A Sacramento at
ASKEtBALL PORTLAND, inc.
Detroit 87, NHL
BOSTON 72 HOCKEY
WASHINGTON 84, DETROIT 2,
Orlando 73 Los Angeles 1
Milwaukee 102, NY Islanders 5,
CHARLOTTE 94 FLORIDA 3
Golden State at NEW JERSEY 7,
PHOENIX, inc. Anaheim 1
GRAPEFRUIT
LEAGUE
Detroit 7,
Atlanta 1
Tampa Bay 15,
Cleveland 1
Toronto 6,
NY Yankees 5
Kansas City 7,
NY Mets 4
Umie 1E11m Ba
Service! The Michigan men's tennis team will be at
home Saturday and Sunday to face Big Ten rivals Ohio
State and Penn State. Both matches are on the hard-
Court, and begin at 1:00 p.m.
Thursday
April 1.,1999 5
Mercy, mercy me!
Softball mercies Eastern in no-contest doubleheader
By Jon Zemke
Daily Sports Writer
YPSILANTI - If it was Mr. T, he'd
pity da foo. Instead for Eastern
Michigan, it was the Michigan softball
team, who took pity on the lowly Eagles,
mercying in the second game of a dou-
bleheader, 11-2.
The Wolverines won both games to
extend their unbeaten streak to encom-
pass the entire month of March. With the
win, the Wolverines broke their previous
record unbeaten streak of 22 games.
Michigan enters April and the Big Ten
season not having been beaten in the last
23 contests.
"We're more concerned with the
month of April than we are with March,"
Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins
said.
In the second game, the Eagles were
blanked in the final four innings by Kate
Eiland and Jaime Gillies after Eiland
gave up two runs, including a home run,
in the first inning. Gillies only allowed a
double in two innings of work.
After the end of the fifth inning, with
the Wolverines up 10-2, the umpires
finally took pity on Eastern Michigan's
pitching staff, invoking the mercy rule,
which becomes applicable when a team
is up by eight runs after five innings.
Michigan's bats did the rest, scoring
five runs in the first inning and three in
the second. Pam Kosanke hit one of the
Wolverines' nine doubles with two outs
in the second, scoring Kelsey Kollen and
Catherine Davie from second and third
respectively.
Davie knocked in the last of her four
RBI on an infield single for the last
Michigan run.
Despite the difference in talent, the
Wolverines were not looking past the
Eagles, destroying Eastern Michigan's
pitching with two runs each in the first
two innings of the opening game. Senior
Tammy Mika hit a double with two outs
in the first inning to score Davie and
Stefanie Volpe for the eventual game-
winning runs.
Traci Conrad hit her first of two dou-
bles of the day with two outs in the sec-
ond inning. Kollen immediately fol-
lowed Conrad with the first of her two
doubles for an RBI. Davie also hit a cen-
ter field single to score Kollen and
forced Eastern into the first of many
pitching changes.
"It was nice to bust out like that,"
Conrad said. "It was nice to have one
through nine contributing like that."
Michigan went on to score another
run in the fifth inning off a Rebecca
Tune sacrifice fly, and two more in the
sixth from a Mary Conner single to
right.
But Michigan did the most damage in
the final inning, scoring five runs to
bring the score to 12-1. The inning
included three doubles by Conrad,
Kollen and Davie that scored four of the
five runs.
Marie Barda pitched five strong
innings for Michigan, allowing one run.
Her performance was highlighted by
retiring the side in the third inning in
four pitches. Kate Eiland finished off the
game for the save by pitching the last
two innings. Eiland also pitched the first
three innings of the next game for the
victory.
Conrad led Michigan in hitting, going
seven for eight with two doubles and two
RBI. Davie also had an above-average
performance, going 5-7 with four RBI's.
"Our kids have been playing with
confidence since Sacramento," Hutchins
said. "Going into the Big Ten season
that's probably our greatest strength."
Roadgame
tickets sell
today only
From Staff Reports
The Michigan Athletic Ticket
Office announced that today only,
students and eligible faculty can
apply for one ticket to each of the
away football games at Syracuse,
Michigan State and Penn State next
season.
Applications must be filled out
at the Michigan Ticket Office on
State Street, adjacent to Yost Ice
Arena. If the number of applica-
tions exceeds availability, a lottery
will be held.
Ticket office officials said the
reason for a one-day application
deadline is due to the limited avail-
ability of the tickets, and for the
sake of efficiency.
The ticket office is also allowing
students to apply for tickets to
games at Indiana and Wisconsin
today, but officials are not guaran-
teeing they will be available to all
who apply, citing very limited
availability. All away tickets must
be picked up next fall.
JOSH KLEINBAUM/Daily
The Michigan softball team made itself at home in Ypsilanti, beating up on
Eastern Michigan on both sides of a dobuleheader.
Baseball embarrasses Detroit-Mercy in slugfest, 23-2
* Chris Grandstaft
Daily Sports Writer
DETROIT- The Michigan baseball team
left the Detroit-Mercy baseball team, well, cry-
ing for mercy yesterday after handing the
Titans a 23-2 shellacking on their home field.
The Wolverines set season bests in total
runs (23), most hits in a game (24), most runs
in an inning (eight) sending 11 men to the plate
in the sixth, and most home runs in a game
(first).
The Wolverines' batsmen had a field day as
'sprong winds allowed just about every fly ball
to carry deep into the outfield or over the wall.
