88 - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 26, 204 )
Baseball braves cold for win
By Steve Jackson
Daily Sports Writer
Baseball in the Big Ten faces con-
stant battles with Mother Nature for
playing time early in the spring.
This past weekend, Michigan (1-0
Big Ten, 8-8 overall) moved its series
against Iowa (0-1, 8-6) to DeKalb,
Ill. because the Hawkeyes' field was
deemed unplayable.
But that didn't stop the teams from
canceling three of their four games
over the weekend because of
inclement weather.
Michigan was victorious Friday
night thanks to a strong finish.
GAME ONE
Michigan 4, Iowa 3
Michigan Iowa
Player AS R H Of Player AR R H BI
Tousa 2b 3 1 0 0 Cappellano rf 4 2 3 1
CanalaessaIf 3 0 0 0 Vitense ss 4 0 1 0
Koman3b 3 0 1 m0 Burks2b 4 0 0 0
Lollocof 4 0 1 0 Humes c 4 0 0 0
Wright lb 4 1 1 1 Mattiace 3b 4 0 0 0
Soklldh 3 1 10 Carlsoni1b 2 12 0
Roberts rf 2 000 ODvorsky dh 4 0 2 1
French ph/rf 2 1 1 1 Jansen If 4 0 1 0
Fox c 2 0 00 Bucklin cf 4 00 0
LaRosa ss 3 00 0
Totals 294 5 2 Totals 3439 2
E - Koman (2), 5. DP - Michigan 2, Iowa 1 LOB-
Michigan 3, Iowa 8. 28 - Sokol 4, French 2,Cappel-
lano 2, Carlson 4. 38 -None. HR - Wright 3, Cappel-
lano 3. S8 - None. CS - Lollio, Dvorsky 2. S - Fox,
PVitense 4.
IP H R ER BR SO
Before the eighth inning1
Wolverines trailed Iowa 2-4 i
Iowa shortstop Kurt Vitens
into the game-ending 4-4 i
play in the bottom of the
scoreboard read Michigan 4,
For the first seven iir
Wolverines' bats were keI>
Iowa hurler Chad BlackwelI
"We we're hitting him,"
captain Scott Tousa said.
were hitting them right at p
Finally Michigan first
Nate Wright made some ni
own by leading off the topI
eighth with his team-eatI
home run of the season. I
second homer in as many g
Jordan French and Mike:
began, the
* But when
e grounded
i-3 double
ninth, the
Iowa 3.
nings the
>t mum by
1.
Michigan
. "But we
eople."
baseman
>ise of his
half of the
ling third
t was his
imes...
Sokol fol-
lowed him with back-to-bac k doubles
to tie the game.
That marked the end d f Black-
well's afternoon on the hill.
Unfortunately for Iowa, reliever
Reed Pawelk left his contra. 1 in Iowa
City.
Pawelk walked three moi re batters
that inning and allowed M ichigan's
final two runs to score be cause of
But Michigan shortstop Bill LaRosa
ended the rally by charging a ball that
deflected off of the Wolverines' No. I
pitcher Bobby Korecky and completing
the barehanded assist.
"That was really a do-or-die play
for us," Michigan coach Geoff Zahn
said. "It was really exciting for Bill."
The Wolverines also closed the
game with their second double play
of the afternoon.
Korecky earned the complete game
win to move his season record to 3-1
and drop his ERA to 2.43.
"They got some hits on Korecky
early," Tousa said. "But he made the
adjustments and shut them down."
"He pitched well against them last
year," Zahn said. "And they were
keying on his inside stuff early. He
adjusted, using the outside breaking
ball more. He used the whole plate
and really pitched well."
While the Iowa field was
unplayable, Ralph McKinzie Field
was not big-league quality either.
"You need to stay aggressive on
those surfaces," Tousa said. "Every
hop is another chance for a bad
bounce."
Cold weather and high winds kept
the Wolverines from playing any
more games over the weekend.
"We would have liked to play more
games," Zahn said. "The wind chill
was about five degrees. We even had
ice forming under the tarp
overnight."
Michigan will next brave the cold
in Bowling Green tomorrow after-
noon.
RUNNER-UP
Continued from Page 18
onship. It's like a miracle to end up second," Golder
said.
Michigan's comeback was bolstered largely by
sophomore Daniel Diaz-Luong, who scored at least{: : ,. 4z.""
8.85 in all six events. The performance was strong
enough to earn him third place in the all-around
standings.
"I think second place is really good actually," Diaz-
Luong said. "The team got together, and we pulled
through and -fought all the way to the end. That's the
best we could have done."
But the Ohio State tandem of Jamie Natalie and Ra
Bhavsar, who finished first and second respectively in
the individual all-around standings, was enough to
make: the Buckeyes better.
"I knew they were a very good team, very capable
of winning,".Golder said. "They had a great meet."
The championships for each event was decided on
the second day of competition, and Michigan junior ;
Scott Vetere won the parallel bars title. Vetere also
finished second on the rings. Diaz-Luong posted a $
second-place score on the high bar and sophomores
Jamie Hertza and Kris Zimmerman tied for second on
the floor exercise.
