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'M' softball bring
out brooms in
sweep of Badgers
By Andy Knudsen The inning continued with so
Daily Sports Writer offensive production from the W
The Michigan softball team was verines.
the Big Ten champion last season. Michigan took a 5-4 lead in
The Wisconsin softball team did third after Davie doubled to ce
not even exist. followed by RBI singles from Glea
It is not a surprise, then, that the and Jessica Lang.
.10 Wolverines (11-2 Big Ten, 34- Wisconsin jumped back ahead
10 overall) swept this weekend's in the fourth, and the Wolverines
three-game series with the Badgers it at six in the bottom of the innin
(1-10, 10-27). Hutchins decided to replace ju
What is a surprise is how close the pitcher Kelly Holmes in the top o
contests were. sixth with Griffin, a sophom
Two of the three games needed an Holmes (13-5) gave up five ear
extra inning to be decided, and the runs and nine hits in five innings
third was a one-run game until Wis- "Kelly didnot pitch well," Hutch
consin booted five balls in one in- said. "She looked pretty good at
ning. start. As we got in a little troubl
Michigan scored four runs in the her confidence is struggling."
*hth inning yesterday to finish the Griffin, on the other hand, has b
sweep, 5-1. Tracy Carr was the top a model of consistency.
Wolverine at the plate. She In 18 innings pitched,
went 2-for-4 with a double allowed two earned
and an RBI. on I1 hits - not to n
With this weekend's Mae tion her game-winn
victories, the Wolverines softball double in the bottom o
moved within one game eighth Saturday night
in the loss column of first- coverage. scored Traci Conrad f
place No. 13 Minnesota See Page 46. first.
1, 31-7), who lost at "Sara is a premier hi
Rio State yesterday, 3-2. that's one of the reas
Sara Griffin picked up we recruited her," Hutc
the win in all three con- " said. "When the going
tests, improving herrecord . tough, she turns it up.
to 21-5. She gave up only In the last seven ga
two earned runs in 18 innings pitched Griffin has been 13-of-26 (.500
this weekend. the plate.
Michigan rebounded from a 4-0 "The last couple games I've bi
deficit to win Saturday's extra-inning seeing (the ball) well," she said a
nightcap, 7-6. In the opener, the Wol- a 4-of-7 performance Thurs
verines took advantage of six Wis- against Toledo.
*sin errors to win, 10-2, on only The score of Michigan's 10-2
seven hits. in Saturday's opener makes it 1
After notching one run in the top of like a Wolverine cakewalk. But it
the first of Saturday's nightcap, the more of a Badger gift.
Badgers made use of two Wolverine Only two of Michigan's 10
errors and a double by Keri McGee to were earned.
send three more across the plate. Wisconsin trailed 3-2 with run
The Badger rally wasn't stopped on second and third and only one
until centerfielder Erin Martino made in the bottom of the third.
a catch near the fence on Amanda But Griffin got herself out of a
$ rg's wind-carried fly ball. At least by striking out Rebecca Gilgen
run would have scored if Berg's snatching a line drive by Ang
drive had found the ground, and the Rudolf.
inning would have continued. The Badgers took themselves
"Obviously when we go into extra- of the game in the fourth by com
innings -that catch ended up saving ting five errors in the inning.
the game," Michigan coach Carol Combined with a two-RBI sin
Hutchins said. by Conrad and an RBI single by C
The Wolverines battled back in the the Wolverines sent seven run
bottom of the second. home.
After Cathy Davie singled to right "Wisconsin did get some mon
field, catcher Jennifer Smith gave tumn going - they can beat yc
fchigan a rare spurt of power with Hutchins said. "Fortunately for
team-leading second round-trip- we capitalized on some opport
per of the season. ties."
Alabama gymnasts t
By Nancy Berger meet. Alabama finis
Daily Sports Writer scoring well above
Anyone who was acquainted with the central The Crimson Tid
r gional championships knew that No. 2 Alabama of Michigan's top f
was the favorite to win the region and a sure bet to with 49.550 points
secure an NCAA bid. "They have great
If odds-makers in Las Vegas were looking for a nasts," freshman N
hefty payoff, they could have put their money on No individual gyr
the Crimson Tide. Lucky bettors would have hit the Kim Kelly. Kelly ph
jackpot. on the way to the
Alabama didn'tjust win the meet. It left the rest around score of 39.
of the field in Baton Rouge; La., including Michi- The magnitude off
gan, drowning in its wake. gan an idea of what
"Alabama was just on," Michigan coach Bev to compete with th
*cki said. "I don't think they counted a 10th off
on a landing. They were perfect."
