Page Four

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Thursday. Sertemher 9.' 176

BUT FUTURE IS UNCERTAIN _#

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Baseball:

Two straight titles

By BILL STIEG
They w e r e n' t unstoppable at the
plate, flawless in the field or overpow-
ering on the mound, but the Michigan
Wolverines were champions once again
last year.
They won their second straight Big
Ten title with some gutty pitching and
clutch hitting, and used more of the
same to come within a game of reach-
ing the College World Series. But, just
like the year before, rival Eastern
Michigan stopped them in the NCAA
regional.
THAT MIDWEST regional tourna-
ment was typical of Michigan in 1976.
The Wolverines lost their first game
to Eastern, putting them one loss away
from the end of the season.
But instead of folding, they won two
close games the next day, and exploded
for six late runs to beat EMU 9-3 the
day after that. The win forced the
teams into a winner-takes-all cham-
pionship game.
Only then did Michigan finally give

in. The pitching arms were too tired
and the. bats were helpless against
Eastern's superarm, Bob Owchinko,
who shut out the Wolverines, 6-0.
MICHIGAN had reached the regional
with a curiously uneven regular-season
performance. The Wolverines went 10-
14-1 against non-conference teams, but
managed a 9-4 record in the Big Ten.
The reason? A shallow pitching staff,
mostly. Coach Moby Benedict threw
his aces, Mark Weber and Lary Soren-
sen, against the conference opponents.
The less reliable pitchers worked the
tough non - conference schedule and
couldn't beat opponents like Western,
Eastern and Notre Dame.
Things are not getting better, either.
Weber graduated and Sorensen signed
with the pros, foregoing his senior year.
So Michigan is left with a relatively
weak pitching staff, in a game which
the coach admits is 90 per cent pitch-
ing.
COMING BACK to the mound next
year are Craig McGinnis, Bill Stennet

and Dan Chapel, who were occassional-
ly effective. Mike Parker, Tom Owens
and Steve Perry are the less experi-
enced returnees.
But Michigan snould still be able to
put runs on the board. Only two play-
ers graduate - secondbaseman Dick
Walterhouse and centerfielder Dan Da-
miani. Walterhouse was the team's sec-
ond best hitter during the regular sea-
son, and steady Damiani, a four-year
starter, hit over .290.
Other than that, Michigan returns a
good hitting lineup. Catcher Ted Ma-
han will be back from knee surgery
that put him out of action halfway
through the season when he was hit-
ting .324.,
THE WOLVERINES' leading hitter is
all-around athlete Rick Leach, who
plays rightfield in the spring and quar-
terback in the fall. The smooth-swing-
ing lefty hit over .360 after finishing up
spring football practice.
Other hard hitters are leftfielder
Mark Grenkoski, who hit a heroic home

run in the tournament; third baseman
Dan Chapman, and designated hitter
Bill Haslerig.
Jim Berra is the Wolverines' light-
hitting shortstop and Bob Wasilewski
is the slugging first baseman. Jim Capo-
feri did a fine job replacing Mahan
behind the plate.
Michigan won last year's title by a
half-game over Minnesota. The Big
Ten season is traditionally confused,
because rained-out games (which are
frequent) are not made up. Because
of that, Michigan played only 13 games
to Minnesota's 18.
THE RACE wasn't decided until the
last day of the season, when the Wol-
verines won a "must game" with
Michigan State, 11-3.
Michigan plays its games in Fisher
Stadium, a once-handsome structure
next to newly - renovated Y o s t Ice
Arena. Crowds for the big games some-
time exceed 1000,

Coach Moby Benedict

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NINE STRAIGHT TITLES
Tennis: Big Ten po werhouse

By BOB MILLER
"It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times," is the best way to de-
scribe he 1976 Championship season for the
Michigan men's tennis team.
The year before, 1975, Michigan success-
fully defended its league title for the
eighth consecutive time. Coach Brian Eis-
ner opened last season without Victor
Amaya, the team's number one player,
and Freddy DeJesus, number two on the
squad.
Amaya chose to forego his final year
of eligibility in favor of turning pro. De-
Jesus decided to concentrate on academ-
ics last year, but made it known that if
he was needed, he would be available.
Still, Michigan wasn't to be pitied since
it had Eric Friedler, the team captain
who would challenge for the individual
title at first singles; Jeff Etterbeek,
a freshman with two State singles titles
as credentials; Jim Holman, one of the
conference's steadiest players; Buddy
Gallager and Brad Holland, title win-
ners in '75.
Michigan opened the year by finishing
second in the National Indoor Tourna-
ment, with as many as sixteen of the
country's top teams competing.
The conference season began with an
important match with the Gophers. Min-
nesota had dealt Ohio State its only set-
back a week earlier and was anxious to
do the same to Michigan.
The Wolverines had ideas of their own,

however, as they thwarted Minnesota time
and again to produce a lopsided 7-2 vic-
tory.
Iowa's Howkeyes took on mighty
Michigan, but they too did not possess
enough depth to stop the Wolverines
from rolling to an 8-1 win.
The same went for Michigan S t a t e.
The Spartans kept improving throughout
the season, but could not overcome its er-
rors on the court to subdue the Wolver-
ines.
The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame made
an appearance at Michigan, but came
away the fifth straight home victim of the
Maize and Blue.
The first road trip of the year proved
to be fruitful as Eisner's crew engineered
two more victories at Northwestern and
Wisconsin.
Wisconsin was a team to be wary of
because the Badgers played all their home
matches indoors where they excelled. But
even the home court advantage didn't
make any difference at all this time as
Michigan increased its league leading re-
cord to 5-0.
However, the season took a strange
turn during the next home stand. The
Wolverines disposed of Kalamazoo and
Purdue, but then had to contend with
the Illini.
The match was close, but Illinois check-
ed Michigan effectively, coming up with
big wins on the court to upset the Wol-
verines 5-4.

With the school year over, Michigan
went on a five game, six day road trip
and did exceedingly well. The Wolverines
sandwiched victories over Georgia, Ten-
nessee and Indiana around a loss to na-
tional power, Alabama.
The final road match was at Ohio
State. Although the score was one sided,
Buckeyes 7-2, every event but one went
the full three sets, and most could have
gone either way.
After defeating Western Michigan, the
Wolverines packed up and travelled to
Minneapolis for the league tournament.
Ohio State was given the nod as team to
beat, but Michigan put a finalist in all but
third doubles to crush its foes and walk
home with its ninth straight title.
The biggest blow of the year came when
Michigan was informed that OSU and
not the Wolverines would be allowed four
players to go to the NCAA's. Michigan
took Friedler and Etterbeek.
Friedler was eliminated in singles im-
mediately, and Etterbeek lost in the se-
cond round. In doubles, the pair downed
Dartmouth in opening round action, but
lost their next time out, eliminating Mich-
igan from the tournament.
The 1976 season in retrospect was suc-
cessful, in a bittersweet way. Eisner has
already recruited one slayer from Ohio,
letting it be known that he is out to make
a strong team stronger. 1977 should be an
exciting year for Michigan tennis.

Emil- --..~. ______

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