cjre imgrn &iilg
olverines
shut down
idats on
ond
y Mark Snyder
Daily Sports Writer
It was cold and windy with a hint of
snow but the Wolverines were in a
mood for spring cleaning.
So they brought out the brooms.
he Michigan softball team swept
orthwestern in a 3-2 squeaker in the
pener and then blanked the Wildcats
the next two games.
Despite the slow start, Michigan
rolled,maintaining its second-place slot
in the Big Ten standings.
The first game started out with Michi-
an spotting the Wildcats two runs. The
Wolverines' flawed defense was high-
lighted in the second inning as senior
o-captain Kathryn Gleason made a
r throw to first base on a soft
rounder.
The poor throw allowed
Northwestern's Erin Robson to reach
ase. She promptly stole second before
essica Lang followed suit with a errant
oss of her own that allowed Robson to
core. Michigan's Erin Martino
misplayed a hit soon after, allowing
Northwestern pitcher Alison Ward to
re on the two-base error.
ut that was the end for the Wildcats.
ot only for the game, but for the week-
nd. Northwestern did not score again
for the next 19 innings.
Michigan settled down, mounted a
omeback and, with some timely hit-
ing, got back into the game. After Cathy
Davie's triple in the fourth, Gleason hit
deep sacrifice fly to score Davie from
hird.
The Wolverines' hopes for another
in the inning were dashed as Cheryl
Pearcy was thrown out at the plate at-
empting to score on Kellyn Tate's
ingle to left.
With the heart of Michigan's order
ue up in the bottom half of the fifth
inning, pitcher Sara Griffin set down
he Wildcats in order. The Wolverine
ally came in the bottom half of the
iming as first baseman Traci Conrad
d bled and Ward began to lose control
he game.
Ward walked Tracy Carr and Jenni-
fer Smith to load the bases. Lang fol-
owed then singled up the middle to
ock in the tying and go ahead runs.
That was all Griffin needed, closing
ut the Wildcats by allowing just one
it over the next two innings and seal-
ing the win. The game improved
riffin's season record to 15-4.
"Three errors in one inning, I would
that was bad defense," Michigan
ch Carol Hutchins said. "We are
ortunate that we came back and
utscored them.
"Other than (the errors) we played a
ood game, but that inning was hor-
ble."
The second game of Saturday's
oubleheader was the Wolverines'
hance to be the road team in their home
ark.
'he second game was Michigan's
urn to get out to an early lead and it did
ot hesitate to capitalize. In the first
inning, before many of the fans had
See SWEEP, Page 4B
Blue digs Gophers' hole
'M' baseball stays on top of Big Ten with three wins
By Will McCahill
Daily Sports Writer
There was a lot of white stuff fall-
ing out of the sky this weekend at Ray
Fisher Stadium, and it wasn't just the
snow.
Big white baseballs were tumbling
from the heavens, too, courtesy of the
Michigan baseball team. In a four-
game homestand against Minnesota,
the Wolverines (9-3 Big Ten, 12-16
overall) clocked five dingers, helping
them take three of the four matchups
from the Gophers (3-4 Big Ten, 12-15
overall).
It was probably a sign of things to
come when Minnesota shortstop Steve
Huls put Michigan hurler J.J. Putz's
first pitch over the right field wall.
Thereafter, though, the only balls the
kids outside the fences were chasing
got there off of Wolverine bats.
Shortstop Kelly Dransfeldt and third
baseman Mike Cervenak each hit two
homers for Michigan, while right
fielder Derek Besco added one of his
own.
Dransfeldt's first of the weekend
- fourth overall - was the highlight
of Saturday's first game, in which the
Wolverines downed the virtually
toothless Gophers, 7-3.
Freshman righthander J.J. Putz got
the win for Michigan with another
excellent outing. Putz threw a com-
plete-game three-hitter, striking out
four while giving up two walks. The
victory was Putz's third in as many
conference games and brought his
overall record to 3-2.
On a day when the story could have
been the cold weather or the various
Hash Bash-related activities, redshirt
freshman Cervenak had other plans.
In the bottom of the first inning in
the second of Saturday's games,
Cervenak, batting in the fifth, spot,
didn't need to see much of Minnesota
pitcher Mike Diebolt to take advan-
tage of the Gopher southpaw. After
Michigan left fielder Jason Alcaraz
singled to right and Dransfeldt reached
on an error, Cervenak deposited
Diebolt's first pitch over the left field
wall, about 360 feet away. The Wol-
verines were up 3-0 and never looked
back.
