Page Twelve
IN A NON-CONFERENCE BATTLE:
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Wednesday, May 11, 1977
Blue
By RICK MADDOCK
It's time for Michigan base-
ball coach Moby Benedict and
his squad to forget about the
Big Ten race. They should not
be thinking about the standings
which shows they are one game
behind Minnesota.
Instead, the Wolverines should
be concentrating on Bowling
Green. The Falcons, who split
with Michigan on April 9th at
Bowling Green, invadc Fisher
Field today at 2 p.m
Of course, Michigan will
still have dreams of that third
consecutive title dancing in
its head. But then maybe the
title shot will give Michigan
more incentive against Bowl-
ing Green.
"What it (winning the Big Ten
hosts Falcons in twin bill
title) takes is for you to win.
The way to win is to play one
game at a time," Benedict said.
"I believe winning breeds
winning. You can't go into the
Bowling Green game without
winning and then expect to go
into the conference games," he
added.
Probable pitchers for the
game are: Kevin Clinton and
Tom Owens for Michigan and
Mike Oleksak and Gary Kite
for Bowling Green.
Southpaw Clinton is 3-1, with
a 2.40 ERA in 15 inning pitched.
"I better give him a chance to
pitch," Benedict said. "He's
pitched in 25 games all in the
bullpen."
Owens, a right hander, is 0-2
with a 5.12 ERA. Be has hurled
in 17 innings.'
Both Bowling Green probab-
les are left handers. Oleksak
is 4-0 with a 2.14 ERA. Kite is
3-0, with a 4.05 ERA. They
are the fifth and sixth men on
the Falcon pitching staff.
The Falcons are currently
30-12, but only 1-3 in the Mid-
America Conference (MAC),
which is good for eighth place.
Bowling Green has had six MAC
games rained out. The only
MAC teams B.G. faced were
first place Miami, 9-2 in the
conference, 39-9 overall, and
Toledo, the MAC's second place
team.
Chuck Black, a shortstop, is
the Falcons' leading hitter at
.371. Larry Owen, a senior
catcher who has been the B. G.
receiver since he was a fresh-
man, is batting .368 including
14 home runs. He's second in the
nation in home run production,
Owen is also ninth in the na-
tion in RBI's with 47. He has
a career average of .338, and
he has 28 career home runs,
which broke the MAC's re-
cord. The Philadelphia Phil-
lies' Mike Schmidt held the
record with 27 when he play-
ed for Ohio.
Before yesterday's sweep of
Findlay College, Bowling Green
had a .310 batting average and
a 3.56 staff ERA. The Falcons
had a .962 fielding average, be-
fore yesterday.
The Falcons feel they still
have a shot at the MAC title,
but they know they must win at
least 12 of their 14 conference
games. "It looks like the rain-
outs are going to cost us the
championship," said a team
spokesman.
Bowling Green double-dip-
ped Findlay College, yester-
day, 6-1 and 8-1. Jeff Lee,
playing at catcher giving
Owen a rest went two-for-
three, including one RBI.
Bowling Green went five-for-
five in stealing in the game.
The Falcons lashed out 12
hits in their 8-1 nightcap win.
Third baseman Ron Manser
was three-for-three with a RBI,
and shortstop Pat Bryne, giv-
ing Black a rest, smacked a
double and a three-run homer.
Owens, who was the designat-
ed - hitter yesterday, went two-
for-four in the nightcap. He
broke his own MAC single sea-
son total bases record. He cur-
rently has 96 total bases.
enough;
7-5
'M' baseball stats
HITTING (At least 50 at bats)
AB RI H HR RBI
Anderson 102 18 35 0 12
Lane 92 13 29 0 16
Grenkoski 130 23 35 1 15
Leach 89 15 23 0 28
Wasilewski 105 12 27 2 17
Chapman 94 15 24 1 10
Mahan 95 5 24 0 13
Parker 81 12 20 1 11
Capoferi 50 7 12 1 5
Berra 96 12 22 3 8
TOTALS 1016 151 272 9 139
Opponents 938 93 199 6 81
PITCHING (At least 15 innings pitched)
IP II ER W-L
Howe 661/ 43 13 7-2
Clinton 15 15 4 31
McGinnis 50 35 15 5-1
Stennett 58 40 19 4-3
Perry 4W, 41 17 4-2
Owens 17 20 11 0-2
TOTALS 259', 199 80 23-11
Opponents 257 272 124 11-23
LeFlore HR in 9th not
Twins outslug Tigers,
AVG
-343
.315
.269
.258
.257
.255
.253
.247
.240
.229
.268
.212
ERA
1.76
2.40
2.70
2.95
3.14
5.82
2.78
4.34
By DON MacLACHLAN
and PAUL CAMPBELL
special to The Daily
DETROIT - I a battle of
rookie left-handers last night,
Minnesota's Jeff Holly had a
little more luck and a little more
help than Detroit's Bob Sykes.
That little extra helped Holly
and the division leading Twins
hand Sykes his first major
league loss, 7-5.
