48 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, April 8, 1996 - ----SOFTBALL Pair o freshgive Wolverines a lift over weekend. By Mark Snyder Daily Sports Writer In "My Cousin Vinny," Joe Pesci's charac- ter called them "the two utes." His New York accent did not do justice to the "youths" he .was talking about, and the numbers from Michigan's weekend series against North- western don't do justice to the Wolverines' "utes." Michigan played three games and had two heroes, neither of which had played college softball before this season. Freshmen standouts Cathy Davie andq Traci Conrad put on a hitting exhibition devastating the Wildcats with 12 hits, and five RBI, a total that surpassed Northwestern's output by three. Davie, who starts in left field, came into the weekend hitting .310 on the season but has since turned it on in Big Ten play. She scorched Northwestern pitching for three singles, a double and a triple. Davie's firepower has begun to manifest itself and now is making the Wolverines deep, as well as consistent. She has a knack for timely hitting, an asset in Saturday's first contest. Davie came to the plate in the fourth inning with Michigan down two runs and searching for a spark. The Wolverines had already stranded four runners, and Davie needed to make an impact to lead off the inning. Her triple into the outfield sent her to second where she scored on Gleason sacri- fice fly, getting Michigan on the board and restoring some of its lost confidence. When the Wolverines won by only a run, Davie's run proved the difference in the tight con- test. She didn't want to see yesterday's game come down to minor details and did her part to ensure a blowout. In the first inning, Davie gave a clinic on advancing runners when she poked a single up the middle allowing Sara Griffin to advance to third while scoring Traci Conrad. She drove Wildcat starter Alison Ward from Ithink the thing I was doing Was not thinking. I go up (to Michigan left fielder the mound in the third inning after damaging her with an opposite-field two-run single. Davie's four RBI in her first three at-bats proved to be a career-high, and solidified her as one of Michigan's top hitters, despite her youth. Minor adjustments resulted in the major results for Davie. "I think the thing I was doing today was not thinking. I go up (to the plate) thinking too much but (this weekend) I just relaxed my body and focused on the ball." Also making a case for freshman eligibility this weekend was Traci Conrad. Her well- rounded game makes for numerous contribu- tions he can make to the squad. Conrad plays first base and has been solid thus far in the field. Her fielding percentage is .944, and she has made only two errors, de- spite having the most opportunities of any position in the field. She participated in all three Michigan ral- lies on Sunday, igniting two with her feisty hitting. Conrad's line for the weekend totaled seven hits, six of which were singles. Her job in the number two spot in the lineup is to get on base and that she did. Her six singles put Northwestern on the defensive. But the fact that she was on the bases at all which scares opponents. Her seven Michigan's success at the plate has kept most opponents at bay By Dan Stillman Daily Sports Writer With two marquee starting pitchers, sophomore Sara Griffin (16-4) and junior Kelly Holmes (12-5), the Michigan softball team knew its pitching staff would keep it in most games. It's the Wolverine bats, however, that have kept opponents out ofmost games and lifted Michigan to a fast start in the conference. Michigan (7-1 Big Ten, 28-9 overall) ranks No. 15 in the nation in batting with a .329 team average. Lead-off hitter and outfielder Kellyn Tate has proved she deserved an earlier move to the top of the order. The sophomore leads Wolverine starters with a .471 on-base percentage and a .419 batting average. Tate, sophomore shortstop Lisa Kelley, senior third baseman Tracy Carr and junior utility player Jessica Lang all rank in the top 20 in Big Ten batting. And quickly moving toward the top 20 is the Wolverines' hottest hitter oflatejunior catcher Jennifer Smith. In her last SOfa 12 games, Smith is 18-for-34 (.529) with 11 RBI. WHERE ARE THE DINGERS: Despite the on-going hitting Notebook extravaganza, Michigan is without a home run in eight games of conference play. For the season, no Wolverine has more than one homerun. Tate, Carr, Griffin, Smith and Lang are the only Wolverines to put it over the fence so far. "We'll take base hits. Base hits score just as many runs as homeruns if you look at the average," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "All we care is that we're 7-1." Among the nation's best: Besides hitting, Michigan ranks among the country's top 25 in four categories. In pitching, the Wolverines rank No. 21 with a 1.53 team ERA. Conference foes Michigan State and Iowa pitching are also ranked, at No. 16 and 19 respectively. Not to be outdone, the Wolverine defense occupies the No. 22 slot with a .961 fielding percentage. Again, Michigan is not alone, however, as Minne- sota and Michigan State also rank among the top 25 in the category. Michigan, as well as Minnesota, also ranks in the top 25 in scoring and the all-important won- loss category. "STOP ... STOP ... I SAID STOP!!": The Wolver- ines might lead the country in number of times base runners have ignored their coach's stop sig- nal at third base, at least for yesterday. Due to the wordiness of the category, though, the statistic is not kept. Twice yesterday, Michigan base-runners ignored coach/third base coach Hutchins stop sign and at third and headed for the plate on base hits to the outfield. Both times, the runners scored. "The first one, I almost sent her anyway, but we just got lucky on the other one," Hutchins said. "We were obviously being aggressive." TRYING TO CLEAR THE BASES: Good hitting usually leads to a lot of base runners. For Michigan, that has translated to several bases