' ! 'l YEA J I .A .±r .._._._.. 1 I .,. _.._... Meet me in St. Louis After months of debate, the N.F.L's Los Angeles Rams have been given permission to move to St. Louis. At a special meeting in Dallas on Wednesday, owners aprroved the move by a 23-6 vote, with one abstention, the minimum needed for passage. Page 12 Friday April 14, 1995, April 14. 1995 Blue crushed by Eagles Winters shelled in embarrassing non-conference loss@ By Scott Burton Daily Sports Writer The Michigan baseball team may want to scrub their collective con- sciousness clean after yesterday's 16- 3 loss to Eastern Michigan at Fisher Stadium. Despite a significant turnaround from the Wolverines' infield defense, little else went Michigan's way in a drizzly, protracted game. The Eagles outhit the Wolverines (13-19 over- all),16-8, en route to a late-inning blowout. Eastern clinged to a 5-1 lead going into the eighth before exploding on Michigan's more inexperienced pitch- ers. The Eagles (10-18) scored two runs off Mike Hribernik in the top of the eighth and nine off Chuck Win- ters and Aaron Toth in the ninth. Winters' appearance was perhaps the most noteworthy event of Michigan's day. The junior lefthander -- who doubles as a safety on the football team - made only his fifth appearance of the year and ninth total in his career. He gave up a touchdown worth of runs in two-thirds of an in- ning. "Winters had been in spring foot- ball and I wanted to see where he was at," Freehan said. "Unfortunately, I learned." Winters was not the only Wolver- ine running into trouble on the day. Sophomore Brian Steinbach, who re- lieved starter Matt Ferullo in the fifth, surrendered three runs in the sixth despite allowing only one ball out of the infield. However, Steinbach committed two errors sandwiched around a wild pitch to allow the Eagles to cushion their lead. Steinbach allowed only two other baserunners outside of the fifth in three innings of work. Ferullo (2-6) picked up the loss for Michigan, surrendering two runs and three hits in four innings. Michigan's bats failed to get much going against Eastern's starter Tim Tessmar (1-0). The lefthanded junior was making just his first start of the year, yet pitched eight solid innings. He allowed just eight Wolverine hits before getting pulled in the bottom of the ninth. "He has not pitched a whole lot this year," Freehan said. "But he did an outstanding job. He threw the ball hard, and had good control of his breaking ball too." After Brian Simmons' RBI double that scored Ryan Van Oeveren in the first, Michigan failed to score until the eighth. In that inning, a Chad Chapman double-play groundout plated Simmons. Kirk Beerman added an RBI single in the ninth. Michigan's infield defense did manage to sparkle, playing on a sogged-down field. Shortstop Van Oeveren made a bare-handed grab on T.D. Denny's grounder and threw him out to end the Eagles' two-run rally in the first. Second baseman 'Beerman snatched Jeff McGavin's grounder deep in the hole to record the first out in the second. The infield's errorless effort fol- lowed a four-gaffe performance just the day before against Madonna. Eastern 200 003 029 -16 16 1 Michigan 100 000 011- 3 8 2 W - Tessmar, L - Ferullo; LOB - EMU 7, UM 9; 2B - Denny 2(EMU), DeDonatis (EMU), McGavin (EMU), Baker (EMU), Tessmar (EMU), Dransfeldt (UM), Simmons (UM), Van Oeveren (UM); SH - Tessmar (EMU), Goble (UM); SF - Belli (EMU); WP - Tessmar (EMU), Steinbach (UM); E - Fetzer (EMU), Steinbach 2(UM); HBP - Denny (EMU) by Steinbach Matt Ferullo, above, was one of the few bright spots for the Michigan baseball team yesterday. The Wolverines lost to Eastern Michigan 16-3. Michigan's next series is this weekend against Michigan State. Ninth-ranked softball hosts Golde .. By Danielle Rumore Daily Softball Writer The Michigan softball team is heat- ing up again. After splitting a doubleheader with Toledo, April 6, and dropping three of four to Iowa last weekend, the Wolverines rebounded quickly by si- lencing Penn State in a doubleheader two days ago. The No. 9 Wolverines (11-3 Big Ten, 29-7 overall) host Minnesota (5- 3, 15-17) at Alumni Field this week- end. Michigan holds a 26-16 all-time record against the Golden Gophers and have won ten straight in sweep- ing them the past three seasons. Injuries plagued Minnesota for most of last season. It finished with