The Kansas softball team earned a regional bid and a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament on the strength of some significant late-season victories.
Now the Jayhawks’ focus will turn to actually advancing out of their regional — something the program has done just once, when it hosted in 1992 — a task that will presumably require at some point along the way defeating Oklahoma, a perennial power that is 18-0 against KU in Jennifer McFalls’ tenure as head coach, at its home field.
Even beating the Sooners once might not be enough in the regional’s double-elimination format.
But before any of that can come into play, KU must face Michigan, a team to which it lost 4-2 in a neutral-site matchup on its opening weekend in Tampa, Florida. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. on Friday at Love’s Field.
If the Jayhawks can avenge their defeat against the Wolverines, they will move on to a probable battle with OU at 2 p.m. Saturday; if they lose again, they will play an elimination game, likely to be against Binghamton, at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
Michigan is 34-20 overall this season with an 11-13 league record that placed it ninth in the 17-team Big Ten.
The Wolverines are in their fourth year under Bonnie Tholl, who previously spent 29 years as an assistant coach to Carol Hutchins. Michigan had won the Big Ten tournament in both 2024, after a late-season surge catapulted it into the league’s upper echelon, and 2025, when it stunned the top two seeds Oregon and UCLA as a No. 8 seed.
This time, after a three-game sweep of Michigan State to close the regular season, Michigan run-ruled Ohio State in its first tournament matchup behind five shutout innings from junior righty Gabby Ellis and a 3-for-3 day for second baseman Janelle Ilacqua, but lost 4-2 to eventual national No. 1 seed Nebraska.
The Wolverines had loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning trailing by a run, but Lauren Putz struck out swinging. Nebraska’s Emmerson Cope homered on the first pitch of the home half of the fourth. Michigan then squandered a situation in which it had runners at first and third with no outs in the fifth and neither team scored for the remainder of the game.
Putz’s strikeout was unusual because she was one of the best players in the Big Ten this season, a unanimous first-team all-league selection. The right fielder batted .442 (fifth in the league) with a 1.542 OPS (third), accumulating 21 home runs and 77 RBIs along the way. She also stole 10 bases and walked 41 times. Just a sophomore, the Phoenix native is the daughter of former MLB reliever J.J. Putz and All-American second baseman Kelsey (Kollen) Putz, both of whom went to Michigan.
Over the course of its Big Ten schedule, Michigan almost exclusively started Ellis and Erin Hoehn in the circle. Ellis is a Mercer transfer with a 4.20 ERA; it was 1.84 at the conclusion of the Wolverines’ preseason, but she took plenty of hits from higher-caliber league competition. She did have a bit of a late-season hot streak with just one earned run allowed in 18 innings over the course of three appearances against Michigan State and Ohio State.
Hoehn, another junior, is more of a strikeout pitcher than Ellis but when she does allow contact gives up a significantly higher opponent batting average. Her season-long ERA is a similar 4.29, but she’s also a two-way threat who can play first base and hits .358 with 30 RBIs.
Last year, Indiana Langford led Michigan with a .406 average but, as the Wolverines’ leadoff hitter, drove in just five runs. This year the senior designated player is on a similar track with a grand total of one extra-base hit and four RBIs, albeit with a slightly lesser batting average at .341 (though she still ranks second behind Putz in on-base percentage). Junior center fielder Jenissa Conway is the only player besides Putz to play and start all 54 games for Michigan and has produced consistently, batting .373 with a 1.126 OPS, 12 home runs, 44 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. Junior left fielder Ella Stephenson and redshirt junior catcher Lilly Vallimont have also supplied double-digit home runs to an offense that ranks just above the middle of the pack in the Big Ten.
When KU and Michigan met before, it was a low-scoring affair in which the Wolverines threw some of their lesser-used arms. After Grayson LaMarche walked KU’s Ella Boyer to load the bases with no one out in a 1-1 game in the fifth inning, Ellis entered and was able to limit the damage to one run, scored by pinch runner Brinley Ramirez on a flyout by Hailey Cripe (albeit on a fielding error by Ellis).
Putz tied the game on a solo homer in the sixth inning and Hoehn and Avery Fantucci drove in runs against a previously solid Chloe Barber. Anna Soles drew a one-out walk in the seventh, but Boyer flied out and Campbell Bagshaw popped out to end it.
Bagshaw described Friday’s matchup as a chance at revenge as the Jayhawks and Wolverines do battle once again, this time with much more at stake.
Michigan runner Jenissa Conway (13) scores next to Lafayette catcher Maggie Klug, left, on the sacrifice fly by Erin Hoehn during an NCAA softball game on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Houston.
Michigan outfielder Lauren Putz bats during an NCAA softball game against Lafayette on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Houston.
Michigan pitcher Erin Hoehn during an NCAA softball game against Lafayette on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Houston.
AP Photo/Michael Wyke
AP Photo/Michael Wyke
AP Photo/Michael Wyke