~J~ie£id~g~rn~ui; k ' 52. ' ~ '~ - /S PC) Sports desk: 647-3336 sportsdesk@umich.edu SECTION B I Ag..4,., -A,......~ *A..k4:...............,......-... '.''>,, ~------- .......................... ,.,....-..- 4.*~* ~ .4..'-.--. -. - SA./. /1... ___ V.14* ~. N~~~~'~ ___ , .AA .. ~ 4 _______ I S41*Y~YA. /1 __ I.1.11. .......................................... ..~.*. ___ '.).~. ~'A*~A, :.I~IIA 4AA,.,I.A,~" '.A.A42'4.'~ .. - April Clutch hitting leads 'baseball past Indiana sweeps ® Wright's single yester- day gave Michigan Nine 3-2 extra inning victory, series sweep. By Job Singer Daily Sports Writer When Indiana starting pitcher Matt Rice exited yesterday's game in the bottom of the eighth inning after a one-out hit by Scott Tousa, he knew that he'd given his team all that he had. "I was tired," Rice said. "They let me go as far as I could go. I could have kept going, but I didn't feel as if I had to. I was having trouble just keeping my breath at that point." Because Indiana's bullpen had been pitching well and Rice was just coming off an injury, the deci- sion was easy for coach Bob Mor- gan. "His arm was tightening up on him, so I don't question myself at all. Amen," Morgan said. The Wolverines (5-3 Big Ten, 16-12 overall) were happy to see him exit the game. Down 2-0 at that point, they rallied back to win 3-2 in 10 innings, capping the comeback with a Nate Wright, bases-loaded single for his third RBI of the game. Heading into Sunday's game, the Wolverines had already taken the first three games of the weekend from the Hoosiers (2-9, 17-17-1) 6- Oh mercy! 1 2, 11-1 and 6-3. Although they were outhit 10-9, the Wolverines produced with runners on base and were able to complete the four- game series sweep, their first in the Big Ten since they took four in a row from Michigan State two years ago. The biggest hits - a bases- loaded, two-run single in the eighth and a game-winning, RBI basehit in the 10th - were both delivered by Wright in the cleanup spot, who is now hitting .355. "Nate looked very relaxed at the plate today," Michigan coach Geoff Zahn said. "He knows that he can hit. He believes that he can hit any- body and I am glad that we had him up in those situations." Wright was ready to hit once the Hoosiers walked Michigan third baseman Brock Koman. "When they walked Brock to put me up to the plate I was like 'Are you kidding me? I'm going to hit the ball,"' Wright said. "They were pitching around Brock to get to me." The Wolverines committed two errors in the game. They also had a couple of defensive miscues during Indiana's two-run first inning. While the Wolverines could have been hurt due to certain plays which should have been made but weren't, they were saved by a play that probably shouldn't have been made but was. See SWEEP page 5B Men's gymnastics fourth at nationals By Swapnil Patel Daily Sports Writer COLUMBUS - Simply "disappointing." After finishing the regular season with a 12-1 record and placing second to Ohio State in the Big Ten Championships, the Michigan men's gymnastics team seemed prepared to storm into Columbus to reclaim the NCAA title that was in its possession two short years ago. Last year's heartbreaker, a second-place finish to Penn State by the slimmest of margins, only served to add more fuel to the fire. The team's desire to win was also plastered on their tee shirts for this season - "Retain (Big Ten title) and Regain (NCAA title)." But in this past weekend's NCAA Championships at Saint John Arena, Michigan only managed to take fourth place behind Ohio State, Oklahoma and California. "It's a disappointment," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "It's one that slipped through our fingers." During Friday night's team and all-around finals, the Wolverines struggled immensely on the pommel horse. In un- Michigan-like fashion, three of the six Wolverines fell while performing their routines. With the team total on each event consisting of the top four scores, Michigan's chances at winning the NCAA title took a huge dent as it gathered a season-low team score of 34.650 on the pommel horse. Throughout the season, pommel horse was one of the team's strengths, producing an average score of 35.812. Adding to the irony of the team's poor performance, Michi- gan posted a season-high team total of 37.050 the previous night in the pommel horse preliminaries to qualify for Fri- day's team finals. "Pommel horse killed us," Golder said. "If we could take yesterday's pommel horse score, we would have won the meet tonight by five tenths of a point, but the ball hasn't bounced our way all year. We've had a lot of things to overcome. I feel good for what we did do. But when you know what you could have done ... pommel horse is a lit- tle bit hard to take." Even after spending the majority of the season attempting to maintain consistency in their routines, the Wolverines