WMU Softball: One Down, Irish to Go?

Ever watch those nature shows, or in a movie? A shot of a dam, then a shot upriver of a rush of water. You see the dam withstand, but you know the water isn't going to slow down. Eventually there's a chip in the dam and it starts to crumble a little, but you think it might hold...and then you hear the creak and the dam finally bursts.

Was that a long and drawn out metaphor for how this game played out? Yes, but it was either that or some more complicated diatribe about a swarm of insects taling down a lion. You get the idea - Western Michigan went down to Michigan 5-0 in their opening game of the NCAA D-I softball tournament, and the game went from close to not in short order.

How about a description? After the jump, of course.

I'm sure the result of this game was a surprise to nobody. Look at the facts - on one hand, you have a Western Michigan who won 25 games all season and had four losses in the last month. On the other, you had a Michigan squad whose starting pitcher had 29 wins by herself and who had lost four games all year. A starting pitcher who had struck out 300 batters in 216 innings during the season.

That's Jordan Taylor I'm referring to, and she held true to form. She went the distance, struck out half of the 26 batters she faced, and made them all look clueless doing it. A baker's dozen of strikeouts. The Broncos certainly had a chance and held their own - they stranded two on with one out in the top of the fourth before giving up Michigan's first three runs in the bottom half of the same inning, outside of which Meredith Whitney pitched a pretty good game, but it just wasn't enough.

Though, it was a not too terrible consolation prize to see nice sliding bicep catch out in left field, which appropriately showed up at #3 on tonight's Top 10 plays on Sportscenter. I'm not sure how tomorrow will pan out as the Broncos take on Notre Dame in the classic tournament loser-goes-home tilt, but it can't go too much worse for their offense than it did today. How about a little post-game interview from our head coach and starting pitcher?