. ~ya axxeen THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, May 11, 1976 Michigan set for pennant drive By BILL STIEG Things are looking good for Michigan's baseball team - good enough for an- other Big Ten championship. But don't tell that to coach Moby Benedict. "You're not going to get me to say any thing about that," said the veteran coach yesterday when asked how he as- sesses the race and his team's chances. "We play one game at a time." T H E W O L V E R I N E S played four games last weekend and won three, which kept them on top of the Big Ten with a 7-2 record, one- half game ahead of 8-4 Iowa. Michigan lost the first game of a doubleheader with OSU Saturday, then won the night- cap and swept two from Indiana on Sun- day. It was the first time since April 17 that the Wolverines have won three in a row, and only the third time all year. Michigan is 15-14-1 overall. As in bas- ketball, the NCAA takes conference champs and runners-up with good re- cords. Today at Fisher Stadium Michigan tries to improve its non-conference re- cord in a doublehender with Bowling Falcons here today Green, the second - place team in the tough Mid-American Conference. The Wolverines will get a look at the Fal- cons' ace pitcher Kip Young, who has lost to only two teams in his fine ca- reer - Toledo and Michigan. MICHIGAN HAS a good chance for its second straight conference title because it is two games up in the loss column with only six games to go. Rainouts are cancelled. not just postponed. Four of these games are with second division teams. B't Benedict has seen too many snee,-ected occurrences. "You don't take anyone lightly in baseball," said Benedict. "Anyone can beat you." Michigan plays twinbills at Wisconsin and Northwestern this Saturday and Sun- day, and finishes the season with a home-away series with Michigan State May 22-23. Star Michigan hurler Lary Sorenson won the nightcaps of both doubleheaders last weekend to boost his record to 8-0. The other Michigan win went to Bill Stennett in a very strong effort against Indiana. Stennett, one of the victims of Notre Dame's 12-run inning last week, went six innings and give up five hits and one run. MARK WEBER, who lost a tough 2-0 game to OSU Saturday, came in for Stennett, who yielded three straight hits to start he seventh. Weber fired seven straight strikes, getting the Hoosier hit- ters to fan, pop up and bounce out to end the game in Michigan's favor, 3-1. Michigan had scored all the runs it needed in the first inning on a two-run homer by Bob Wasilewski. In the second game Sunday, the Wol- verines batted around and scored six runs in the first to coast to an 11-4 deci- sion, Dick Walterhouse pumped up his average with a four-for-four game, scor- ing three runs. Sorensen scattered seven hits while going-the distance. Saturday's games were a bit more tense. OSU won the first on a three-hit- ter by Russ Pensiero, 2-0, but in the nightcap Wasilewski drilled a two-out double over the left-fielder's head in the bottom of the seventh to knock home the winning run, 3-2. Bill Haslerig scor- ed a run in the second and knocked one in in the third to put Michigan up, 2-0. OSU came back with an unearned run in the fourth and tied it on a triple and a sacrifice fly in the fifth to set up the last-inning heroics. Sorensen went all the way for Michigan, giving up four hits. Michigan (15-14-1) Iowa (20-13) Michigan State (14-20-1) Minnesota (32-8) Ohio State (18-14) Wisconsin (19-13 Indiana (17-13) Purdue (13-15) Illinois (17-16) Northwestern (14-17) W L GB 7 2 - 8 4 2 6 4 % 7 5 1% 5 5 2312 6 7 3 4 5 3 4 5 3 3 7 4% 4 10 5%12 Netters bust Broncos, 8-1 Wolverine from Ohio By BOB MILLER Michigan's men's tennis team bounced back from a 7-2 setback to Ohio State on Saturday to bomb Western Michigan 8-1 yes- terday. The win closed out the home portion of the 1976 tennis season. At Ohio State, nearly nothing went right for the Wolverines. Seven of the nine matches went the full three sets. Coach Brian Eisner also alluded that "an- other match could have gone three, but didn't . . . the out- come could have been 7-2 for us, it was that tight." Captain Eric Friedler lost to the Buckeyes' Fernando Gon- zales in what was possibly a preview of the Big Ten finals at number one singles. The 7-2 final score marked the first time in five years that Michigan lost to two conference opponents in