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 . . ." . " . ".. ". " " " " " "". ." ".. . ." "." ... . ... . a O Are your parents still ruining your SEX LIFE? IF so, get smart and do something about it. Read this one-of-a-kind slf hein auide.