Page 16-Tuesday, May 16, 1978-The Michigan Daily Blue elinches title share Batsmen split with Hawkeyes By GEOFF LARCOM Another chapter in the 1978 Michigan baseball success story was written last weekend, as the Wolverines, following a rainout at Northwestern, split a twinbill with Iowa, 10-1, 0-1, to assure themselves of at least a share of the Big Ten title. The split leaves Michigan with a smoking 12-2 record in the Big Ten and at 25-12 overall. A loss by Michigan State (10-4 in conference play after yesterday's 3-0, 19-4 sweep of North- western) would give the Blue nine sole possession of the cham- pionship. IN THE OPENER, Rick Leach and Scott Anderson keyed the 13-hit Wolverine attack with three hits apiece, while sophomore southpaw Steve Howe scattered seven hits in raising his season mark to 8-2. Iowa's Jeff Jones singled in the only run of the nightcap with the bases filled and none out in the bottom of the seventh to snap Michigan's 10 game winning streak. Craig McGinnis took the loss, allowing only six hits, three in the final stanza. In winding up their regular season, the Wolverines will face Wayne State in a doubleheader tomorrow at Fisher Stadium, and then take on the Spartans over the weekend ina home-and- home series, at East Lansing Saturday and back at Fisher again on Sunday. Should Michigan sweep the Spartans, it would post its highest Big Ten winning percentage in 33 years. In addition, the series will pit the Big Ten's first and second leading hitters in a battle for the batting championship. MSU's Tony Spada leads the race at present with a .514 conference log, while Rick Leach, with five hits overall at Iowa, has raised his Big Ten average to .468, .412 overall. SHOULD LEACH remain over the coveted .400 level, it will mark the first time since 1961 that a Wolverine hitter has tur- ned the trick, the last having been former Detroit Tiger star Bill Freehan. Howe, undefeated in conference play with a 5-0 record, should pitch Saturday, while McGinnis will take the hill at home on Sunday. Steve Howe BATTERYMATES PROVIDE POWER, PITCHING I May, 5 By CUB SCHWARTZ Special tothe daily DETROIT-Ralph Houk made only one trip to the mound last night and that was at the end of the game to congratulate his pitcher Jim Slaton. The Tiger righthander scattered just five hits enroute to his fourth win of the season and his first complete game, and got help from catcher Milt May's three-run homer, as Detroit defeated Seattle, 4-2. The Tigers scored first in the second inning on a single by Lou Whitaker, who advanced to second on a ground ball and came home on a Jason Thompson single. The first baseman went two-for- four at the plate, extending his con- secutive game hitting streak to 12. X The Mariners battled back to take a 2- I lead in the top of the fourth. Second baseman Julio Cruz walked and then laton sink Mariners. 4-2 advanced to third when Slaton's pickoff throw was wild. Craig Reynolds sacrificed him home to tie the game. Steve Braun walked and Bruce Bochte's double moved him to third. Rupert Jones was intentionally walked in hopes of an inning-ending double play, but third baseman Bill Stein spoiled that strategy by sacrificing to center field, scoring Braun. Slaton finally got John Hale to ground to second, ending the inning and the Mariners' scoring for the evening. The Tigers retaliated in the bottom of the fourth, collelcting three runs on a towering blast by May in the upper 'deck of right field. Rusty Staub lead off the inning with a single and Thompson doubled to set up May's homer, which came into a stiff wind. Tim Corcoran followed witr a double to knock Seattle starter Glenn Abbott out of the box but the Tigers failed to move Corcoran around. Slaton was particularly tough in the late innings, retiring the final 11 bat- ters. The win moved his record to 4-1 and helped considerably his bloated 5.54 ERA. The rain delayed game was played before only 8,412, the smallest crowd so far this year at Tiger Stadium. The game, which took only one hour and 49 minutes to complete, was also the shor- test of the year. Detroit winds up the brief two-game series with Seattle tonight, with Rick Honeycutt (2-4) on the mound for the Mariners and Milt Wilcox (2-1) han- dling the starting assignment for the Tigers. I fj4~'iJLeague Staedixgo AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST W L Pct. GB Detroit.............19 9 .678 - Boston..............22 12.647 - New York ...........18 12 ,608 2 Cleveland........... 