The defending regional champions reigned over More WO~ml
the seven other teams with an NCAA record 198.075 covergO ft
points. Their score was nearly two points ahead of See Page 8B.
Michigan's 196.275.
While the title was expected to be decided be-
tween Michigan and Alabama, no one could have
predicted such a flawless and dominating perfor- "If we want to con
mance by the Crimson Tide. to obtain perfection
"Alabama had a night that they will never have Michigan had a g
ain," Plocki said. indicated by its sco
The Wolverines will surely be hoping that Ala- nearly as flawless a
bama won't have a night like that in two weeks The event that M
when the two teams compete again in the NCAA though, was the flo
championships. Kabnick had a stum
The Crimson Tide dominated every aspect of the fell.
WEEKEND
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Despite the fact that
Michigan pitcher John
Arval surrendered a
grand slam in a 5-3 loss
to Northwestern
Saturday, the
Wolverines took three of
four from the Wildcats in
the weekend series.
Arval saved both games
for Michigan yesterday.
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
Scrapping for victories
Blue uses hit-and-mun to take three of four from 'Cats
By James Goldstein
Daily Sports Writer
EVANSTON -The Michigan baseball team
is starting to get the hang of this. It doesn't
matter how you score the runs, it's how many
runs you score.
The Wolverines scrapped their way to victo-
ries in three out of four games against North-
western over the weekend at Rocky Miller
Stadium. After a 5-3 loss in the opener, Michi-
gan beat the Wildcats 8-2 in nine innings, 5-3
in eight innings and 5-2.
The Wolverines remain on top of the Big Ten
with a 12-4 record, leading Illinois by a half
game.
Michigan displayed aggressive hitting at the
plate and heads-up running on the basepaths in
their three wins. Michigan coach Geoff Zahn
called for numerous hit-and-runs. The Wolver-
ines had a season-high six stolen bases in
yesterday's first game. And Michigan scam-
pered home on three Northwestern wild pitches
in the series.
All in all, Michigan coach Geoff Zahn
couldn't be happier with his squad taking ad-
vantage of every situation.
"Our guys are hustling," Zahn said. "They
take advantage of mistakes from the other
team. We put some pressure on and they come
through and don't fold."
Michigan pitcher Brian Besco sure didn't
fold yesterday. The sophomore picked up his
first career win in his first start of the season.
Besco gave up two runs and two hits in five
innings pitched, walking three and striking
out one.
The Wolverines' table-setters, Mike
Cervenak and Kirk Beermann, each had RBI
singles that gave Michigan an early 2-0 lead.
And in the sixth inning, Mick Kalahar came
through in the clutch with a one-out, bases-
loaded single that drove in two and provided
Besco with a comfortable four-run cushion.
Closer John Arvai worked the final two in-
nings for his second save in the series and sixth
on the season.
J.D. Engle picked up the loss, which dropped
See HIT-AND-RUN, Page 7B
t- mr
too much for Micignj
shed first in every single event,
49 points in every rotation.
ide placed five gymnasts ahead
inisher on the bars and finished
on the event.
all-around and individual gym-
ikki Peters said.
mnast was as great as Alabama's
laced first in every single event
title and finished with an all-
750.
Alabama's success gives Michi-
the Wolverines will have to do
e Crimson Tide.
n 's gymnastics
rom regionals.
In spite of this setback, Michigan remained fo-
cused and did well the rest of the meet.
The only event in which the Wolverines did
better than what the scores indicated was the bal-
ance beam. Plocki said that the team deserved
better than its score of 48.875.
"Our beam, we didn't just hit, we nailed," Plocki
said. "I felt our beam scores were tight. Burke and
Kabnick rocked and got 9.725 and 9.6."
"I don't think (Alabama) was overscored. No-
body was overscored," Peters said. "The judging
was fair."
Probably the most interesting point to note about
the scores was how high they were, especially
compared to last year.
- At the 1995 regional championships, Alabama
won with 196.675, while Michigan clinched sec-
ond place with 195.725.
"There was a higher level of competition than
last year at the meet held here," Plocki said.
Despite the increase in competition, there was a
decrease in the number of NCAA qualifiers from
the central region.
Louisiana State failed to gain a wild-card entry
into the NCAA championships after coming in
ninth at last year's nationals.
While the Tigers and the rest of the regional field
goes home, Michigan will travel to Tuscaloosa,
Ala. The Crimson Tide is not only No. 1, but has
home field advantage for the NCAA champion-
ships.
ntend with the big guys, we have
n," Plocki said.
good meet this past weekend as
re, but the Wolverines weren't
as Alabama.
dichigan really struggled with,
or exercise. Sophomore Heather
mble, and freshman Lisa Simes
Michigan's Andrea McDonald tied for fourth in the all-around this weekend.