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.