Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins spent the past 13 years building her program into a softball powerhouse. Hutchins has spent the past 10 days watching that same program fall apart.
Today at 1 p.m., the Wolverines (5-4 Big Ten, 34-12-1 overall) will try to right their sinking ship as they start a 12-game homestand with a doubleheader against Penn State at Alumni Field.
The downward slide started eight games ago in Iowa on April 5, when Hutchins watched two of her best players, pitcher/third baseman Sara Griffin and first baseman Traci Conrad, collide while fielding a routine bunt. Conrad suffered a sprained shoulder and a mild concussion but has already returned to the Michigan lineup. Griffin suffered a broken left arm and is sidelined indefinitely.
Hutchins witnessed the collapse continue as her team dropped both of the games against Iowa - the second one in humbling fashion, 15-4.
Things got worse for the Wolverines when they traveled to West Lafayette and split a doubleheader with Purdue on April 8. The loss in the nightcap marked the first time Michigan has ever lost to the Boilermakers.
Hutchins' team survived a scare in its next two games - a doubleheader against Notre Dame in which the Wolverines needed late-inning rallies to win both games.
But then the fall reached a crescendo when the Wolverines scored just two total runs against Northwestern this past weekend in a doubleheader split. That's the same Northwestern team that's routinely in the battle for the Big Ten cellar. It was only the Wildcats' second Big Ten win of the season.
"Fundamentally, we haven't changed anything," Michigan outfielder Cathy Davie said. "I really don't know (what's wrong) at this point. It's frustrating.
"It's definitely mental. We're swinging at pitches we don't normally swing at and falling into habits that we haven't been falling into all season."
So today's doubleheader against the Nittany Lions is much more important than anyone ever thought it would be. It gives the Wolverines a chance to rebound from their slump against a traditional conference cupcake.
"Last year, in the Big Ten standings, they finished towards the (bottom), but we can't think about that," Davie said. "We have to go out like we would against Iowa."
Penn State (1-10 Big Ten, 20-12 overall) is in last place in the Big Ten and has only beaten the Wolverines once in the all-time series. The Lions have lost their last five games and 10 of their last 13. They have only two batters hitting over .300, and neither of them have been able to keep those averages up in Big Ten games.
The Lions' strength is their pitching staff - a staff that has compiled an impressive 2.30 ERA. But that staff has not been getting run support from an offense that has averaged a measly 2.45 runs per game, more than a full run less than Michigan's average of 3.72.
But the Wolverines' offense has been anemic of late. Their run production over the last eight games is two runs less than it was for their first 39.
"Hitters tend to have ups and downs a lot," Davie said, "and maybe it's just bad timing that we're all down right now."
The friendly confines of Alumni Field should help the Wolverines snap out of their slump. They are undefeated in five home games this season, outscoring their opponents 31 to 10.