Michigan Softball’s NCAA Tournament path is revealed

The Michigan softball team didn’t win the Big Ten championship this past weekend but the Wolverines still punched their NCAA Tournament ticket. 

After a strong close to the season, which included a trip to the Big Ten championship game, the Michigan softball team is officially headed back to the NCAA Tournament after receiving an at-large berth on Sunday.

The Wolverines will head to the regional hosted by 16th-seeded UCF and Michigan softball, the second seed in the region will take on South Dakota State in the opening round on Friday.

Getting to know Michigan softball’s region

While the Knights are a strong program and won their second consecutive American championship in softball, it’s at least a good sign to be placed with the No. 16 overall seed, which is the lowest-seeded host team available.

South Dakota State is 37-10 and was the champion of the Summit League. The Wolverines come into the tournament 36-16 and are ranked 21st in the nation according to Softball America.

The Wolverines upset 10th-seeded Northwestern on Saturday, the Big Ten regular-season champions, before falling to Nebraska in the championship game on Sunday.

Head coach Carol Hutchins, who reached her 1,700th win this season, certainly gives Michigan softball an advantage and the Wolverines have a stellar ace in Alex Storako who they can put in the circle, hopefully for multiple starts.

Pitching depth has been a bit of an issue but Michigan softball is experienced and won’t be easy to knock out from the double-elimination tournament.

For those not familiar with the first-round format, you have to win three games to advance without a loss. If you win your first two, you go into the final round unbeaten and a team that lost has to beat you twice.

So if you lose a game, it will then take four victories to reach the Super Regional, and if Michigan softball is lucky enough to advance past this weekend, No. 1 Oklahoma would likely await.