the same season, and was the Wolverines worst Big Ten loss since Indiana won by the same score in 1964. Yesterday Eisner substituted Mark Zausmer at third doubles and Steve Swanson at sixth sin- gles to replace Buddy Gallagher who is resting for the conference meet, The doubles team of Friedler and Jeff Etterbeek never pulled away from their WMU counter- parts, Tony Lamerato and Bob Learman. The Michigan duo held on to claim a narrow 7-6 opening set win, and battled to a well earned 6-3 victory in the second. Jim Holman and Brad Hol- land followed with a three set decision over Jim Buck and Fritz Dwyer. WMU led 5-2 in the final set, but Michigan took over from that point, and Holman and Holland blazed back for a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 win. Ollie Owens and Zausmer took their first set 6-4, but fell victim to Scott Frew and Scott Schultz in a bizarre manner. Western tied things up, 64, but in the s rebound St. loss tiebreaker of the deciding set, Frew sprained his ankle. Frew continued, but was re- duced to playing out the set by standing in one spot as though he were playing the net, and hobbling from side to side after each point. His timely put-away at the net helped Western win in a wild finish, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. Iron- ically, it proved to be the only point WMU could muster all day. In singles, Friedler wore Lamerato down after a tiring first set, to win 6-4, 6-2. This point clinched the match for the Maize and Blue, who then led 5-1. E a r li e r Holman squashed Learman 6-0, 6-2, in the meet's only one-sided af- fair. Etterbeek followed with a con- vincing 6-3, 6-2 takedown of Buck, to set up Friedler's clinch- ing point. As his second set neared con- clusion, and victory -seemed im- minent, Friedler, playing his last home match, turned to the crowd and announced that "this is my Ann Arbor swansong." A voice shot back, "What are you going to do, cry?" "No," said Friedler, "just wave." He then proceded to whip off the remaining two games, and received a standing ovation for his efforts. singles 1. Eric Friedler (M) def. Tony Lamerato 6-4, 6-2. 2. Jeff Etterbeek (M) def. Jim Buck 6-3, 6-2. 3. Jim Holman (M) def. Bob Lear- man 6-0, 6-2. 4. Brad Holland (M) def. scott Schultz 6-2, 7-5. 5. Ollie Owens (M) def. Fritz Dwyer 6-4, 6-3. 6. Steve Swanson (M) def. Tom Mitchell 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Doubles 1. Friedler-Etterbeek (M) def. La- merato-Learman 7-6, 6-3. 2. Holman-Rolland (M) def. Buck- Dwyer 6-2, 3-6, 7-6. 3. Frew - Schultz (WMU) d ef. Owens-Zausmer s-6, 6-4, 7-6. MICHIGAN SENIOR CAPTAIN Eric Friedler races for the ball in his doubles match yesterday against Western Michigan. Friedler did well in his last matches in Ann Arbor, winning number one singles, 6-4, 6-2 and pairing with Jeff Etter beek (background) for a 7-6, 6-3 doubles win. Major League Standings' NATIONAL LEAGUE East w L Pet. GB Philadelphia 15 7 .682 -- New York 18 10 .643 - Pittsburgh 15 9 .625 1 St. Louis 12 15 .444 5a Chicago 11 16 .407 614 Montreal 9 15 .375 7 West Cineinnati 15 10 .600 -- Los Angeles 16 11 .593 - Houston 14 14 .500 2Y4 San Diego 13 13 .500 2 . San Francisco 9 17 .346 61 Atlanta 8 18 .308 71 Yesterday's Result Los Angeles 4, St. Louis 3 Only game scheduled a Today's Games San Francisco (lalicki 2-4) at Chicago (Fralng 1-0). San Diego (Spillner 1-4) at Phila- delphia (Carlton 1-1), n. New York (Matlack 3-0) at Atlanta (Morton 0-4), n. Pittsburgh (Kison 2-i) at Cincin- nati (Nolan 2-1), a. Los Angeles (Sutton 3-3) at St. Loi.s (Curtis 2-2), n.' Montreal (Kirby 0-1) at Houston (Niekro 1-5), n. AMERICAN LEAGUE East W L Pet. GB New York 15 6 .14 - Milwaukee 10 7 .585 3 Detroit 10 9 .526 4 Cleveland 10 12 .455 5;' Baltimore 9 13 .409 614 Boston 6 14 .300 81 West Texas 15 7 .681 - Kansas City 11 9 .550 3 Minnesota 11 10 .529 3} Oakland 12 13 .480 5 Chicago 8 11 .421 5? California 10 16 .385 7s Yesterday's Results Minnesota 5, Kansas City 4 (10 inn.) Chicago 7, Texas 6 (11 inn.) Today's Games Boston (Jenkins 1-4) at Cleveland (Dobson 2-3), n. Detroit (D. Roberts 3-1) at New York (Figueroa 2-1), n. Baltimore (Cuellar 0-2) at Mil- waukee (Colborn 2-2), n. Minnesota (Hughes 0-2) at Kansas City (Bird 2-0), n. Chicago (Forster 1-1) at Texas (Barr 1-1), n. California (Ross 0-3) at Oakland (Blue 2-4), a. Stale game' already sold 'out-- see story, page 15