Michigan's hopes to carry over its strong finish into
the national championships, which will take place
April 5-7 in Columbus.
"I'm very proud of the way the guys fought back,"
Golder said. "They have to eliminate those mistakes
at nationals. I think they definitely showed themselves
that they can win the championship if they eliminate
those mistakes."
As their attention shifts to the final meet, the
Wolverines hope to regain a title they held two sea-
sons ago and lost to Penn State by such a narrow mar-
gin a year ago.
"I think we're in a really good place going into
nationals," Diaz-Luong said. "Right now we've got JAMES RAJOTTE/The Daiy collegian
about a week and a half to train, and we are hungry Jamie Hertza and Michigan scored a 35.8 on the pommel
for that championship title." horse en route to a second-place finish at Big Tens.
Title IXfrom the cutting-room floor
0
C
i
i
i
f
Michigan
KoreckyW (3-1) 9.0 9
Butler
Backwell L(1-1) 7.0 5
Pawelk 1.0 0
Miguel 1.0 0
WP- Pawelk (2), 5.
PB- None.
3 2 2 5
3
1
0
3
1
0
0 6
3 0
1 1
wild pitches.
"He was throwing it all over the
place," said Tousa, who saoyred the
Wolverines' final run.
After scoring four runs. on just
three hits, Michigan return d to the
field with a 4-2 lead. ,
That lead was soon in jeop ardy.
With two outs, Iowa be nefited
from a hit batsman, a balk a ad a sin-
gle to cut the lead to one a ad bring
the winning run to the plate.
Umpe- Home: Umland 1st: Mecca 2nd: Sharkey
At: Ralph Mcinzie Feld, DeKab, Ill.
Attendance: 75
Start: 2 p.m.
Time: 2:39
Powerful offense keys victories
0
The Michigan softball team contin-
ued it's improvement on the season by
picking up two victories at the Purdue
Boilermaker Invitational.
The Wolverines, ranked 24th in the
country, improved their record to 11-9.
In game one, freshman third baseman
Angie Churchill hit a grand slam and
Marie Barda gave up only one earned
run in six innings as Michigan won 11-5.
The late game saw the Wolverines
defeat Butler 7-3 behind the pitching of
freshman Meghan Ritter, who picked up
her first career win.
Senior rightfielder Melissa Taylor
was solid at the plate for Michigan,
going six-for-nine on the weekend with
four runs scored.
'Michigan coach Carol Hutchins was.
scheduled to coach in her 1,000th career
game yesterday before inclement weath-
er cancelled play.
Hutchins has a career record of 695-
301-3, with 672 wins at Michigan.
- Nate Linsley
GAME ONE
Michigan 11, Toledo 5
Michigan Toledo
Player AR R H BI Player AE R H BI
Kollen 2b 5 1 1 1 Linton ss 4 2 3 0
Taylorrf 5 2 3 2 Stavroulakis3b4 1 1 0
MouldenIf 5 0 1 2 Schaaf dh 2 0 1 1
Tune ss 3 0 10 Nagel c 4 1 11
Volpe dh 3200 House1b 3 1 1 2
Young 1b 3 1 1 1 Nelson 2b 3' 0 0 0
Schock c 3 2 2 0 Bartkowiak cf31 0 0 0
Churchill 3b 2 3 1 4 Riepenhoff if 3 1 0 1 1
Garza cf 2 0 1 0 D'Amore rf 3 0 0
GAME TWO
Michigan 7, Butler 3
Michigan Butler
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
Kollen 2b 4 2 2 0 KeechlIf 3 0 0 0
Taylor rf 4 2 3 1 Goldstone cf 3 0 1 0
Moulden 1b 3 2 1 3 Kellerib 3 1 1 0
Tune ss . 4 131 AWrasse rf 3 11 0
Youngdh 3 0 1 0 Bradley dh 3 0 0 0
Bugel c 3 0 1 0 Ryan c 3 1 1 3
GarzaIl 1 000 Sommers 2b3 00 0
Churchill 3b 3 0 0 0 Poast 3b 1 .0 0O 0
Doe cf 3 0 0 0 Kulpinski ss 2 0 0 0
Totals 317 127 Totals 243 4 3
- Churchill. DP - Michigan 2 LOB - Michigan 6,
Butler 1. 2 - Tune 2, Wrasse, Bugel. 3. - oge HR
- Moulden, Ryan. SR - Taylor. CS - None. S - Young.
t
Totals 35111210 Totals
290, 58 5
E - Tune, Linton 3, Nagel, House. OP - None, LOB -
Michigan 9, Toledo 6. 2B - Moulden, Linton; House.
HR - Churchill. SB- None. CS - Schaaf. S - IN tone.
Michigan
Barda W (4-4)
Ritter
IP H R ER BB
6.0 4 2 1 3
1.0 4 3 3 0
S .b
5
0
Michigan
Ritter W (1-0)
Butler
Benter L (8-4)
IP H R ER BB SO
7.0 4 3 3 1 8
7.0 12 7 7 2 6
Toledo
McMasters L (3-2)7.0 12 11 6
WP - Ritter
PS -Schock, Bugel
Umpire - Pete Grabner
At: Harrison Field, West Lafayette
Attendance: 42
Start: 11:00 a.m.
