Teams have toyed with various methods to slow down the power of junior U. Michigan softball slugger Dorian Shaw.

They’ve pitched around her. They’ve pitched her inside. They’ve pitched aggressively.

Either way, Shaw finds a way to touch the bases.

Twenty-seven games into the season, Shaw has already hammered out 10 home runs. Boasting the team’s highest slugging percentage at .784 and leading the team in walks (16), the first baseman is certainly a Wolverine to watch out for this season.

An immediate contributor to the team, Shaw has started at first base since she arrived in Ann Arbor and now has 131 games under her belt.

From the early-season five-game tournaments to the difficult conference schedule ahead, the physical game can wear on anyone. But over the past three years, Shaw has learned the importance of the mental game, regardless of what happens on the diamond.

“My freshman year, I was making so much out of ‘I’m supposed to be doing this’ and ‘I’m supposed to be doing that,’ ” Shaw said. “I was doing more thinking than playing. One thing that I’ve learned is controlling my emotions and controlling my mind while I’m on the field. That’s something that I had never been taught before, until I got here.

“When you get here, everybody on the team is good, everybody can play and everybody can do the physical things. It’s the mental game that puts you above, because you have to have the mental toughness and ability to bounce back because there is so much failure.”

Now an upperclassman, the slugger has proven herself to her team and coaches. As a natural leader, Shaw embraces the fact that her teammates turn to her when they need advice, encouragement or a different perspective. On a team with six seniors, Shaw feels comfortable relating to both the younger and older Wolverines.

“At this level, sometimes you might just need a little reassurance when you’re not having a great day,” Shaw said. “I can go to a freshman and be like ‘Hey, you belong here, you can play with us. You’re just as good as anybody else out here.’ More than anything, the experience of going through the ups and downs of the game is what is going to help us. We all know what it feels like to have a crappy day or a really good day but (we don’t) get too high or low on ourselves.”

Though the most consistent Michigan unit this season has been the pitchers, throughout her years at Michigan, Shaw has provided a consistent presence from the middle of the lineup.

Last season, Shaw’s bat heated up in the postseason, as five of her 14 total home runs came during NCAA Tournament play. Only four home runs shy of last year’s season total, Shaw looks to keep her foot on the gas pedal this season.

Using the team’s run into the Women’s College World Series last season as motivation, the junior is hoping that her mental game can give her the extra edge in the batter’s box and in the field.

“You can’t just be happy to be (in the postseason),” Shaw said. “You can’t just make it to the dance, you have to want to win and always be competing because the team that’s going to win is the team that literally wants it the most.

Any team can has the capability, the talent, the players. Hutch always tells us ‘Other teams give scholarships, too.’ They have good players. It really comes down to who actually has the desire. If your not going to grind to get it, then everything you have done for the past year seems like it was all for naught.”