Page 16-Tuesday, May 23, 1978-The Michigan Daily
A tale of 3 titles
Batsmen grab 3rd
title in four years
Racquetmen capture
eleventh straight title
By GARY KICINSKI
Three weeks ago, when Michigan
seemingly had the Big Ten baseball
title wrapped up, coach Moby Benedict
wanted to tell the world that the title
was far from being in the bag - but
nobody would listen.
F unny thing, though - the season did
go down the wire, as Michigan needed a
victory in its final game to gain the
outright title.
And it got the victory with a capital
'V', as sophomore lefthander Steve
Howe hurled a four-hitter at the
Michigan State Spartans. The 3-0
whitewash gave Michigan a 13-3 con-
ference record and its third Big Ten
title in the last four years.
The Wolverines (26-15) now move into
the NCAA Mideast Regional, which will
be played right here in Ann Arbor at
Fisher Stadium. In a double-
elimination tounament to run through
the weekend, the Wolverines will host
Texas A&M (37-14) at 4 p.m. on Friday,
following the Eastern Michigan-
Missouri game.
Centerfielder Rick Leach collected
four hits on the weekend and soared
past Michigan State's Tony Spada and
Kirk Gibson to become the Big Ten bat-
ting champ. Leach finished with a .473
batting average, topping Gibson's .431
and Spada's .415.
An estimated crowd of 3,200 turned
out on a sunny Sunday afternoon to
watch the intra-state matchup. The
Spartans had dumped the Wolverines a
day earlier, 10-5 in East Lansing,
meaning if the Spartans had also won
the rematch, both clubs would have
finished with 12-4 records and Michigan
State would have gotten the outright
NCAA bid by virtue of head-to-head
competition.
As it turned out, the Spartans gained
a berth in the Midwest Regional being
held in Tulsa, Ola., and are paired
with Southern Illinois (35-12).
Howe, who has never lost a Big Ten
game in his two-year career (6-0 this
season and 5-0 as a freshman), got the
only run he really needed in the bottom
of the first when Leach tripled home
Dave Chapman, who had singled.
Leach later doubled, collecting his 55th
hit of the year, breaking the season
record fcr hits held by Bill Freehan.
Meanwhile, Howe was brilliant in
limiting the Spartaris to four hits and a
walk. He struck out six.
"I wasn't nervous," Howe said,
"because I knew if I threw my game
we'd win.,"
"I'm just so proud of that young
Big Ten Standings
FINAL
. W L Pct. GB
MICHIGAN...........13 3 .843 -
Michigan State-........ 11 5 .688 2
Wisconsin.............10 6 .625 3
Iowa .................. 9 6 .600 32
Minnesota-----------7 7 .500 5
Ohio State-----------9 9,500 5
Indiana-............5 8 .385 6%
Northwestern6........ 610 .375 7
Illinois ................ 6 12 .333 8
Purdue................ 3 13 .188 10
man," said Benedict. "Before the game
he said to me 'I can beat 'em, I know I
can - just give me the ball,' and he
went out there and threw goose eggs at
a good-hitting Spartan team."
By BOB MILLER
The Big Ten has its own tennis ver-
sion of the Montreal
Canadiens-namely the Michigan
Wolverines.
AP Photo
Wolverine high jumper Mike Lattany clears the bar set at 7-24, enabling Mich-
igan to win its 26th Big Ten Outdoor Track title last Saturday. The meet came
down to the final event with the Wolverines and Indiana virtually deadlocked,
before Lattany came through with his pressure-packed, record-setting leap on
his final attempt to sink the Hoosiers.
Lattany's leap leaves
track team with title
By ELISA FRYE
Mike Lattany's leap of 7'21" in the high jump did more than just put
him over the top. In addition to establishing a new personal high, the record
leap gave the men's track team the boost it needed to win the Big Ten Out-
door Championship as well, with a total of 132 points.
. Everything went pretty much as expected during the two day meet held
at Evanston over the weekend. Indiana, also second to the Wolverines In-
doors, finished second with 127 points and Wisconsin trailed with 90 points.,
The first day saw Michigan qualify for 15 events, but carry only 12 points
from the three early finals. Indiana led with 36 points, but had only eight
qualifiers.
