68 - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 29, 1999 Back to basics pays off for 'M' softball . By Stephanie Offen Daily Sports Writer Last week, the Michigan softball team went back to fundamentals. They spent hours working on the basics --pitching, hitting and fielding. A championship in the Purdue Invitational this weekend proved that it all came together. Michigan claimed victory in all four of its games during the two-day span. Not only did they go undefeated, but the No. 8 Wolverines allowed only one run in the four match-ups. The Wolverines' amazing defensive presence can be attributed to not just clean pitching, but a flawless infield. "We played sharp, making great plays in the infield,' coach Carol Hutchins said. "Our pitchers also did a really good job only giving up one run." Saturday pitted the Wolverines against Indiana State and Loyola. Indiana State provided Michigan with a familiar face - they competed against each other last week in the Capitol Classic. Michigan came out on top there, as well. But for the second time in a row, the Sycamores were not able to score against the Wolverines who came up with the 11-0 five-inning victory. Catherine Davie led the Michigan attack. The tournament MVP went 2- for-3 with four RBIs. Davie "is having fun her senior year" Hutchins said. "She is cool, calm and collected. She is really enjoying it which is the key to success.", Loyola gave the Wolverines a sense of deja vu. Another five-innings later Michigan found themselves in the hands of the mercy rule, once again victorious over their opponents 11-0. The Wolverines started off strong against Loyola, scoring all five runs in the first inning. But freshman Kate Eiland gave up eight hits, giving Michigan their biggest scare of the tour- nament. Sunday's competition did not provide the Wolverines with tougher opponents. No. 25 Central Michigan was sup- posed to pose a threat to the Wolverines, but ended up doing the opposite. Michigan recorded its third shut-out of the tournament against the Chippewas. The game was scoreless through three innings. But Michigan scored two in the second inning and six in the sixth inning to get the 8-0 win. The one run Michigan gave up came in the Wolverines 6-1 victory over Bradley. Bradley took the 1-0 lead in the first inning, but then the Wolverines took control. Jamie Gillies recorded her sec- ond win of the tournament, only giving up three hits in the two games. While the competition may not have been of Michigan's caliber, Hutchins hopes her team does not get "too high on themselves" because of this past week- ends slaughter of the competition. Hutchins attributes the championship more to the stellar play of her team and less to the lack of quality competition. "When we play that well we don't have to worry about the caliber of our opponents" Hutchins said. DANA LINNANE/Daily Mike Cervenak (shown above) went 4-for-5 with a homerun in the final game this weekend against Iowa. Michigan won three games of the four-game series. Miechigan nine first Iowa Ci series of ahn'S career JOSH KLEINBAUM/Daily Melissa Taylor and the Michigan softball team only allowed one run in four games this weekend at Boilermaker Invitational, their third-straight tournament victory. By Dan Dingerson Daily Sports Writer IOWA CITY -- The Michigan baseball team opened Big Ten play this weekend in Iowa. It was the team's first trip to Iowa in coach Geoff Zahn's tenure. The Wolverines won the series by taking three out of the four games played. The weather for the first three games was ideal for the month of March and only on Sunday was there any rain. Michigan opened the series with a 6- win in which senior Luke Bonner pitched a complete game. He just gave up six hits, but three went for for extra bases. The Wolverines were led by Bryan Besco, who went 2-for-3 with a home run, and two RBIs. Prior to the series, Besco had been in a slump, but broke out of it on Friday and Saturday. Saturday featured a double-header of seven-inning games. The two games couldn't have been more dif- ferent for the two teams. In the opener the Hawkeyes won easily 7-4. Michigan appeared flat the entire game both at the plate and in the field. After Bobby Scales opened the game with a double and scored a run the Wolverines only managed four hits, scoring no runs during the rest of the game. In contrast, Iowa scored in four out of six at-bats against J.J. Putz. Iowa was assisted by three Michigan fielding errors. The miscues only cost the team one run, but gave the Hawkeyes more opportunities to score. "If we're only going to score one run, we're not going to win;" Zahn said. For the Wolverines, the second game was a complete turnaround. Scales opened the game with a leadeff homerun, and was followed by Json Alcaraz who doubled. The two hit well throughout the game; Scales went 4-for-4 with a home run and double, and Alcaraz went 3-for- 4 with two doubles and three RBI's. Besco continued his power surge hitting two home runs for four RBI's. Besco finished the weekend 5-13 after going 0-4 in the series' finale. The final score was 9-1 in favor of the Wolverines. The lone Hawkeye run was unearned in the fifth inning after consecutive errors by Mike Cervenak and Scott Tousa. "The last couple were lackadaisi- cal, I don't know if it was because we were up by a couple of runs. There is no excuse for that," Zahn said. The game was highlighted by the pitching performance of Bryce Ralston. The sophomore pitched a complete game and only gave up four singles. He struck out three and walked only one. Pitching was one of the concern's for this year's team. After three games in this series, the Wolverines' concerns may be diminishing. "Well, I'm disappointed in Putz, he should have thrown better," Zahn said. But "yeah, I'm happy so far." The final game on Saturday was exactly what Zahn had worried about. Freshman Bobby Korecky started for the Wolverines and only lasted into the second inning, giving up eight runs on nine hits. Ryan Kelley pitched five innings and gave up three runs. Sophomore Vince Pistilli closed the game for the Wolverines, holding Iowa scoreless over the last three innings. But Michigan won the game, 10-8, thanks to a strong hitting perfor- mance. The team scored ten runs off of Iowa's starting pitcher, Wes Obermueller, before he left in the fifth. Cervenak led the team, going 