The Michigan Daily-Saturday, May 13, 1978-Page 19
FACE WILDCATS, HAWKEYES
'M' nine into stretch run
By JAMIE TURNER
A 17-4 winning surge since late April
has put the Michigan baseball team on
the precipice of its third Big Ten Cham-
pionship in the past four years.
With a magic number of four (either
in Wolverine wins or Iowa and
Michigan State losses) for the title and
the prospect of the Hawkeyes and Spar-
tans, both 8-4 in Big Ten play, dueling
each other this afternoon, Michigan (11-
1 Big Ten, 24-11 overall) will most likely
see one of its adversaries fall to the
wayside by Monday. If Moby
Benedict's crew can avoid disaster and
sweep Northwestern today and Iowa
tomorrow both on the road, the crown
will be theirs.
FOR EITHER Iowa or MSU to crawl
back into the race, a number of highly
unusual things must happen. First,
Michigan must lose at least two of the
weekend's games to prevent the
Wolverines from clinching a tie for the
title. Secondly, one of the two second
place teams must sweep their games
(MSU has a slightly easier task, since
they will meet the Wolverines in a home
and home series on the final weekend).
No matter what happens, the
Wolverines enter the weekend in the
driver's seat, a position that Benedict
covets and one that was denied the
team last year when they fell behind
champion Minnesota early and never
quite caught up.
THE REASON for Michigan's superb
stretch run is not attributable to any
one player's performance. To be sure,
centerfielder Rick Leach has had a
stellar month, batting close to .500 the
last few weeks and raising his season
average to the .400 mark.
But if baseball is a team game, then
Michigan demonstrates it to the hilt.
Pitchers Bill Stennett, Craig McGinnis
and Steve Howe rank 1, 2, 4 in the latest
conference statistics, leaving such
people as Tom Owens, who fired a no-
hitter against Notre Dame and a six-
hitter against Eastern Michigan, out of
the conference rotation.
Stennett and Steve Perry will
probably start for Michigan against the
Wildcats in Evanston this afternoon.
Relatively unnoticed in the wake of
Howe and McGinnis, Stennett has
allowed only one earned run in 21 con-
ference innings (0.43 ERA).
If the Hawkeyes knock off MSU
today, they will be facing the talented
left handed slants of Howe and McGin-
nis Sunday.
Rick Leach
._...T
sports of the DAILY
Striders at home
This afternoon at 12:45 the Wolverine Invitational Track Meet will take
place at Ferry Field. It is a local meet and teams participating include
Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan and Western Michigan.
This is the first of two home meets for the men, and the women's only
home meet of the season. The meet features five events for the women, in-
cluding the discus, the long jump, 100 and 880 meter runs and possibly a mile
relay. * * * *
-Daily Sports
McCahill a Rockie
DENVER, Colo.-John McCahill, a 23-year-old defenseman from the
University of Michigan, has signed a contract to play for the Colorado
Rockies during the 78-79 season, officials for the National Hockey League
team announced yesterday.
McCahill played one game for the Rockies last season against the
Philadelphia Flyers.
Prior to playing for the Smythe Division team, he was assigned to the
Tulsa Oilers on a tryout basis where he played nine games.
A native of Sarnia, Ontario, McCahill played varsity hockey at the
University of Michigan for four years. His career totals included eight goals
and eight assists for 88 points in 143 games, making him the third highest
scoring defenseman in the university's history.
* * * * -AP
Czechs check Canadians
PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia-The powerful Czechs rebounded after fall-
ing behind 2-0 beat Team Canada 3-2 yesterday on a goal by forward Oldrich
Machac at the World Ice Hockey Championships.
The victory assured the defending champion Czechs of at least the silver
medal. The Czechs must beat Russia to take the gold. Russia downed
Sweden 7-1 in a later game yesterday.
Wilfred Paiement of the Colorado Rockies and Jean Pronovost of the
Pittsburgh Penguins gave the Canadiens a 2-0 first-period lead, and the un-
defeated Czechs were threatened for the first time in the championships.
But Milan Novyjaroslav Pouza cut the Canadian lead to 2-1 at 4:48 of the
second period, and Bohuslav Ebermann tied it up at 14:10 with an assist
from Vladimir Martinec. Machac beat Canadian goalie Dennis Herron of the
Penguins with six minutes gone in the third period to win the game.
The performance was the worst in these championships by the peerless
Czech goalie Jiri Holecek, who had stopped 91 percent of the shots against
him coming into the match.
The third-ranked Canadians now need only to beat fourth-ranked
Sweden tomorrow to grab the bronze medal. -AP
SPRING TERM SPECIAL
BILLIARDS and BOWLING,
at HALF PRICE
Tuesday, May 16-11 AM to closing
Mi$higan Uni1n
f~ -ki
I
Wtaja~ League StaLdiMg
I.
yesterday's games not included
AMERICAN LEAGUE
East W L Pct. GB
Detroit............17 7 .708 -
Boston..............20 11 .645 1/
New York.............16 10 .615 2
Cleveland ............ 12 14 .462 6
Milwaukee.............12 15 .444 61/
Baltimore............11 16 .407 7 /
Toronto..............10 18 .357 9
West
Oakland ............... 19 9 .679 -
California .............18 9 .667 1/
Kansas City ........... 15 12 .556 31/2
Texas ................. 13 12 .520 4%
Chicago ............... 18 16 .333 9
Seattle ................ 11 22 .333 10%/
Minnesota............10 21 .323 10%
Today's Games
Oakland (Keough 2-1) at Detroit
(Sykes 1-0)
Seattle (Pole 2.4 or Mitchell 2-3) at
Toronto (Lemanczyk 0-6)
California (Aase 2-1) at Cleveland
(Waits 2-2)
Boston (Tiant 1-0) at Minnesota
(Zahn 2-1)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East
W L Pct. GB
Philadelphia .......... 16 9 .640 -
Montreal.............15 13 .536 21/2
Chicago ............... 14 14 .500 3
St. Louis ............... 14 15 .483 4
Pittsburgh.............13 14 .481 4
New York ............14 18 .438 5
West
Los Angeles ........... 17 12 .586 r-
San Francisco ......... 16 12 .571 %
Cincinnati...........17 13 .567 /2
Houston ............... 11 16 .407 5
Atlanta ................ 11 16 .407 5
San Diego...........11 17 .393 5%
Today's Games
Houston (Andujar 2-2) at New York
(Bruhert 6-2), 2:05 p.m.
St. Louis (Rasmussen 2.4) at San
Francisco (Montefusco 6-2), 4:05 p.m.
Cincinnati (Norman 2-0) at Phila-
delphia (Kaat 1-0), 7:35 p.m.
Chicago (Fryman 1-3) at Los Apgeles
(Joh 4-1), 10 p.m.
Pittsburgh (Reuss 0-0) at San Diego
(Shirley 0-4), 10 p.m.
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