Page Twelve THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, May 28, 1976 Michigan, Eastern play today By BILL STIEG That old cliche about playoffs being a brand new season means a lot more than usual today as the NCAA Mideast regional gets underway at Eastern Mich- igan. Baseball is as unpredictable as any sport. For instance, how many times have you heard the results of a baseball game described as an upset? THIS AFTERNOON'S GAME between Michigan (19-18-1) and Eastern Michi- gan (40-13) at 4 p.m. is a good example of a game that could easily go either way, no matter what the records and statistics say. Eastern beat Michigan four times in four games this past season. But anyone connected with either team will say that statistic is misleading. "We played them on off dates," said Michigan coach Moby Benedict earlier this week. "They didn't pitch their good people and we didn't pitch our good peo- ple either. It should be an interesting contest." EMU's head man Ron Oestrike feels the same. "THIS BUNCH his been around long enough to know you don't take things for granted," he says. "We're worried Mideast regional starts, about U of M and about being overcon- fident since we've beat 'em four times. But we've got to remember that this is an improved ball club. "We didn't see their one and two (pitchers) in any ball game . . . Ah, hell, it's gonna be a dogfight." Two of the four regular season Michi- gan-Eastern Michigan games were "dogfights," too, going into extra inn- ings before the Hurons won by one each time. Since each team was in the midst of its conference season, neither used its best pitchers. In Michigan's case, that is quite sig- nificant. The Wolverines have two ex- cellent pitchers, Lary Sorensen and Mark Weber, but beyond that is incon- sistency. TODAY, MICHIGAN goes with its best - Sorensen. The junior righthander cruised through most of the season with an unblemished record until losing his last two outings. Even so, he has the team's best re- cord, 8-2, and an ERA of 2.64, behind only Weber's 2.37. He will work against Eastern's senior lefty, Bob Owchinko. Owchinko leads his team with a 10-3 record and is second in ERA at 1.29. Owchinko also has struck out 92 bat- ters in 98 innings, and was the winning pitcher in relief when the Hurons beat Michigan 7-6 in eight innings on May 19. BUT EASTERN'S best may be right- hander Bob Welch, who dropped his ERA to 1.29 with a perfect game last Sunday against University of Detroit. Among his impressive credentials are 87 strikeouts and only 40 hits in 69 innings. Offensively, the Hurons are led by one of the best college shortstops in the na- tion, senior Glenn Gulliver. The Allen Park native finished 50 regular season games with a .454 average and 52 RBI's. Another lefty, first baseman Glenn Ambrose, is second on the team with a .386 average and 28 RBI in 34 games. Catcher Jerry Keller is the other big hitter for Eastern at .376 and 58 RBI's. AS A TEAM, the Mid - American champs, hit .294 with a 3.67 ERA. Michi- gan, champion of the Big Ten, has a .282 average and 4.45 ERA. Oestrike's biggest worry at this point is a lack of playing time, so he ran hisr team through an intrasquad scrimmage this week. I told our players that our emphasis this week should be on pitching and de- fense," said Oestrike. "That's the only consistent thing that comes up in tour- nament play. "If we maintain consistent pitching and defense, then we'll play ball. In the tournament, you can't bank on the bats." THE LOSER of the Michigan-EMU game will play the loser of today's 1 p.m. opener between Southern Illinois and Illinois State. The loser's game starts at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Today's win- ners will meet at 1 p.m. tomorrow in the double-elimination tourney. The Salukis, a consistent NCAA en- trant over the last decade, are the na- tion's second best hitting team with a phenomenal .360 team average. Only three players are hitting below .300. SIU finished its regular season at 39-12-1. Independent Illinois State compiled a 40-19 mark mostly on the strength of its pitching staff, which allowed only 2.58 earned runs per game this year. Eastern, Southern Illinois and Illinois St. all hove won more games than Michigan played in its entire season. But then, it's a brand new season. LEFLORE 30 IN A ROW! Baltimore slips by Bengals BN Th,- Associated Press DETROIT - K e n Singleton broke a tie with a run-scoring double in the seventh inning last night, sending the Baltimore Orioles to a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Ron LeFlore of Detroit opened the Tiger first with a triple to extend his hitting streak to 30 games. LeFlore, who also had a bnt single in the third, entered the game as the major league's leading hitter with a .392 average. Doug DeCinces opened the Baltimore seventh with an in- field single and was forced by Dave Duncan before Singleton's double, the run scoring with the aid of a bobbled relay by sec- ond baseman Jerry Manuel. Baltimore scored twice off Joe Coleman in the first in- ning with Lee May and Tony Muser singling in runs. Cole- man hit Bobby Grich with a throw to the plate in the sixth inning for an error, allowing Grich to score