In the middle of the Michigan softball team's home opener on March 30, Dorian Shaw was frustrated. Yet another game was passing by and the Wolverines’ star first baseman saw few hittable pitches.

So mid-game against Bowling Green, she turned to pitcher Jordan Taylor. Why, she wondered, were pitchers avoiding her.

“Jordan Taylor goes, ‘Well, honestly, would you want to pitch to yourself,’” Shaw said. “It’s like, ‘I get it.’ But at the same time it gets a little bit frustrating.”

That midweek game - Shaw was 0-for-1 with three walks - came in the midst of a stretch where Shaw became increasingly agitated with her inability to do what she does best, hit home runs.

This isn’t surprising. Shaw walked 47 times in 57 games last year. She has 44 walks in 40 games this season.

The difference is a year ago, Shaw had all-Big Ten players Angela Findlay, Maggie Viefhaus and Roya St. Clair hitting in front of her with Amanda Chidester and Nikki Nemitz hitting behind her.

“One of the best lineups we’ve ever had,” Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. “So this year, we don’t have nearly the reputation.”

No. 2-ranked Michigan (37-1 overall, 5-1 in the Big Ten) still has Shaw and Chidester otherwise surrounded by unproven players in the middle of the lineup as it entered a weekend series at Illinois. The Wolverines have done well — freshman Nicole Sappingfield is hitting .379 in the No. 2 hole, followed by Shaw, Chidester and then sophomore Ashley Lane, who is hitting .371 with 13 home runs and 47 RBIs.

Lane’s numbers are better than Shaw’s .394 average with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs, but Lane also had 22 more at-bats. Opposing coaches also know Shaw and purposely don’t give her any pitches she can hit out of the ballpark.

With 57 career home runs, she won’t catch all-time NCAA leader Stacey Nuveman, who hit 90 home runs in a career that spanned from 1997-2002 at UCLA. But Shaw is closing in on the career top 25. Entering this season, Seton Hall’s Laura Taylor (2002-05) and Arizona’s Mackenzie Vandergeest (2001-04) were tied for 25th all-time with 59 home runs. Michigan’s all-time leader is Samantha Findlay, who hit 62 home runs from 2005-08.

Shaw is close to another Michigan record - career walks. With 155, she is two behind Samantha Findlay, who had 157.

“With Dorian, you just can’t put it over the middle of the plate or anywhere close because she’s a great hitter, strong,” Purdue coach Kim Maher said. “And if a pitcher makes a mistake, it’s probably going to go 300-plus feet.”

The key is to try and keep Shaw off-balance. Never throw her the same pitch at the same speed twice in an at-bat. Against Shaw, a pitcher has to be even more accurate.

“We just weren’t giving her a chance to hit the ball out of the park,” Indiana coach Michelle Gardner said. “It wasn’t so much that I felt we were intentionally walking her, but we were talking before the game, she can kill you with one swing of the bat.

“But Chiddy can do the same. Ashley Lane can do it. They have a very, very strong lineup, so it’s kind of like where Dorian was concerned, let’s just not give her something great. We’re not going to put the ball up in the plate.”

Gardner had another advantage. Indiana has one of the best pitchers in the country, Morgan Melloh, so Gardner felt she could challenge Shaw. The Hoosiers did, striking her out swinging three times, including in the last at-bat of the game to give Indiana a 5-4, 8-inning win over the Wolverines. The game before, Indiana walked Shaw all three times she batted in a 2-1 Michigan win.

Shaw’s frustration climaxed that weekend.

“I was stressed out about it, and I get one real opportunity a game, and I’m not making good on it,” Shaw said. “What is that going to do for me. I really got self-absorbed as far as the outcomes and that was bad and made it worse because every time I went up to the plate it was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get a hit last time. I wonder if she’s going to pitch to me. If she does pitch to me, am I going to get a hit this time.’

“It compounds on top of itself.”

Shaw and Hutchins then had a discussion and Shaw realized walks, in her case, were as good as hits because of Chidester and Lane. If a team walks Shaw, she has a potent lineup around her.

That settled her down. The next weekend against Purdue she had three at-bats in two games, was walked twice, scored three runs, had two hits and an RBI.

“Our success has been more about the unsung heroes than it has been people like Dorian,” Hutchins said. “Dorian is the constant. Her presence in the lineup, without a doubt, makes a lot of things happen for us.

“A huge presence.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein