for the Wolverines, Hoehn’s maturity in the circle was well beyond her years. In the first inning, she emerged unscathed after allowing a single and hitting a batter, putting runners on first and second. The next frame, she sent the Wildcats down in order after conceding a leadoff double. And after allowing an unearned run in the third and fourth, Hoehn didn’t let Michigan’s defensive miscues fluster her, remaining confident and keeping the Wolverines one-pitch mentality to limit the damage.
“I’m incredibly proud of (our pitchers’) resilience,” Tholl said.
But on the other side of the coin, Tholl tends to favor the more experienced George — a twenty-three year old graduate transfer from University of North Carolina — in higher-stress situations. So when Hoehn’s first two batters reached base in the fifth inning, Tholl turned to the usually-steady George. With a boost from sophomore third baseman Maddie Erickson’s defensive wizardry, George got out of the jam without letting Kentucky chip away at Michigan’s 4-2 lead.
George was flawless the rest of the day, sending the Wildcats six up, six down to close out the game and earning her second save in just three hours after relieving Derkowski against Northern Colorado. Not a “power pitcher”, George relies on her accuracy, painting the corners of the plate to force opposing hitters into ground balls.
“She just goes corner-to-corner,” redshirt freshman catcher Lilly Vallimont said. “Every time I warm her up, I always say, ‘give me that ground ball,’ because I can count on her to give me that ground ball. She’s just a very reliable pitcher for us.”
The spotlight is relatively new for George, who was used sparingly in her first year and a half as a Wolverine. Entering Big Ten play, she’d thrown just 14.3 innings on the season after tossing 7.1 all of last year. She burst onto the scene last month against Iowa, holding the Hawkeyes to two earned runs in 6.1 innings after Derkowski was pulled before recording an out. George hasn’t missed a beat since, serving as the steady hand as part of her and Hoehn’s number-two-by-committee behind Derkowski.
In Michigan’s three-game run to the Big Ten Tournament Title, however, there was no committee. Derkowski threw all 358 pitches, all 19 innings. No sign of Hoehn or George. And again through thirteen innings of NCAA Tournament play, it was all Derkowski.
But with the Wolverines’ season on the line, they turned to Hoehn and George to keep them alive. And because of them, Michigan lives to see another day in Stillwater and will play for its first Super Regional appearance in eight years tomorrow afternoon.
The post No Derkowski, no problem: Hoehn, George stifle Kentucky offense to keep Michigan’s season alive appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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