Kansas Faces Off With Michigan in First Round of Norman Regional
Kansas (35–19, 14-10 Big 12) is making its first NCAA Tournament since 2015, when the Jayhawks have been the No. 2 seed in the Columbia, Mo. regional.
The Jayhawks’ 35 wins are essentially the most underneath head coach Jennifer McFallsand essentially the most general since 2015. Kansas has additionally set a program report in convention wins (14), house runs (81), doubles (94), runs scored (360) and RBIs (342).
“We played Michigan in the first weekend of the season, and unfortunately, we lost,” head coach Jennifer McFalls he stated. “We had the lead in that game, and probably should have won that game early on. So it’s exciting. I think it’s a great matchup for us to start off. Anything can happen, and we’ve got to be able to go in there and have a lot of faith and confidence in what we’re doing.”
In the collection towards No. 13 Oklahoma State, Kansas picked up an enormous 10-1 win in sport two. The Jayhawks acquired off to a scorching begin, scoring 5 runs on seven hits in the primary inning. Kansas by no means appeared again from there, selecting up 16 hits and scoring 10 runs. Freshman Lila Partridge dominated in the circle, giving up one run on simply two hits and threw his fifth straight full sport.
In the Big 12 Tournament sport towards UCF, the Knights took an early 4-0 lead by way of two innings. However, the Kansas bats have been in a position to pull the comeback off and scored a run in every of the final 5 innings to beat UCF 6-5. In the sport, Kansas was led by sophomore Ava Wallacewho hit a house run and picked up two RBIs, sophomore Kadence Staffordwho tied the sport with an RBI single, and senior Campbell Bagshawwho drove in the game-winning run in the seventh inning.
Michigan (34-20, 11-13 Big 10) enters the Norman Regional as one of the final 4 groups that made the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines are led offensively by sophomore utility participant Lauren Putz. Putz leads Michigan in nearly each offensive statistic with a .442 batting common, 1.541 OPS, 61 runs, 69 hits, 21 house runs, 77 RBIs, 154 whole bases, a .987 slugging proportion and 41 walks. This is barely the second time Kansas and Michigan have confronted off in softball, with Michigan main the collection 2-0 and likewise profitable the newest matchup, earlier this season, 4-2, on February 8. Also in the Norman Regional are Oklahoma and Binghamton who Kansas has by no means performed in softball.
First pitch is ready for five pm CT on ESPNU, with stay stats out there on StatBroadcast and updates out there by way of the Kansas Softball X account. The second spherical of the Big 12 softball event will happen on Saturday, with sport time and opponent depending on the consequence of Friday night’s sport.
