The Big Ten Conference announced the 2012 All-Big Ten Softball Teams on Wednesday afternoon, and five-time reigning champ Michigan dominated the honors. The Wolverines swept all of the individual laurels, with first baseman Amanda Chidester taking home Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. See all the teams and the superlative winners in this post.

Several Big Ten teams took to the diamond Friday as the Big Ten softball regular season comes to a close this weekend. Illinois softball suffered a pair of losses against Northwestern, falling in game one, 3-2, before dropping the second contest, 7-3. Watch highlights of that game now and jump inside for more, including baseball wrap-ups from Seattle University vs. Ohio State where Aaron Craft made a cameo visit.

We’ve posted results for Saturday’s Big Ten softball games as well as a link to the national scoreboard for softball. Also, get the latest Big Ten softball standings and Big Ten softball statistics at BigTen.org. Click the game links below to go directly to those GameTrackers.

The University of Iowa softball team won its third straight Big Ten series, downing Indiana, 10-0, in five innings on a soggy Sunday afternoon at Pearl Field. Following the game, the Hawkeyes recognized seniors Katie Keim and Liz Watkins for Senior Day. The victory improves Iowa’s record to 23-24 overall and 12-6 in the Big Ten, while Indiana falls to 24-25 overall and 8-10 in conference play. Watch our highlights from Iowa’s easy win, read full recap at HawkeyeSports.com and see our Sunday softball roundup in this post.

Illinois softball used a disciplined approach at the plate to secure a 5-1 victory over No. 22 Michigan in eight innings at Alumni Field on Saturday afternoon. While the Illini lineup worked eight walks over the contest, the most issued by the UM pitching staff on the season, Illinois broke through for five runs in the top of the eighth to earn the win against the Big Ten-leading Wolverines, who entered the day with a 12-3 conference record. Watch our highlights from the game and read the full recap at FightingIllini.com.