There is too much history at Michigan, the first school east of the Mississippi River to win the Women's College World Series and still the model for cold-weather programs across the map, to not have at least a little faith that the Wolverines can survive any slow start.
But it helped this past week that Michigan also had a whole lot of Faith.
Michigan's leadoff hitter, Faith Canfield, was the catalyst for the kind of weekend the Wolverines desperately needed. The junior is espnW's softball player of the week after hitting .579 (11-for-19) in five wins during the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, California, including wins against No. 12 Baylor and No. 20 Louisiana-Lafayette in which she did most of the work at the plate.
As might be expected when the coach has more wins than anyone in college softball history, Michigan doesn't do a lot of losing. Not losing streaks. Not even losing weekends. For just one example, the Wolverines didn't have back-to-back weeks with multiple losses during any of the past three seasons. But after losing twice during the opening week this season, they lost two more times the next week. And then they lost twice the week after that.
Worse yet, the losses a week ago not only came against unranked teams but by shutout.
Pitching looked like it would be the question mark for the Wolverines and coach Carol Hutchins this season after the departure of ace Megan Betsa, but they scored just five runs in their six losses. Even program icons Jennie Ritter and Jordan Taylor would struggle to win with run support like that.
The cold bats started to warm up during the opening day of the tournament in Fullerton. After struggling for runs early, Michigan pulled out a 3-2 comeback win against Loyola Marymount in its opener. Batting just .255 on the season when she stepped in for her fourth at-bat in that game, Canfield beat out an infield single and eventually came around to score the winning run.
She went 4-for-4 in the team's second game of the day against Charlotte, half of Michigan's total hits in that win, but saved her best work for the pair of games against ranked opponents the next day.
Michigan had managed just one run in three previous games against ranked teams, but Canfield again beat out an infield single to begin the top of the first inning Friday against Baylor ace Gia Rodoni. She trotted home two batters later on Tera Blanco's home run. An inning later, despite falling behind in the count, Canfield lined a home run of her own over the left-field fence for a 4-0 lead and what proved to be the decisive run in an eventual 6-3 win.
She wasn't even close to finished.
After a quick break between the doubleheader, Canfield drove the first pitch of the game against Louisiana-Lafayette deep over the fence in left field. She came up again the following inning with two outs and two runners on base and bounced a single up the middle that brought home two runs and gave her all the RBIs in Michigan's eventual 3-1 win.
In the span of barely more than 24 hours, she recorded 11 hits in 11 consecutive at-bats.
The streak, two shy of the NCAA record, lifted her average from .255 to .387. More importantly, it fueled the Wolverines to two of their biggest wins in an otherwise frustrating first month.
Others drove in more runs at the plate last week. Others didn't allow any from the pitching circle. There were other worthy contenders for weekly honors. But for a team that needed more than most for someone to get a hit, Canfield delivered. Over and over and over again.
Previous winners: Washington's Kirstyn Thomas (Feb. 14) | Duke's Katherine Huey (Feb. 21) | Arizona's Taylor McQuillin (Feb. 28)