Softball at Michigan State Today, 3 p.m. (DH) East Lansing S TS Baseball vs. Eastern Michigan Today, 3 p.m. Ray Fisher Stadium Softball looks to extend winning ways vs. MSU Hitters split another against Penn State By SCOTT BURTON game, 5-2, before rebounding for a DAILY BASEBALL WRITER 3 victory in the canner By JOSH KARP DAILY SOFTBALL WRITER Six games. That's how long the Michigan soft- ball team's winning streak is after it swept two doubleheaders from North- western last Friday and Saturday. With their toughest stretch of the season ahead of them -eight games in five days - the Wolverines (6-2 Big Ten, 18-16 overall) look to continue to their streak as they head to Michigan State (2-6, 15-14) for a doubleheader today at Old College Field at 3 p.m. "We're starting to put things to- gether," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "We're starting to play with confidence and I think that the most important factor is my team thinks they can win right now." Michigan has good reason to be- lieve. Third baseman Tracy Carr went 5-for-15 against the Wildcats with six runs batted in. Carr increased her team leading average to .291, and also tops the Wolverines in RBI with 20. Besides Carr, pitcher Kelly Kovach (8-8, 1.44 earned run aver- age) is back on track. Kovach threw a 2-0 shutout against Northwestern in the teams' first meeting Friday, and Hutchins guaranteed that her ace will start one of today's games. The Spartans are fresh off two con- secutive doubleheader splits with Min- nesota. Prior to that, they had lost their first four Big Ten contests to Iowa. Although it has not gotten off to a strong start, Hutchins expects Michi- gan State to provide tough competi- tion. "Records won't mean a thing," Hutchins said. "We have to gear up for State and be expecting a tough battle. They definitely are fired up. They're out to upset everybody and I've gotta believe this is probably their biggest rivalry of the year." The Spartans are loaded offen- sively. They have four players batting over .300, and own an impressive .286 team average. Michigan State is lead by Janelle Howe (.343,7 RBI) and Patti Raduenz (.341, 16). In addition to its solid hitting, the Spartans' pitching is holding the op- position toa.238 average. Alina Baron (5-7, 1.60) and Stacey Smith (7-6, 2.22) will do most of the work. The Wolverines will attempt to increase more than their string of con- ference victories. They have beaten Michigan State in 12 straight games and lead the all-time series, 35-16. a4- The Michigan baseball team has a splitting headache and it has Penn State to thank for it. The Wolverines (7-5 Big Ten, 12- 14 overall) who are battling for first place in the Big Ten, split a double- header yesterday with the last-place Nittany Lions (3-8, 11-15) for the second time in the series. Michigan dropped the opening The Wolverines salvaged the sec- ond game thanks to a solid mop-up job by Matt Ferullo and John Arvai in relief of starter Chris Newton. Ferullo (3-1) retired six straight batters for the win and Arvai pitched a perfect seventh to earn his fifth save in as many opportunities. Newton pitched three scoreless See BASEBALL, Page 10 JONATHAN LURIE/Daily The Michigan baseball team completed its weekend series against Penn State yesterday with a doubleheader split. The Wolverines played yesterday after Sunday's games were cancelled due to rain. They also split Saturday's doubleheader with the last-place Nittany Lions. 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