SYKES STARTED strong,
mowing down the first five
Twins he faced, and collecting
four strikeouts. But -ontrol
problems allowed the Twins to
reach him for two runs in the
top of the second.
Bob Randall's single followed
a safety by Butch Wynegar and
drove in Roy Smalley who had Wagner bounced one over Hol-
reached first on a walk. ly's head for an infield single.
Third baseman Jerry Terrell Ron LeFlore broke an 0-for-11
drove home Wynegar, but was hitting streak with a single and
thrown by Ben Oglivie trying to after the speedy center fielder
stretch his hit into a double. stole his seventh base of the
season, Fuentes tied the game
Bare sent down with a sharp two-run single to
Bare sentdown left.
The Detroit Tigers optioned The switch hitting Fuentes
pitcher Ray Bare to their continued to destroy left-handed
Evansville farm club of the pitching. His two-for-four night
American Association. He boosted his s e a s o n average
appeared in five games for against southpaws to .418.
the Tigers, recording an 0-2 MINNESOTA regained t Ite
record with a 12.56 ERA. lead in the sixth, after Skes
had retired seven batters in a
The Twins scored another row. With two out, Wynegar sin-
pairainrthe third, when left field- gled to left. On the next pitch,
er Barry Hisle blastedl a two- Wagner b o00 t e d Smalleys
run homer into the upper deck gner bnd Randalmflle
of the left field stands. it was grounder and Randall followed
Hfishes efith stndsItrperswith a slashing two run double.
Hle's eighth round tripper of sending Sykes to the showers.
the year, and upped the Twin LeFlore gave the home fans
BUT TIGER second baseman one last thrill when he smashed
Tito Fuentes led his team's a two o1t upper deck home run
comeback and continued to to right in the ninth. Holly pick-
prove he may have been the ed up his second win in as many
best deal in the recent free- starts-both at the expense of
agent draft. the Tigers.
The $90,000 ex-Padre, started
the Tiger scoring in the fourth
inning. He leaped out a triple S CO R ES
and came home when Twins
right fielder Dan Ford caught
a long foul fly off Rusty Staub's Late baseball
bat and threw to the plate a American League
Toronto 9, Seattle 3
split second too late to catch Minnesota 7, Detroit 5
the sliding Fuentes. National League
With two out in the fifth, and Montreal 4, Los Angeles 3
third baseman Phil Mankowski NHoLral 3, FINALS
on first, Tiger shortstop Mark (Montreal leads series 2-0)
Major League Standings
AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONAL LEAGUE
East East
W L Pet. GB W L Pt. to
New York 16 10 .615 - Pittsburgh 18 7 .720 -
Baltimore a 14 9 .649 o St. Louis -17 9 .654 1
Milwaukee 15 12 .556 1, Chicago 14 10 .583 3
Boston 14 12 .538 2 Montreal 12 10 .545 4
Toronto 13 17 .433 5 Philadelphia 12 12 .500 V
Detroit 10 15 4.400 5 New York 10 1 .385 8
Cleveland 16 .360 6 west
West Los Angeles 22 5 .815 -
Minnesota 18 10 .643 - San Francisco 12 16 .424 10
Chicago 17 10 .630 1 Houston 11 17 .393 11'.
Texas 13 11 .542 3 Cincinnati 10 16 .385111%
Kansas City 15 13 .536 3 San Diego 11 19 .367 12?
Oakland 15 14 .517 4'/ Atlanta 8 20 .286 14
California 11 17 .393 7
Seattle 9 23 .281 11 Yesterday's Games
Yesterday's Games Pittsburgh 3, Atlanta 0
Cleveland 1, Milwaukee 0 Philadelphia 3, San Francisco 0
Late games not included. San Diego at New York, ppd.
Today's Gaines Late games not included
Boston Jenkins (4-1) at Oakland Today's Games
Medich (1-2) Los Angeles John (2-1) at Mon-
Milwaukee Augustine (3-3) at treal Stanhouse (3-3), n
Cleveland Dobson (0-3), n San Francisco McGlothen (1-3) at
Minnesota Zahn (5-0) at Detroit Philadelphia Christenson (2-3), n
Roberts (2-4), n Atlanta La Corte .1-4) at Pitts-
Chicago Knapp (3-1) at Texas burgh Candelaria (3-0), n
Alexander "(4-1), a San Diego Sawyer (1-3) at Newr
New York Holtzman (2-1) at seat- York swan (1-3), a
tIe Abbott (04), n Cincinnati Aleata (1-1) at St.
Baltimore Grimsley (3-1) at Cali- Louis Rasmussen (2-3), a
tornya Tanana (4-1), aChicagonorris (4-3) at Hoosts0
only games scheduled McLaughlin (0-1), is
MILWAUKEE BREWER third baseman .Sal Bando gets out of the way of a high fastball thrown
by Cleveland's Jim Bibby. The Indian hurler tossed a five hit shutout, raising his record to 2-0.
The Indians scored their only run in the bottom of the ninth when Larvell Blanks hit a. one-out
homer.