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.

Two Big Ten teams were selected to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship field, the NCAA selection committee announced Sunday. Five-time reigning Big Ten champ Michigan headlines the duo, while Northwestern earned an at-large berth into the tournament. Both teams begin competition Friday. View the NCAA interactive bracket.

The No. 22-ranked Michigan softball team is now the first Big Ten team to win five straight conference titles after sweeping a doubleheader with Purdue (8-0 in game one, 8-5 in five innings in game two) on Saturday at Wilpon Softball Complex. Click inside for Saturday’s schedule, links to school team pages,  or go to the national softball scoreboard for all the games.

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.

All 12 Big Ten softball teams are in action Sunday with a number of games airing live on the Big Ten Digital Network. BTN’s “B1G Diamond Report” will break down all the games on our 5 op.m. ET TV show. Click inside for links to GameTrackers or go to the national softball scoreboard for all the games.

In the latest Big Ten player profile from the Big Ten Network, we meet Ohio State Buckeyes softball shortstop Alicia Herron, who lost her mother Janet Herron a year ago to gastric cancer. Herron’s mother was Alicia’s biggest fan attending every game and practice during her high school career. “She was really proud of us having a focus on something,” Alicia Herron said.