Time: 2:23
6 7
WP - None.
PS- None.
Umpire - None listed
At: Harrison Field, West Lafayette
Attendance: 89
Start: 4:35 p.m.
Time: 1:25
STATE COLLEGE - I couldn't
help feeling filthy, feeling like
an ambulance chaser as I sat and
watched the ien's gymnastics Big
Ten Championships with a tearful
Tony Golden, the father of Michigan
State gymnast Brad Golden.
It was the final night of the event,
and the Golden family was having a
sensational bit-
tersweet
moment.
Sweet
because Brad
had just cap-
tured a confer-
ence
championship,
in the floor. DAN
exercises. Bitter VILLIAMS
because he's The
only a sopho- Outsider
more, but he is
rounding out his
final year as a varsity athlete.
Michigan St'ate men's gymnastics
is the latest casualty courtesy of Title
IX - it will cease to exist after the
national championships in less than
two weeks.
So this family - the Goldens -
was experiencing an abrupt but
touching culmination to Brad's 13-
year gymnastics career, and I was at
their side observing and taking notes.
And I don't have a problem writing
human interest stories. What I didn't
like was knowing that I had ignored
the plight of the Michigan State pro-
gram until a good piece presented
itself.
"Everybody hears about it and
shakes their head, but it usually goes
no further than that," said Jeff Robin-
son, a gymnastics enthusiast who
coached Brad pre-college. That pretty
much suinmed up my reaction.
So now it's difficult for me to hop
aboard my soap box, and preach the
evils of the way Title LX is being
applied.
Nevertheless, that's exactly what
I'm about to do. Men's gymnastics is
getting wrongly burned, and it needs
as many public advocates as possibler
to avoid complete obliteration.
While Title IX has been the great-
est thing to ever happen to women's
sports, current interpretations of the
law are killing many non-revenue
men's sports. Men's gymnastics,
which will be down to 24 Division I
programs after the Michigan State
team dissipates, is probably being hit
the hardest.
Everyone agrees that Title IX has
done unbelievable, necessary things
for collegiate women's sports, and no
one wants to see the inroads reversed.
But the intention of the law is to
create more opportunities for women,
not to subtract opportunities from
male athletes.
The problem is that women's sports
have to receive proportional participa-
tion and funds to the gender numbers
of the student population to comply
with the law. When a school doesn't
comply, an athletic director's choices
are to increase the women's numbers
and funding, or to cut male programs.
The latter is generally considered
the easy way out.
The Michigan State AD, Clarence
Underwood, chose the easy way out,
thus, Brad Golden and his teammates
are up the proverbial creek.
Michigan had a similar situation in
1995 -- it was even announced that
the gymnastics program would be
dropped. But under Athletic Director
Joe Roberson, the decision was
reversed in 1996. Michigan gymnas-
tics coach Kurt Golder said that
Roberson "mandated" that Michi-
gan's women's teams increase their
participation numbers while men's
team slightly lowered theirs.
According to Golder, Michigan
State tried to do the same thing, but
its leadership didn't enforce the
changes, and now.the program is on
the eve of being defunct.
Michigan is safe -- safe as long as
there are other teams to compete
against, I suppose.
Men's gymnastics is an easy'target
because it doesn't make a university
money, and it doesn't have the sup-
port base that a sport like wrestling
has. Wrestling is also being hit hard,
but it will survive because of its
numerous and zealous fans. Most of
the websites mobilizing citizens
against Title IX are wrestling-based.
Because gymnastics takes such an
unbelievable amount of strength, skill
and commitment, most kids never get
exposure to the sport. Therefore the
fan base consists almost solely of
people who excel or excelled at gym-
nastics - a small group.
So it may be up to you, me and
other men's gymnastics outsiders to
save the sport on the college level.
I can't believe anyone, even those
who feel that Title IX hasn't done
enough to create gender equality.
would want Golden and his team-
mates to turn in their uniforms.
The injustices are obvious, the
American population just has to
become aware of the situation and
willing to go to bat for a good cause,
even without vested personal interest.
I know I am going to write to my
congressman and let them know that
this situation must be rectified. After
sharing that moment with the Gold-
ens, after writing this column, I'd be
quite a hypocrite to do otherwise.
Dan Williams can be reached at
.dhw@ur mich.edu.
GROUND -
I .The center or origin of rapid, into nse
activity or change...
2. A college Ministry program invoh ring
discussion, connection with other
Attention Campus Groups:
Easy Fundraiser
Every time someone
signs up for a
Kaplan course
through a link from
your web site you
- make $$$.
Totally FREE
No B.S.
Contactr
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1432 Washtenaw Ave.
French Room
(look for sign outside)
8:45 Wednesday evening
5
students and drinking coffee.
the seven life-giving virtues:
health
A. , Rr
r.
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