Senior righthander Mark emple
kept the Gophers at bay while his
teammates continued to put runs on
the board. Cervenak came up with his
second homer of the day on the first
pitch of the Wolverine half of the
sixth, and Derek Besco followed hot
on his heels with a spank of his own
on the following delivery from
Diebolt.
"I was seeing the ball well,"
Cervenak said. "It was one of those
days where everything was going well
for me."
See LEADERS, Page 5B
MARGERET MEY
Michigan right fielder Derek Besco slides safley into third base, yesterday.
Marshall
Law
rules for wendy
By Kevin Kasaborski
Daily Spoprts Writer
pour years ago this month, Wendy Marshall faced a
dilemma familiar to us all. She had to choose a
college.
The fact that she was an athlete, and had been recruited
to compete in gymnastics, only cormplicated matters. She
couldn't just pick the best team or the best school. She
had to find a good combination of both.
Then, about a week and half before the late signing
period, Marshall got a phone call from Michigan. They
had a scholarship available. Did she want it?
Marshall had already used up her allotted five visits, so
she paid her own way to Ann Arbor.
"They called me on a Sunday, and I said, 'OK, I'll be
there on Tuesday,"' Marshall says. "I took a train, a 17
hour ride to get here, and was here for eight hours. Never
had time to go out with the team or anything. It was
academics, see the school, meet the team. Eight hours I
was here and then I was right back on a train to New York
- 17 more hours."
Choosing a college had suddenly become easy. She was
to become a Wolverine. Marshall, now a senior, says she
made her decision even before she got on that train to
Ann Arbor.
"I didn't even have to visit here," she says. "I knew this
was a great school."
What everyone didn't know was the caliber of gymnast
Marshall would develop into.
Marshall has always been superb on the vault. She was a
second-team All-American as both a freshman and a sopho-
more at Michigan. During the past four years, she worked to
See MARSHALL, Page 3B
Michigan gymnast Wendy Marshall almost didn't come to Michigan, but she said she would have regretted such a decision.
)ur name Pat Coen?
you may be the winner of
ichigan Daily's NCAA Men's-
tball Tournament contest, co-
>red by Cottage Inn! This, of
, means that you are entitled
free one-topping pizzas!
is exciting news! Hence the
nation points! If your name is
>en, but you did not enter the
t, you are the wrong Pat
Gymnasts drop final meet of season
Darden leaves program winless in his last season at the helm of Blue ship
e Pat Coen,
desk at 747-
the top 10
By Sharat Raju
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's gymnastics
team competed in a meet of"lasts" on
Saturday in East Lansing.
It was the last meet for the seniors.
The last chance to get a team vic-
tory.
The last chance for regional hope-
fuls to up their overall averages.
The last competition for the West-
ern Michigan program - ever.
The last meet for Michigan coach
Bob Darden.
The 0-12 Wolverines dropped their
final team performance of the season
to Michigan State (226.9) and West-
gan team total of 211.95 is the sec-
ond-best output of the season.
For the seniors, Brad Terris, Kris
Klinger and Chris Onuska, this was
their last regular-season opportunity
to compete. Terris didn't disappoint,
scoring a career-high and team-high
on the floor exercise with a 9.45.
Onuska and Klinger are two of the
Michigan gymnasts hoping to enter
regional competition. Onuska, who
placed seventh overall, received a 9.3
on the parallel bar and a Klinger got a
9.6 on the high bar - both scores are
season-highs for the individuals.
Klinger tied teammate junior Jason
MacDonald and Western Michigan's
MacDonald and junior Flavio Mar-
tins are both hoping to enter regional
- competition as well. MacDonald's
9.6 on the high bar should help him
to earn a selection into regional com-
petition.
Martins is hoping to be selected in
the all-around, but didn't compete in
it over the weekend.
Regional participants are deter-
mined by an average of all scores
received throughout the season.
Those gymnasts on the six teams that
qualify for regionals are factored out,
and the top individuals from the re-
maining teams are invited to the
regionals.
e-mail
question is simply, "Where
ace?" we will not answer
he large number of entries.
The Wolverines fell to both Western Michigan and Michigan State in East Lansing
n e t t
II