Although it wasn’t as dominant of a performance as the night before, University of Michigan sophomore pitcher Sara Driesenga again pitched brilliantly Saturday at Alumni Field, guiding the No. 7 Wolverines to a 5-0 victory over No. 18 California in the second round of the NCAA Regional.

“It’s a great win against a great team. I have a lot of respect for Cal. We know how good of a team they are,” said Michigan softball Carol “Hutch” Hutchins. “The way to beat a good pitcher is to have a good pitcher and I thought effort on the mound was fantastic and that was the key to our win.”

Over the first two games of the tournament, Dreisenga has pitched 14 innings, surrendering just seven hits and three walks while striking out 14 batters and giving up zero runs. Michigan beat Valparaiso 5-0 on Friday night.

Entering the tournament, Driesenga had only pitched two complete-game shutouts all season before earning back-to-back complete-game shutouts on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s just that time. It’s time to buckle down and time to get it done,” Driesenga said. “That’s what the team needs and that’s what I’m out there to do.”

The Michigan bats were relatively cool through the first three innings, managing only one hit, but the Wolverines took advantage of numerous mistakes by the Golden Bears. The scored three runs in the bottom of the second by turning two walks, two errors and a single by junior Lyndsay Doyle into a 3-0 lead.

California committed three errors on the day and Jolene Henderson walked four batters, while the Wolverines only had four hits on the day.

Sophomore Lauren Sweet tacked on another run on the first pitch of the fourth inning, driving a pitch over the wall in left field and knocking Henderson out of the game. Sweet did it again in the bottom of the sixth, hitting the second pitch of the inning deep over the left centerfield fence giving her 10 home runs on the season. She finished the game 2-for-3 with two home runs and three runs scored on the day.

Boxscore

“I was just really seeing the ball well. I was up there and just really confident and letting myself know that I can do it,” Sweet said. “And going after it early in the count, that really helped me instead of getting down.”

Driesenga pitched out of a jam in the top of the fifth, the Golden Bears biggest threat of the game. With runners on first and second with one out, Driesenga got Khala Taylor and Lindsay Ziegenhirt (Cal’s No. 2 and 3 hitters) to ground out and pop out respectively to end the inning.

Michigan will play for the regional championship Sunday at 1 p.m. when it faces the winner of the California vs. Central Michigan/Valparaiso winner. Should the Wolverines lose that game, they would play the same team again Sunday afternoon. All games will be played at Alumni Field.

With the Wolverines on the verge of advancing to the Super-Regional, Hutchins reminded her players what’s still in front of them.

“I told them ‘we haven’t won anything yet.’ We need to come to play tomorrow… we need to be warriors,” she said.

Matt Durr is a freelance sports reporter for AnnArbor.com.