The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, March 6, 1995 - £
,Softball off to 2-1 start in UCLA tourney
By Danielle Rumor.
Daily Softball Writer
The No. 10 Michigan softball team
may very well have been singing the
children's, and Harry Caray's, famous
rhyme 'Rain, rain go away.'
The Wolverines were unable to
play their final game against No. 15
.'outh Carolina yesterday at the UCLA
aston/Reebok Invitational due to the
.weather. Michigan compiled a 2-1
-record in the tournament up to Sun-
day, but began to ride a hot streak
.after its continual improvement
throughout the weekend.
"This was our toughest tourna-
ment," Wolverine coach Carol
Hutchins said. "Every team in the
tournament we faced was ranked (be-
Ore the tournament began)."
Michigan (9-3) lost to No.5 UNLV,
4-0, Friday evening. They were shutout
for the first time this season. The Wol-
vprines entered the tournament averag-
ing eight hits per game. However, Michi-
gan was only able to muster two hits
against the Runnin' Rebels, compared
to UNLV's 10.
TheRebels' first, and winning run,
*ccurred in the fourth inning when
pitcher Sara Griffin allowed three
walks and a base hit. UNLV added a
run in the sixth and two in the seventh.
Michigan loaded the bases in the
fourth inning, but could not capitalize
because of hot pitching by Amie
,Stewart, who registered five K's.
The Wolverines played a double-
header Saturday againstUtah and No.2
UCLA. Michigan came from behind to
defeat the Utes,4-3. Utah wentup 2-0 in
the second inning on scores by Cyndee
Bennett and Karen Bono.
Pitcher Griffin walked Bennett,
who then advanced to third on a wild
pitch. Bono walked and Pam
McKissick knocked in Bennett with a
single. Bono advanced to second and
scored on the next play when Andi
Moore singled.
Michigan brought the score to 2-1
after senior Lesa Arvia scored on a
pop fly to right by Bono.
Utah scored in the third inning,
but then the Wolverines went on fire.
Senior Michelle Silver and sopho-
more Jessica Lang scored on junior
Cheryl Pearcy's double in the bottom
of the fourth.
Senior Kelly Kovach singled in the
bottom of the fifth inning and advanced
to second on a wild pitch by Ali Andrus.
,Arvia singled, advancing Kovach to
third, who then went on to score the
winning run after a base hit by Lang.
The Wolverines returned to old
form, registering 11 hits against the
Utes. Griffin collected the win, in-
creasing her record to 3-2, while
Andrus dropped to 4-6.
Michigan faced the Bruins later in
the afternoon. The Wolverines won,
5-4, late in the eighth, handing UCLA
its first loss of the season.
UCLA went up 3-0 after the first
five innings before the game was post-
SOFTBALL NOTEBOOK
Big Ten to sponsor tournament,
Purdue fields second-year team
FrILE PHOTO
The No. 10 Michigan softball team began its tournament season Friday.
poned due to rain. Alleah Poulson
homered with Ginny Mike on first.
Then, Kelly Howard doubled and ad-
vanced to third after Kathi Evans was
thrown out at first. Howard scored
after Jennifer Brundage singled.
The rain appeared to rejuvenate
the Wolverines, who scored four runs
in the bottom of the sixth. With the
bases loaded, Pearcy scored after Grif-
fin walked and then Tracy Carr scored
after Lang walked. Kovach scored
after an Arvia pop fly. Griffin scored
on a freshman Kellyn Tate single.
"Kellyn had a real hot start,"
Hutchins said. "She's shown that she
can hit. She's a gamer."
Kathi Evans tied it up for the Bruins
after scoring at the top of the seventh,
but could not score in the eighth.
Kovach, the game's winning
pitcher (4-0), once again scored the
winning run for the Wolverines from
third after Arvia singled behind the
UCLA third baseman.
"We're playing good softball, I
have to admit," Hutchins said. "Our
team is very excited."
By Danielle Rumore
Daily Softball Writer
The crack of the bat and the over-
abundance of mitts in the locker rooms
means only one thing.
The softball season has arrived.
The 1995 season brings two
changes to the Big Ten conference.
The first is the addition of Purdue to
the Big Ten. The
Boilermakers are
abrand-new pro-
gram under the
tutelage of head
coach Carol
Bruggeman, a
former Wolver-
ine assistant
coach for five
years under
Michigan coach
Kovach Carol Hutchins.
Purdue fin-
ished the 1994 season 21-17-1. Michi-
gan travels to the Varsity Softball
Complex to kick off the Big Ten sea-
son against the Boilermakers, Mar.
25-26.
"They're going tohaveagood,solid
program," Hutchins said. "(Bruggeman)
is a good coach. I expect them to be
tougher than most would expect. We
know that they can hit the ball and
they're going to show up."
Secondly, this will be the first
year that the Big Ten sponsors a cham-
pionship tournament in softball. This
year, the regular-season titleist will
serve as host of the four-team tourna-
ment held May 13-14. The tourna-
ment winner will receive an auto-
matic berth to the NCAA National
Tournament.
"Ourconferenceis tough," Hutchins
said. "What it will add is that you will
have more teams vying for a chance to
compete in the Big Ten tournament. It's
going to add a lot more excitement to
the entire season."