Senior Bill Donakowski was the standout for the striders as he won,
the 10,000 meters in 29:44.4. "I figured I'd win the 'ten' without too much
trouble. It went out pretty slow," said Donakowski. "I shook (Wisconsin's
Jim) Stintzi down and the last two miles were easy stuff."
Donakowski also won the 5,000 meter run on Saturday in 14:07.4. The two
wins were the All-American's first two track titles after a career of near-
misses.
"In about the last 200 yards he (Minnesota's Steve Placensia) let me by on
the inside," described Donakowski. "I closed my eyes and hoped I'd beat
him to the tape." The Big Ten's cross country individual champ did just that,
edging the Gopher by 15 yards.
"It felt pretty good," he said of his wins. "I couldn't ask for anything
else to end a career on."
The meet tightened on Saturday as Michigan chipped away at the
Hoosiers' lead. Besides Donakowski's and Lattany's efforts, there were
several other outstanding performances that aided the Wolverines' cause.
Jim Stokes seta new meet record in the pole vault, by two inches with a
height of 610". The 440-yard relay squad of Doug Hennigar, Charles
Crouther, Arnett Chisholm and James Grace won with a time of :40.42, while
the mile relay went to Grace, Don Wheeler, Gary Hicks and Crouther, in
3:09.5. Grace also won the 200 meter dash in :20.72.
Brian Eisner's crew won the con-
ference tennis tourney at West Lafayet-
te with a convincing margin over
Wisconsin to capture the school's 11th
straight title and the 20th in 24 years.
And for the first time in a long time,
the Wolverines had some real com-
petition going into the meet, namely the
Wisconsin Badgers.
Wisconsin was the only Big Ten team
to defeat Michigan all year, and as a
result, the Badgers won the district
team championship which
automatically put them into the NCAA
tournament at Athens, Georgia which
began yesterday. But Michigan earned
a measure of revenge with the 72-53 vic-
tory on Purdue's courts.
Four singles players and two doubles
teams won titles for the Wolverines,
with Jeff Etterbeek and Matt Horwitch
picking up honors in both.
Etterbeek defeated Wisconsin's Jeff
Barr, 7-5, 6-0 to regain the crown at
number one singles that he lost at last
year's meet. Horwitch nipped Tom Hof-
fmann of Iowa in three sets, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5,
and as a team, the powerful pair
polished off Pedro Gonzalez and Jim
Flower from Ohio State,6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Both Etterbeek and Horwitch will
represent Michigan at the NCAA tour-
ney. Eisner feels that they will
probably go far on the basis of their
regular season record against for-
midable opponents, most noteworthy
being their victory in doubles against
Trinity's nationally-ranked team on a
recent southern trip to Texas.
Jack Neinken defeated Minnesota's
Greg Wicklunch, 6-0, 6-4 to win the title
at fifth singles, and Jud Schaufler top-
ped David Pelisek of Wisconsin, 6-3, 7-6
to wrap up the same honor at number
six singlese
An interesting note was that Wiscon-
sin lost only to Michigan opponents at
the tournament prompting Eisner to
comment that "really ended up being a
dual meet . .." between the league's
top two teams.
Ollie Owens and Pete Osler combined
for a quick 6-2, 6-1 drubbing of
Michigan State's Mark Sandler and
Steve Carter to round out -the scoring
for Michigan.
The Wolverines had two other entran-
ts in the finals that did not fare as well.
Osler dropped a 6-4, 7-6 decision to the
Badgers' Rob White and Neinken and
Brad Holland fell short in their second
doubles event to another pair of
Badgers, Rich Silverthorn and Pelisek.
SCORES
Saseball
American League
Soston5. Toronto4
National League
Montreal.Pittsburgh 2
cincinnati10. Atlanta 0
NIIL Playoffs
Montreal and Boston tied 22 i best of seven series.
Game five is tonight at 8:0 at the Montreal Forum.
NBA Playofs
Washington leads Seattle 1-0 in best of seven series.
Game two will be Thursday night at the capitol
centre in1Ladover. Maryland.