2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 14, 1999

ALCS Game 1:

MLCS Game 244

Curses! Williams' homer foils Red Sox in 10th

from staff and wire reports
NEW YORK - Still don't beleive
in the Bambino's curse?
How else do you explain the way
the Yankees took a 1-0 series lead in
the ALCS last night, when Bernie
Williams launched Rod Beck's sec-
ond pitch over the fence for a 4-3, 10-
inning victory?
"I was due," Williams said. "I was
just able to get a good pitch and turn
on it. I was just looking for a pitch out
over the plate. I definitely didn't want
to pull out on the ball."
Nice try, but no. The Red Sox were
victims of a questionable call at sec-
ond base, when Yankee's second-
baseman Chuck Knoblauch appeared
to bobble a throw from third baseman
Scott Brosius. Umpire Rick Reed
called Boston's Jose Offerman out on
the force, and Brian Daubach ground-
ed into a double play shortly after, to
set up Williams' heroics.
Boston took a 2-0 lead just seven
pitches into the game on a run-scor-
ing throwing error by shortstop Derek
Jeter and Brian Daubach's RBI single.
Jose Offerman's RBI infield single
made it a 3-0 lead in the second
against Orlando Hernandez, who had
allowed just one run in 20 career post-
season innings coming in.
Brosius hit a two-run homer in the
bottom half against surprise starter
Kent Mercker, and Jeter tied it in the
seventh with an RBI single off Derek
Lowe.
Williams then opened the I Ith by
sending an 0-1 pitch to straightaway
center field, At first, Darren Lewis

thought he had a chance at it, but the
ball kept sailing and went over the
408-foot sign.
Until the 10th, it had been a frus-
trating night for the World Series
champions, who were just 2-for-1I
with runners in scoring position.
BRAVES 4, METS 3:
The Braves kept pecking away at
Kenny Rogers yesterday. Kept trying
to open holes in him, only to find they
couldn't make a dent.
Kept meeting resistance where
there should have been reward.
I It finally came in the sixth inning.
Two swings, from Brian Jordan and
Eddie Perez, drove Rogers from
Game 2 of the NLCS and pushed the
New York Mets closer to elimination.
Jordan, who spurned the Orioles
this winter to sign with Atlanta, hit a
two-run shot off the foul pole in right
field to tie the score. After a single,
Perez launched a two-run homer to
left, giving starter Kevin Millwood
and two relievers all the support they
needed in a 4-3 victory over the Mets
before 44,624 at Turner Field.
On a day when Mets left fielder
Rickey Henderson was stricken so
badly with an illness that he had to
leave the game, his team looked as
though it would get healthy. The Mets
scored once in the second inning and
again in the fifth when Melvin Mora,
who had replaced Henderson, became
the seventh player to homer in his
first NLCS at-bat.
The series shifts to New York
Friday. The momentum already
seemed to be in motion. But Rogers
. came apart in the sixth.
Mets Manager Bobby Valentine,
whose Nos. 3-5 hitters are I for 21 in
the series, said he came "real close"

Jordan's homer.
"I should have done it. No doubt
about that. I had no reason to keep
him in and it was absolutely the
wrong move.
"I'm not sure the pitch to Jordan
was a bad one. It looked like a
changeup that he went with and hit
the side of the foul pole. The pitch to
Perez was a changeup that cut into
him instead of going away from him.
That was not a very good pitch."
Millwood retired eight in a row
after Mora's homer, a streak that was
broken when Chipper Jones commit-
ted his second error of the series with
one out in the eighth inning. It proved
costly when Edgar Alfonzo doubled
into left-center field, scoring Mora to
reduce the Braves' lead to 4-3.
Left-hander John Rocker was sum-
moned, whipping the crowd into a
frenzy with his patented sprint from
the bullpen. He struck out John
Olerud for the second time in two
games, then walked Mike Piazza
intentionally with two outs to put the
go-ahead run on base.
Unconventional, except that the next
hitter, Robin Ventura, had struck out
in all four career at-bats against
Rocker.
Make it five.
"I never liked to do that too much,"
said Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox.
"Sometimes you have to bite the bul-
let and give it a go and throw it all out
on the table and try it."
TIGERS UPDATE: The Detroit Free
Press reported on its Website yester-
day that the Tigers have offered for-
mer Milwaukee manager Phill Garner
a four-year, $ million per-year con-
tract. The report, based on "baseball
sources," said that incumbent manag-
er Larry Parrish had yet to hear from
the club.

Stickers
down
C hi ps
By Joseph Farhat
For the Daily
The Michigan field hockey team
sloshed through the remnants of a mid-
day storm and an overmatchd Central
Michigan team yesterday at
Kelly/Shorts Stadium in Mt. Pleasant on
its way to an unsurprising 5- win over
the Chippewas.
The win, its tenth consecutive over
the Chippewas (2-3 Mid-American
Conferennce, 2-10 overall), brought the
seventh-ranked Wolverines' record to 5-
1 in the Big Ten and 11-4 overall.***
"Our corners were executed well.
Michigan coach Marcia Pankrantz said.
"We've been working to improve them."
The Wolverines scored four goals on
20 shots in the first half -incuding the
first two on corners, forcing the
Chippewas to remove sophomore goalie
Malia Swieconek and insert freshman
Janel Spero in the second half. Spero
had a little more luck than Swieconek,
giving up just one goal as the
Wolverines took seven shots.
The only goal for Central Michigan
came from senior Crystal Smith with
5:07 remaining in the game.
Michigan scored its first two goals
off of penalty corners. The first , at
24:54 by senior midfielder
EricaWidder, was her third of the sea-
son. The second came at 9:10 by fresh-
man midfielder Stephanie Johnson, her
fourth on the season.
This came as a relief, as the
Wolverines' weakness so far this year
had been captilizing on the multitude of
corners they were taking.
Although the conditions were wet
and blustery all day, the rain receded
just before the teams took the field leav-
ing the outdor turf wet. Pankrantz said
that the wet artificial turf played right
into the Wolverines' game plan, "It's a
smoother game. We like to pass and
play an up-tempo game."
Junior midfielder Regan Wulfsberg
scored two goals, including the
Wolverines' sole second-half score. The
other Michigan goal came at the hands
of Molly Powers, who scored with just
46 seconds remaining in the first half.
Playing a weaker team like Central
Michigan allowed the Wolverines to
start sophomore backup goalie Maureen
Tasch, an Ann Arbor native. Tasch's vic-
tory put her at 2-0 for the year with a
0.71 goals against average.
Playing Central also allowed the
Wolverines to try different people in dif-
ferent positions, despite some players'
lack of familiarity with those positions.
"We allowed them to get down to our
end and score a goal," Pankratz said.
"We were out of position."
Pankrantz declined to cite inexperi-
ence as a reason for the goal, saying
only "we let up a little."
This game came as a warmup for
Sunday's game against hated rival
Michigan State. But the Wolverines
were ready for Central.
"I wasn't really concerned. Against
Northwestern on Sunday, we came out
flat,' said Pankratz. That game came
after a major defeat of third-ranked
Iowa, and may have helped sharpen the
Wolverines' focus for yesterday's game
"It was a lesson learned," Pankratz
said.

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AP PHOTO
The Braves' Chipper Jones is excited, and why shouldn't he be? The Braves are up
2-0 on the upstart Mets, after yesterday's 4-3 victory.

to making a pitching change after


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