The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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can change the course of the season, and the Michigan softball team en- joyed some of the best pitching in the country in the past several seasons. YEAR IN REVIEW Female Rookie Of The Year Nikki Nemitz combined for an out- standing 199-39 record and helped the Wolverines win four Big Ten championships. Before them was Lo- rilyn Wilson. Before her was Jennie Ritter. All four earned at least second- From 2007-11, Jordan Taylor and f there is one critical piece neces- sary in order to build a champi- onship-caliber softball team, it's pitching. One dominant pitcher BY ANDY REID Freshman Ace Pitcher Haylie Wagner Dominated In Her First Season For U-M team All-America honors at least once in their careers and are remem- bered as some of the best players in program history. Coming into the 2012 season, pitch- ing was a huge question mark for the Wolverines for the first time in a long time. Incoming freshman Haylie Wagner showed promise, but dur- ing the fall leading up to the season it wasn't clear that she'd be ready to step into the starting role in the spring. "I thought her mechanics were very poor in the summer," Michigan head coach Carol Hutchins said. "She had some injuries that she had to fight through, and kids go back to their old habits. We didn't pitch her in any fall games. I give her credit because she wanted to pitch in games, but she did what we told her." Through the fall, Wagner sat and Wagner was picked unanimously as the Big Ten Pitcher Of The Year and Freshman Of The Year, and she also earned first-team All-Big Ten honors. PHOTO COURTESY U-M MEDIA RELATIONS watched, soaking it in. Through the winter, she hit the weight room hard and focused on improving her pitch- ing motion and control. When the season rolled around — and with depth concerns on the mound — the Wolverines needed her to go. "The coaches told me, 'The game picked up her first career win in the final game of the weekend, a three- hit performance in a 12-1 win over Penn State. The better she pitched, the more doesn't know you're a freshman,' and that really stuck with me," Wag- ner said. "I wanted to be ready, and I started to get more and more confi- dent in my abilities." In the first tournament of the sea- son, the LSU Tiger Classic, Wagner split time with junior Stephanie Spei- erman, pitching 10 innings in four games and allowing just five hits. She 42 THE WOLVERINE AUGUST 2012 Hutchins wanted to test her. In a March 16 game against then-No. 5 Arizona State in the Judi Garman Classic, Wagner earned the start. The Sun Devils finished the year as one of the most dangerous offensive teams in the country, ranking sixth in the NCAA in batting average (.326) and fourth in slugging percentage (.548) after hitting 89 home runs. Wagner held Arizona State off the board for five innings, keeping the Wolverines in the game. Unfortu- nately, she gave up a home run in the sixth, and Michigan lost 1-0. But a four-hit, one-run performance in that game solidified her spot atop the depth chart. "We pitched her in the early season because we needed her, and she did well," Hutchins said. "She rose to the challenge. Her performance against ASU was terrific, because they were one of the best hitting teams we saw all year. "There were some weekends where she saw action in all three games, and that was really important for us." By the end of the non-conference slate, Wagner was up to the pressure of being the ace pitcher. "Big Ten season is always so im- portant to us," Wagner said. "And I