Wolverines Brian Bush (two home runs on the
season), Mike Seestedt (two), Jason Alcaraz
(four), Jay Dines (one), and Bill LaRosa (one)
all went yard to lead the Michigan slugfest.
But the Wolverines found success both with
and without the long ball. Michigan senior co-
captain Bobby Scales extended his hitting
streak to nine games, going three-for-four with
valk and two RBI. Alcaraz added a double
and a single to his three run dinger, and fin-
ished the afternoon with four RBI.
"Yeah, we had five home runs," Michigan
coach Geoff Zahn said. "But I was pleased
with the way everyone hit the ball today. We
were able to hit the ball the opposite way and
hit balls through the infield to bring guys
home, not just with home runs.
Zahn was also pleased with the perfor-
mances of Wolverine reserves C.J. Ghannam
who had two hits, two RBI and a stolen base,
and Bill LaRosa, who had three hits including
a two-run round tripper.
"You like to get innings for guys who don't
have much game experience," Zahn said. "It's
important to get your guys in there so if there
is an injury they're ready to go."
Despite the gaudy numbers the Wolverines
put up at the plate, the most impressive facet of
yesterday's game was the pitching.
Michigan sophomore Nick Alexander
upped his record to 2-0 on the season without
breaking a sweat. Alexander left the game with
the Wolverines ahead 4-1 after pitching just
two innings, and allowing one run on three
hits.
His replacement, Kirk Taylor, allowed hits
to the first two men he faced, but dominated
the Titans from there on in. Taylor left the
game having pitched four innings of shut-out
baseball, while allowing just three hits and
recording five strikeouts. Taylor's performance
was especially impressive considering he
entered the game with an 0-1 record -and an
ERA of 54.00.
Taylor's freshman teammate Jeff Trzos was
equally impressive. Trzos pitched two innings
and allowed one run on just one hit while also
striking out five.
"It was a great day for the two freshman;"
Zahn said. "It was good for them because they
had both been struggling a little bit and this
was a great opportunity for them to get some
action. With the wind blowing out the way it
was the whole staff that had to pitch really well
today to hold Detroit to only two runs."
Michigan senior Robbie Reid kept his ERA
at zero for the season as he finished off the
Titans by pitching a scoreless ninth.
Michigan could not have been happier with
the entire team's performance.
"We came out and swung the bat well and
got good pitching" Scales said. "You can't do
much better than scoring 23 runs on 24 hits.
We knew that if we overlooked this team and
looked ahead to Illinois that they could sneak
up and beat us. "It's fun to have games like this
where everyone hits. We need a game like this
every now and then."
The Wolverines open a four-game home
series with Illinois Friday afternoon.
DANA LINNANE/Daily
Bobby Scales and the Michigan baseball team swapped their home whites for road blues - but it was
Detroit-Mercy that was singing the blues after a 23-2 browbeating.
Water polo preps for varsity status
Arun Gopal
Daily Sports Writer
What comes to mind when you
think of water polo? Anything?
Anything at all?
Chances are, you don't really know
a whole lot about this sport. You
might've seen it in the Olympics once
or twice, in between Kerri Strug
highlights and Dream Team blowouts.
(gher than that, your knowledge of
water polo is probably pretty mini-
mal.
Which brings us to the events of
this week. The Athletic, Department
approved the promotion of two club
sports to varsity status, and, lo and
behold, one of them is women's water
polo (along with men's soccer). The
promotion to varsity level is a land-
mark moment for the team.
"It's a terrific feeling to be upgrad-
to varsity status," Michigan head
coach Scott Russell said. "We've
been actively pursuing this for eight
years, and it's a well-deserved reward
for the girls on the team."
Michigan joins Indiana as the only
Big Ten school with a varsity
women's water polo team. As a result,
the league doesn't have an official
Big Ten championship. But for the
st 10 years, an unofficial confer-
ce tournament has been played.
The Wolverines have won it every
single time.
"Michigan is a top school, and that
attracts lots of people," Russell said.
"The biggest key is that for a long
time, the players have approached
this as if it were a varsity sport. They
train year-round like varsity athletes."
In a sport dominated by schools
from the West Coast, the Wolverines
have managed to carve out a niche as
one of the top teams in the nation.
The highest-ever rank for Michigan
was fifth in 1995 - currently, the
team is ranked 14th. The move to var-
sity status will only enhance the pro-
gram's standing, according to
Russell.
"All of the other schools out there
know that Michigan will be one of the
best very soon," Russell said. "We've
been competitive for several years,
but with more Division I programs
now, the competition is only getting
tougher. Other programs, like
Stanford and UCLA, are lots stronger
at this point, but we're getting better
each year."
Michigan has a young team this
year, with only one senior and two
juniors. The squad is led by a pair of
sophomores, forward Melissa
Carjala, who leads the team in goals
and steals, and goaltender Katy
Armstrong. The two of them, along
with team captain Rachel Nytin, pro-
vide leadership for the newer mem-
bers of the team.
"We graduated a large senior class
last year, and we have a large fresh-
man class this year," Russell said.
"The freshmen are talented, though."
One would think that without
scholarships, the Wolverines
would've been at a tremendous disad-
vantage against varsity teams like
Massachusetts and Southern Cal all
these years. While that may have been
See POLO, Page 8A
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