14 16 .468 6 Milwaukee.............14 17 .451 6%/2 Baltimore ............13 17 .423 7 Toronto ............... 12 19 .387 9 WEST Oakland.............22 10 .687 - California............19 12 .612 211 Kansas City ...........18 13 .580 312 Texas ................. 15 14 .517 51/2 Seattle ................ 12 24 .333 12 Chicago............. 9 19.321 1012 Minnesota............10 23 .303 121 Yesterday's Results Detroit 4Seattle 2 Oakland3, Cleveland 2 Torot.oCalifornia 6 New York 4.Chicago I Texas 8, Milwaukee6 tansastCity 3, Boston I Todays Games Oakland (Keough.2-1) at Cleveland (Clyde,-o) California (Aase, 2-1) at Toronto (Underwood, 1-Sor Clancy.2-2),n Seattle (Honeycutt, 2-4) at Detroit (Wilcox, 2-1), n New York (Hunter, 2-3) at Chicago (Wood, 3-3), n Baltimore (Palmer, 3-3) at Minnesota (Goltz, 0-3) NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST W L Pct. Philadelphia......17 11 .607 Montreal............17 14 .548 Chicago ............... 16 15 .516 Pittsburgh...........14 16 .467 St. Louis ............... 14 19 .424 New York............14 20 .412 WEST San Francisco ......... 20 12 .625 Cincinnati............19 14 .576 Los Angeles ........... 18 14 .563 Houston ............... 13 16 .448 San Diego............13 18 .419 Atlanta................12 18 .400 GB 112 2%/ 4 5 1 6 112 2 512 612 7 'M' netters advanee to midwest regionals BY BOB WARREN Class be seated. Today's lesson is tennis tournament competition. The instructors are the members of the Michigan women's tennis team because they are the most qualified teachers in the state of Michigan. After winning the state AIAW tournament last Friday over Michigan State the women netters did not become complacent, as they proceeded to create all-Wolverine finals in both the singles and doubles portions of the in- dividual qualifiers. TEAM CO-CAPTAIN Kathy Karzen won the singles championship over her third singles teammate, Sue Weber, 6-3, 6-3. Karzen reached thefinals by defeating Eastern Michigan's Barb Fischley, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. Karzen had defeated Fischley in straight sets on Thursday when Michigan defeated EMU in the team competition. "I wasn't playing too well in the first set against Barb because I wasn't concentrating," Karzen said. "Still, Barb was playing well, especially with her good groundstrokes that set me up for her to put me away. After I was down 5-1 in the first set, I started concentrating and took control in the next two sets. "Playing against Sue in the finals was fun. It was nice to see her on the other side of the net. It was a different kind of match than our challenge matches. Instead of playing long points, it was quick because Sue was aggressive and maybe a little over-anxious." ALTHOUGH Weber lost the finals to Karzen she still gained a bid to the individuals at the Midwest AIAW this weekend at Muncie, Ind. along with Toni Serges of Central Michigan and Fischley. Michigan's Leticia Diaz- Perez also received a bid after her defeat of Central's Kelly Serges, the tour- ney's third seeded player. "I was real happy about the bid," commented Diaz-Perez. "It's a shame Whit (Stodghill) and I couldn't get one for doubles." Diaz-Perez and Stodghill lost to teammates Karzen and Ann Kercher in the doubles finals, 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday. "IT WAS a fun match," said Kercher. "Yeah," agreed Stodghill, "because we knew everybody from the team there was less pressure on us during the match." "The doubles was a good match," Stodghill said. "We got killed in the firt set, but we had a chance to take the second set when Ann was serving at 4-3. Then Ann swatted a few and it was all over." So there is our brief lesson in playing and dominating a tennis tour- nament. The next session will be Friday through Sunday in Muncie, and if the professors prepare some excellent lectures there, the final exam will be at the national AIAW tournament at Salisbury, Maryland on June5. Last night's resultsnot included Today's Games Cincinnati (Seaver, 1-4) at Montreal (Twitchell. 2-2)n Atlanta (Boggs, 1-3) at New York (Koosman, 2-3).n Philadelphia (Lonborg. 4-2) at Houston (Richard, 2-3).n St. Louis (Urrea. 2-4) at San Diego (Owchinko. 2-2). Pittsburgh (Candelaria, 2-5) at Los Angeles (Hooton, 2-4), u Chicago (R. Reuschel, 3-2) at San Francisco tKnepper. 4-1). n