a run that tied the game 3-3 after Detroit had rallied. Detroit's first run came in the second inning on a single by Aurelio Rodriguez and triple by Check Scrivener. Alex Johnson and John Wockenfuss hit solo homers in the Tiger fourth off Orioles' starter Ken Holtzman, who raised his record to 4-2. Coleman dropped his fourth straight after two victories. Mets Flip Phi/s PHILADELPHIA-Wayne Gar- rett's bases - loaded pinch - hit triple in the ninth inning rallied the New York Mets to a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies last night, snapping the Phils four-game winning streak. The Mets trailed 2-1 starting the ninth and had only four hits off left-hander Jim Kaat, in, cluding Dave Kingman's 17th home run of the season. But John Milner, batting for winning pitcher Jerry Koos- man, 6-1, opened the ninth with a single. Bud Harrelson hunted and both runners were safe when Kaat threw high to first for an error, Leon Brown bunted into a force play at third, and Kaat was relieved by Gene Garber. Ed Kranepool pinch-hit a single to center but Harrelson was out at the plate on Garry Maddox' throw to catcher Bob Boone. Kranepool wound up at second and Brown at third. Garber intentionally walked Kingman and Tug McGraw came in to face Garrett, who ripped a 2-2 pitch to right- center, clearing the bases and sending the Mets ahead 4-2. Roy Staiger doubled in the fourth unearned run of the inning. Major League Standings AMERICAN LEAGUE East w , Pet. GnG New York 23 14 622 -- Baltimore 20 48 .526 314 Btoston 10 195,456 5 Cleveland 18 20 .474 51f Mlilwaukee 15 18 .455 6 Detroit 15 21 .417 7 West Kansas City 23 14 .622 - Texas 23 15 .605 3 Chicago 19 16 .543 3 Minnesota 19 19 .500 4 : Oakland 18 24 .429 1 7/ Calitornia 5 28 .349 11 Yesterday's Results aoston 2, Milwaukee 1 Oakland5, aMinnesota 3 Cleveland 5, New York 3 Baltimore 4, Detroit 3 Texas 5. Kansas City 4, 10 inn- into, lot tame Texas 6, Kansas City 4, 2nd game Chicago at California, n Today's Games Blaltimore (Garland 3-0) at Boston (Cleveland 3-0), n. New York (Figueroa 4-3) at De- trnit(Rtulte 3-0), n. Cleveland (Brown 4-1) at Milwan- loe (Cotborn 2-5), a, Teas (Umbarger 4-3) at Minne- sota (Redfern 1-1), n, Kansas City (Bird 1-1) at Califor- nia (Ryan 3-5), a, Chirago (Jefferson 1-1) at Oak- land (Bahnsen 1-3) or (Mitchell 1-3), a, NATIONAL LEAGUE East w L Pet. GR Philadelphia 26 10 .722 - Pittsbhttl 23 17 .575 5 New York 23 20 .35 0 Chicago 18 22 .450 10 Montreal 16 20 .444 10 St. Louis 17225,.40512 West Los Angeles 27 15 .643 - Cincinnati 24 16 .600 2 San Diego 20 26 .500 6 Hoston 10 20 .409 10 Atlanta 16 26 3815 San Francisco 16 27 .372 11 t Yesterday's Results Chicago 2, St. Louis1s New York 5, Philadelphia 2 San Francisco at San Diego, a Today's Games Pittsburgh (Kison 3-3) at Chicago (Bonham 2-2). Houston (J. Niekro 2-5) at At- lanta (P. Niekro 3-3), n. Los Anteles (Sutton 4-4) at Cin- cinnati (Zachry 3-0), n. Montreal (Stanhouse 2-0) at Phil- adelphia (Underwood 1-1), n. St. Louis (Curtis 2-4) at New York (swan 2-3), n. San Francisco (Montefuso 5-3) at. San Diego (Foster 0-1), n. Third period scoring surge puts Boston on top of NBA series By The Associated Press Dave Cowens also had 16 for The Suns stayed ahead until BOSTON-Boston's indestruc- the Celtics, while ex-Celtic Paul early in the second quarter, tible Celtics, spurred by John Westphal broke loose for 28. when the Celtics strung together Havlicek, destroyed frustrated Adams wound up with 18 six straight points and forged Phoenix with a 20-2 burst at the points for Phoenix and Curtis ahead for good, 30-27. outset of the second half and Perry scored 15, 13 in the final Westphal, Phoenix' leading went on to beat the Suns 105-90 period. scorer during the regular sea- last night for their second PHOENIX GOT off quickly, son scored nine points in the straight victory in the National racing to a 17-8 lead midway first quarter. By halftime, when Basketball Association cham- through the opening period with Boston led 46-41, Westphal had pionship series. the help of 10 consecutive 17 points, including the Suns' They outscored the tense, points, six by Garfield Heard. last eight in the second period. tight, poor-shooting Suns in the opening three mnutes of the second half. Then, after Phoe- nix rookie Alvan Adams tipped in a missed shot, the Celtics resumed their decisive charge with another run of eight points for a 66-43 bulge. DURING THE spree, Bavli- cek, playing despite pain from torn muscles in his left foot, scored seven points and Charlie Scott had six. Havlicek finished with 23 points and Scott scored 16, including 12 in the third period before fouling out in the last minute r of Boston's big quarter. Jets rout Houston, 9-1 to sweep WHA fina series By The Associated Press WINNIPEG-Veli Pekka Ketola, Anders Hedberg and Peter Sullivan scored two goals each last night, powering the Winnipeg Jets to a 9-1 triumph over Houston and ending the Aeros' two- year rein as World Hockey Association champions. It was Winnipeg's imported stars who did most of the damage. Along with the pair of goals by Ketola and Hedberg, fellow Swede Ulf Nillson had three asseists, and Finland's Heikki Riihiranta set up the last two tallies.