OOOOHKLAHOMA!: This is the last
chance for Michigan seniors Kelly
Kovach, Michelle Silver and Lesa
Arvia to secure a spot in the NCAA
World Series, to be held this year in
Oklahoma City.
The three seniors are part of the
most successful Wolverine softball
class ever. They won the Big Ten
Conference championship in 1992 and
1993, reached the NCAA Region 2
Tournament in 1992, reached the
NCAA Region 8 in 1993 and col-
lected a slew of individual honors.
Kovach was a 1994 GTE Academic
All-American and led the Wolverines
in hitting(.306)andpitching(1.30ERAI
116K). She is second in strikeouts (374}
and shutouts (25) and third in wins (54)
on the Michigan career records list.
In 1994, Silver played in England
at the World Championships and led
the team in stolen bases (16). She is
tied for second in doubles (12 in 1993)
and is fourth in stolen bases (16 in
1994) on the Michigan season records
list and is seventh in batting average
(.302) on the career records list.
Arvia was named the Big Ten
player of the week Mar. 31, 1993 and
has started in outfield for the Wolver-
ines the past two seasons.
"I think this team can go to Okla-
homa City, but it all comes down to
putting it out on the field," Hutchins
said.
SIZZLING HOT: Kovach is 4-0 on
the season after last weekend's UCLA
Easton/Reebok Invitational. She was
the winning pitcher after defeating
No. 2 UCLA Saturday and scored the
winning run in both victories over
Utah and UCLA Saturday.
Kovach, whose record stands at
58-33, is set to become the winningest
pitcher in school history. Eight more
wins on the season will put Kovach
over current leader Vicki Morrow
(65).
i1inmons not enough
Baseball falls to FSU, LSU, Minnesota
By Nicholas J. Cotsonika
Daily Baseball Writer
If Brian Simmons could only pitch.
Thejunioroutfielderdidjustabout
everything else for the Wolverines
*his weekend, but in the end, his hero-
cs were not enough.
The Michigan baseball team (4-7)
dropped three straight games in the
Hormel Foods Baseball Classic held
in Minneapolis' Hubert H. Humphrey
Metrodome, losing to Florida State
17-6 yesterday, Louisiana State 11-9
Saturday and Minnesota 7-4 Friday.
Simmons won the tournament's
Most Valuable Player award for his
eord-setting performance. The pre-
season All-American hit .462 for the
three-game set, upping his season
average to .341, and showed some
power as well.
He hit a tournament-best three
homeruns, including a415-foot bomb
and a shot that rang off the scoreboard,
and was one short of the runs-batted-
in record with 10.
The RBI record was set in 1986
by another Michigan player, Casey
Close. His performance propelled
the Wolverines to three straight wins
and a tournament championship that
year.
Simmons' performance gotMichi-
gan nowhere.
His brilliance could not overcome
the combination of poor pitching and
sloppy defense that did in the Wol-
verines. For example, Michigan made
four errors while having their caps
spun by the Seminoles.
Florida State capitalized on a five-
run seventh inning last night, in which
they scored no earned runs, and a six-
run fourth. Senior righthander Matt
Ferullo took the loss to drop his record
to 1-1. Junior righthander Mark
Temple also appeared and gave up six
unearned runs.
Saturday saw much of the same,
as Louisiana State's first three hitters
tagged sophomore righthander Brian
Steinbach for three runs and never
looked back.
They built a 10-0 lead after five and
held Michigan scoreless through five
behind winning pitcher Jeremy Tyson,
who went six innings and gave up two
hits and an earned run.
Michigan was able to stage a late
comback, scoring once in the sixth
then five times in the eighth on a two-
run single by junior infielder Andy
Wade and a two-run double by
Simmons.
Simmons also hit a three-run shot
in the ninth, but it was too little too
late. A short changed pitching staff
didn't have arms as strong as
Simmons' bat and the Wolverines
were forced to go home winless.
The loss to the Tigers dropped
Steinbach to 0-2.
TRACK
Continued from page 2
compete in the mile at nationals, ex-
plained. "Four minutes is relatively
easy for me to hit. I just wanted to hit
the automatic qualifying standard."
What made this race more reward-
ing for the Wolverines was that the
distance medley relay team was able
to qualify in spite of All-American
Scott MacDonald's season-long in-
jury. With MacDonald, who was re-
placed Saturday by Forsyth, the relay
team placed third last year at nation-
als.
"I was feeling a lot of pressure
about (the race) so it was nice to get it
off my back," Forsyth said. "I was
surprised we went so fast. The crowd
was very supportive."
Another runner who was deter-
mined to qualify for nationals was
Neil Gardner. Gardner, who has spent
the season trying to overcome the
lingering effects of a groin injury,
aimed for the automatic standard in
the 55 meter hurdles.
Despite falling short of that quali-
fying mark, Gardner won the race
with an impressive time of 7.32, im-
proving his previous seasonal best of
7.38. In addition, Gardner's time met
the provisional qualifying standard,
leaving him with a realistic chance of
going to Indianapolis.
"I'm pretty satisfied coming down
with a better time," Gardner said.
"The time that I ran put me in the mix
to make it. (If I make nationals), I
should make finals and possibly even
score."
In addition to dominating the
hurdles, Gardner also leaped a 24-9 to
win the long jump. Other victors for
the Wolverines were Chris Lancaster
(52-4) in the shot put and Ben Ludka
(7-1/4) in the high jump.
I
U
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