4-for-5 with a home run. Scales hit 3-for-6 with a triple; it was his fifth extra-base hit of the Weekend. The team comes home this week hosting Central Michigan tomor- row. Men's gymnasts turn the beat around WINNERS Continued from Page 1B second, Vetere third, Haro seventh and Diaz-Luong ninth. Toman missed first by only .175, falling to Iowa junior Todd Strada 57.8-57.625. "It hurts a little bit (to get) second place," Toman said. "I thought that I might have pulled it out. It was close. I wouldn't have cared if I was last in the all- around because we got the team title," The Wolverines opened the team competition on the floor exercise with senior co-captain Randy D'Amura scoring a 9.6. Justin Toman led the way for Michigan scoring a 9.65. Both scores held up throughout the meet to qualify the two for the finals. Toman's was strong enough to lead all gymnasts. "Randy was the first one up on floor, and he nailed his set;" Golder said. "That was really, really impor- tant to set the stage for us, it was one of the keys." But after one rotation, though, Michigan found itself in fourth place, farther from the leaders than it had anticipated. Michigan rebounded when it moved to the pommel horse and recorded a 38.875. Daniel Diaz-Luong was the top scorer for the Wolverines with a 9.825. His score tied for the best of the day in this event. Toman also qualified for the finals with a score of 9.75. "We really kicked it out on pommel horse, and that gave us a lot of momentum" Golder said. "I thought we were in the lead at that point. It's like a race car, when you get the lead you keep the pedal to the metal until it's over. That's what we did" Because seven teams were competing in six events, each rotation gave one team a bye. The byes made it impossible to determine who was really leading after each rotation because the teams had competed in a dif- ferent amount of events. The Wolverines found themselves on the still rings for the third rotation. Performing third, Kenny Keener energized the team with his 9.875. Scott Vetere fol- lowed Keener with a score of 9.7, finishing second for Michigan. Keener's score wasn't quite the best of the day but it was good for second. "It pumped us all up, Actually we were pumped up the whole meet," Keener said. "My rings set helped, but there were many more sets that helped us stay strong." Michigan then moved to the vault, where the team found a bit of controversy. Diaz-Luong was originally given a score of 9.35 for his vault. Diaz-Luong's vault consists of two twists but the judges only saw him do one. The extra twist makes for a difference of .4 in the scoring. After protests by Golder and assistant coach Mike Burns, the vault score was restored to 9.75. Diaz-Luong "does a double twist," Burns said. "He does it so well, he's so tight and so quick. The judges thought that he only did one twist, but he did two full twists. We were just livid. We thought that they weren't going to change it, but there must have been a shadow of a doubt." Brad Kenna was forced to wait during the debate, but was certainly not affected. He scored a 9.775, good enough to lead the Wolverines and the meet. Vetere then scored a 9.55. All three scores were enough to qualify for Saturday. The parallel, bars were highlighted by Toman's score of 9.925. One judge scored his routine a 9.95, near perfection. "I was feeding off of my teammates, they had some good scores before me and I couldn't let them down;' Toman said. "I didn't think that it was my best routine, but the judges did, so I'm not complaining" Michigan entered its final event in a position to win the meet. But the event - high bar - was the team's weakest. Again the team did not perform its best on the event just scoring a 37.5. It was the only event of the evening on which Michigan failed to hit at least DANA UNNANE/Daily Michigan gymnast Daniel Diaz-Luong's double twist in. the vault at the NCAAs was so quick that the judges missed one of the twists, according to Michigan coa4 Kurt Golder. 38.0. Toman was the only one to qualify for the indi vidual championship on the high bar with a score of 9.6. The Wolverines had their bye in the final rotation sb they had to wait and see if their score would hold up; Only Iowa and Ohio State could possibly catch Michigan, but neither was able to score high enough. Iowa finished .8 behind with a 229.475. Ohio StaIb finished third, followed by Penn State, Michigan S, Illinois and Minnesota. Winning the Big Ten championship automatically qualifies the team for NCAA regionals where they will probably face many of the same teams as in this championship. "We still have two more, so this isn't the end, D'Amura said. "We want the national title. This w~s one of the goals but we still have the big one to go" READ DAILY SPORTS. DAILY. BIG TENS Continued from Page 1B In addition to the six Wolveri* earning All-Big Ten distinctions Bridge Knaeble, Christine Michaud; Sarah-Elizabeth Langford, Peters, Caid and Simes -- Plocki was awarded co- Big Ten Coach of the Year honors. - "It is always an honor to be awarded that kind of honor by your peers." Plocki said. "It was a very exciting and surprising moment." The championship effort advan Michigan to the NCAA Regionals April 10. In the meantime, the Wolverines will "try to relax and continue to train the way we have been training and pre- pare for regionals," Plocki said. Michigan has good reason to feet optimistic as its postseason campaig continues. Besides posting its three highest scores of the year in its last three regU- lar season meets, the Wolverines scored a 49.000 or higher and won each event at the Big Ten Championship besides the balance beam. Ultimately, Michigan will relish the title and hope it is just the first step of a championship season. HOw SWEEP IT IS: The women's Big Ten title, coupled with the men's triumph at their respe tive Big Ten Tournament (March makes Michigan the first school to claim both gymnastics titles in the same season since 1991, when Minnesota achieved the same feat..- Ohio State (1985 and 1987) is the only other school accomplish such a sloe 400V F WQ "04%r ' ' FOR to 0 A NEW PLACE TO EAT? DAVID ROCHKND/Daily After taking the Big Ten title this weekend, the Michigan women's gymnastics team will have some time off before they com- pete In the NCAA Regionals on April10. mft% Do you have a BACHELOR'S DEGREE? I