a disappointing 19-43 overall record, including a 4-24 mark in the Big Ten. This year, the Gophers are healthy and return nine players along with the tenth-best defense in the nation. "(The Gophers) are a very solid team," Wolverine coach Carol Hutch- ins said. "They are the best defensive team in the league. I think they do a good job teaching fundamentals." Minnesota sophomore pitcher Jen- nifer Johnson exited the 1994 season ten games in with an arm injury. She left with a 5-5 record and 2.61 ERA, tops on the team. This year she has picked up where she left off, as evidenced by her stats (7-10, 2.53 ERA). Freshman Wendy Logue (3-4, 3.10 ERA), one of the top eight prep pitchers in the nation last season, joins Johnson on the mound. The Gophers return their top two hitters to complement their pitching staff. Sophomore Rachel Nelson led Minnesota last season with a .365 batting average, drilling two homers and collecting eight RBI. She also led the team with 73 hits. Senior Melissa Wold batted .363, adding one home run and nine RBI in 31 games before a knee injury ended her season. "(The Gophers) hit the ball pretty well," Hutchins said. "Nelson is their leadoff hitter. She is very fast and very effective." Once again, Nelson and Wold are Minnesota's top hitters. Nelson is batting .425 with 48 hits in 113 at bats. She leads the team in batting average, runs scored (19) and stolen bases (11). Wold is batting .333, while iGophers leading the team in doubles (9) and triples (2). Michigan has its own group of hurlers and heavy hitters to battle the Gophers. Senior Kelly Kovach is 11-2 on the mound and leads the team with a 1.32 ERA. Freshman Sara Griffin (11-4, 1.35) comple- ments Kovach. Kovach's eleventh win over Penn State Wednesday gave her 65 career wins, tying the team record set by Vicki Morrow in 1987. A win this weekend will push her over the top, well before the end of the season. "(Kovach) has won a lot of games for us," Hutchins said. "I knew all year that she was going to break (the record). She'll definitely get the game ball." Griffin leads the Wolverine of- fense with a .408 batting average and five homers. She and Kovach share the team lead in RBI with 31. Griffin nailed two of her homeruns in the second game of the doubleheader with the Nittany Lions, including an in- side-the-park homerun. I It's Been A Long Year... ...We've Shared Some Special Moments. Let's Have One More Evening, Just The Two Of Us. Men's Gymnastics Review 7-8 Bo Schembechler Int. 8-9 The Original "Big Bang" 9-10 WOLY + YOU ChunIO The Michigan softball team got back on trackwith two wins over Penn State after slumping against Toledo and Iowa. Men's tennis looks to rebound after Irish loss By Brett Krasnove Daily Sports Writer Just because they are called the Irish does not mean that victories for Notre Dame are based on luck alone. The No. 24 Irish had more than luck on their side when they defeated the Michigan men's tennis team, 5-2, Wednesday. "Quite simply, they just played a little bit better than we did," Michi- gan coach Brian Eisner said. "We had our chances to win the match, but everything would have had to fall perfectly for us. "Talking to the (Notre Dame) coach, he indicated that it was the best match that they've played this year." The Wolverines (7-1 Big Ten, 12-7 overall), ranked 28th in the country and second to the Fighting Irish in the midwest, won only two of the six singles matches and dropped all three of the doubles matches. Eisner was pleased by the per-2 formance of junior Peter Pusztai at,, first singles. Pusztai, No. 59 in the national individual rankings, de- feated No. 45 Ryan Simme, 6-3, 7- 6. "It was a great individual win for Peter," Eisner said. The only other Michigan victory came at No. 5 singles, in which junior Geoff Prentice defeated Jakub Pietrowski, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The Wolverines lost two tough three-set matches, when junior John Costanzo was defeated 6-3, 5-7, 7-4 at No. 2 singles to Mike Sprouse and freshman David Paradzik fell at No. 3 singles to Jason Pun, 3-6;6-1, 6-4. "Those matches were very, very close and we could've won those matches," Eisner said. "But again, we would've had to win those matches and they would have given us a 4-3 0 Convenience Store 1235 S. University. 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