loaded situations recently and ,consequently, runners left on base. The Wolverines have stranded 268 runners for the season, while opponents have left 192 runners on base. Against Northwestern this weekend, Michigan stranded 24 while the Wildcats left 12. "With the bases loaded, the pressure is on the pitcher, so wait for her to throw one you like," Hutchins said. "As the season goes on, I think you get better, and we are definitely working on it." PITCHERS KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON: Michigan pitchers Griffin and Holmes have met or exceeded expectations all season long. Recently, though, the two have gone in opposite directions. After 35 innings of conference play, Griffin posts a remarkable 0.40 ERA compared to her current overall ERA of 1.28. On the other hand, Holmes' Big 10 ERA of 2.33 is up from a 1.47 overall ERA. ARGUE MUCH?: Northwestern coach Sharon Drysdale had her share of conversations with the umpires this weekend. Yesterday, before the game, Drysdale alerted the umpires that the size of the batter's box was off a couple inches. Drysdale, coach of the Wildcats for 22 seasons, also chatted with the umps during the game when she protested a no-call. After a Wildcat runner was called out for leaving first base too soon on a steal attempt, Drysdale felt a Michigan runner committed the same infraction later in the game. When Northwestern didn't get the call, Drysdale made her point to the umpire. 4' stolen bases entering the series made her a threat to run and score. But a threat is not effective unless it is executed and in the first game in the first inning, Conrad swiped her eighth base-of the season. That made Northwestern coach Sharon Drysdale wary and she did everything she could to keep Conrad off the basepaths. The coach even complained (to no avail) 1h Conrad left the base too early. As with any player. Conrad focused on her hitting following the 5-for-7 Saturday perfor- mance. "I could kind of tell on the outside pitches that the defense moved, so I just went with it," she said. It is these insights which demonstrate the maturity of these two hitters. It is easy to forget that they have only been in college for five months. Davie and Conrad have a zest for the garO which rubs off on the upperclassmen as well. This weekend. there was a difference in the play of the team. Battle on the mound' starts in 'M dugout Michigan hurlers GriffinHolmesare each others' best competition By Dan Stillman Daily Sports W cr So who's the better pitcher, Holmes or Gro f in? The Michigan softball team might have the best one-two punch in the country with sopho- more pitcher Sara Griffin and junior hurler Kelly Holmes. Whoops, sorry coach Hutchins. "We don't have a one-two punch," Wolver- ine skipper Carol Hutchins says. "We have two No. 1 pitchers." At this point in the sea- son, it's hard to ar4 with the coach. Griffin (16-4) and Holmes (12-5) both carry ._ impressive records with --- them midway through the season. Since Griffin has the better record, let's. give her two points, and Holmes one, in what will surely be a ve unscientific scoring scheme. In the all-important ERA category, Griffin's 1.28 average gives her the edge over Holmes' 1.47, not to mention Griffin's remarkable 0.40 ERA in conference play. Another point for Griffin; she leads 3-; In 17-less innings pitched, Holmes has al- lowed the same number of runs as Griffin (33) and five less hits. Chalk one up to Holmes; she still trails. 3-2. Strikeouts: Griffin 95, Holmes 68. Walks: Holmes 23, Griffin 49. We'll inflate both scores with a point ea Griffin still leads, 4-3. Shutouts often provide a good indicatorof pitching prowess. Griffin's nine goose-eggs compared with Holmes' seven gives Griffin another point and a 5-3 lead. No-hitters? Holmes has two, Griffin has one. Advantage Holmes. But wait, Griffin's no-hitter was a perfect game. That translates into just a half-a-point for Holmes, of course. She still trails, 5-3.5. The one thing that Griffin has done consis- tently better than Holmes is helping herself. Griffin is errorless for the season while Holmes has committed four fielding mistakes yield- ing a .875 fielding percentage. Point for Griffin, and she takes a comm4nd- ing 6-3.5 lead. Wild pitches: Griffin has four, Holmes has three. Holmes, however, has hit two more batters then has Griffin. We inflate the score once again, 7-4.5 Maybe Griffin should get points for here as well. She leads the Wolverines in RBI with 28. Holmes doesn't even bat at all. Nevertheless, this is a pitching comparison. so it wouldn't be fair to Holmes if Griffin received a point for her success at the plate. So, midway through the season, both pitch- ers have made a case for themselves. Both are invaluable to the team. But it's hard to argue with the numbers. Midseason score: Griffin 7, Holmes 4. Michigan first baseman Traci Conrad fields a grounder for the Wolverines. TONYA BROAD/Daly Upcoming games Date April 9 April 11 April 13 April 14 April 16 April 17 April 20 April 21 Opponent at Michigan State (dh) vs. Toledo (dh) at Wisconsin (dh) at Wisconsin vs. Purdue (dh) at Western Michigan (dh) at Indiana (dh) at Indiana Location East Lansing Alumni Field Madison Madison Alumni Field Kalamazoo Bloomington Bloomington SWEEP Co~ntinued from Page lB facing Griffin's heat in the opener. Holmes was perfect through 3 1/3 in- nings while effortlessly mowing down the Waict American wasn't listening. Instead she swung away and ripped a double down the line, scoring Pearcy from second, advancing Conrad to third and sending lead. The Wolverines looked to put the game away in the sixth inning, and did so. Michigan sent all nine batters to the plate in the inning well as the 16th of Michigan's season. Her record improved to 2-1 in the Big Ten and 12-5 overall. After the second game of the day, the Wolverines on the board. Michigan led offthe fourth with tlirei straight singles before Davie's heroics After knocking in two with a single i1