struggled to produce when they truly needed it. "All we had to do is hit those routines," Golder said. "Con- sistency is what we were trying to base the year on, but things happen. Yesterday, it happened on parallel bars and it really hurt our team total and today it happened on pommel horse. Right now we'd be celebrating the national championship if things that I guess I can't explain didn't take place." In two earlier competitions this season, the Wolverines defeated the Buckeyes, but they finished the season behind Ohio State in the Big Ten and NCAA Championships. "Not that this is the excuse, but we started off the season with Kevin Roulston," Golder said. Despite struggling on the pommel horse, Michigan actually led the field by a tenth of a point after four rotations, but Ohio State finished strong with impressive performances on the rings and vault. Competing at St. John Arena, the Buckeyes thrived off of the home crowd. Huge contributions by Raj Bhavsar - the nation's top performer on the parallel bars - and Jamie Natalie - the NCAA all-around champion, followed by moments of energetic prancing around the arena, kept the Ohio State fans energized throughout the night. It helped the Buckeyes earn their first NCAA title since 1996. "It's already done and over with so there's nothing we can do now," junior Brad Kenna said. "It hurts, but we'U get them next year." Saturday night concluded the three-day competition with individual event finals. Featuring five Michigan gymnasts - including juniors Scott Vetere, Daniel Diaz-Luong and Kenna, and sophomores Kris Zimmerman and Conan Parzu- chowski - the individual event finals gave the gymnasts a chance to display their individual skills. None of the qualifying Wolverines earned top honors, but Vetere, Diaz-Luong, and Zimmerman each garnered second place in events while Parzuchowski captured a fifth-place fin- ish in the still rings. Each of the gymnasts earned All-Ameri- ca honors for placing in the top six of their respective events. "We've got to take the good with the bad," Golder said. "It's a disappointment, but there's also the other side of the coin. We have a lot to be proud of. They kept their heads above the water all year long. With all the adversity that we had to overcome this year, just to be in contention is really phenomenal." BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily Designated hitter Mike Sokol watches a pitch go by in Saturday's second game. Michi- gan went on to win 6-3 as part of a four-game sweep over Indiana. 5-3 win caps softball's perfect weekend By Nathan Linsley Daily Sports Writer The Michigan softball team (6-0 Big Ten, 21-11-1 overall) continued its dom- inance in the Big Ten this weekend by sweeping the state of Indiana in four games. The Wolverines defeated Indiana by the mercy rule, 15-3, in five innings yes- terday after squeaking by the Hoosiers, 2-0 on Saturday. Friday saw Michigan take both games of a doubleheader against Purdue, 6-1 and 4-3. Yesterday, the Wolverines were the beneficiaries of an extremely poor Indi- ana defense. The left side of the Hoosiers' infield struggled throughout the afternoon, allowing Michigan back- to-back six-run innings en route to its highest run total of the season. Michigan coach Carol Hutchins was impressed with the solid performance by the Michigan hitters, who scored their 15 runs on 14 hits, tying their season high that was set last weekend against Illinois. The Wolverines were all over Indiana pitchers Alison Cooke and Jen Smith, with Kelsey Kollen, Stefanie Volpe and Tune each recording three hits on the day. Volpe was 3-3 with three runs scored and three RBIs. The easy victory gave Hutchins a chance to play almost everyone on the team, as 13 Wolverines went to the plate. But the game was stopped after the fifth inning to the dismay of Hutchins. "I would like to do away with that eight run rule. They don't stop a base- ball game, they don't stop football when we're ahead 40 to nothing," Hutchins said. "I think it's a dumb rule. Let's play." Marie Barda was the winning pitcher for Michigan with Kate Eiland - who is continuing her comeback from hip surgery - pitching the final inning. "Well, we hit the ball hard a lot of times, and that field is really tough," said Hutchins, noting that the Michigan fielders also struggled. "It's hard, and you're going to get a lot of hits on that." Michigan shortstop Rebecca Tune, who had two errors on the afternoon, agreed that the infield made fielding ground balls difficult. See HOOSIERS, Page 413 BRAD QUINN/ Daily Meghan Doe and Michigan kicked up some sand against Hoosier-state foes this weekend as they swept Purdue and Indiana. Woods SlaIs lhallengers, AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Slam or not, Tiger Woods was simply grand. With a heart-stopper at Augusta National punctuated with a birdie at the end, Tiger Woods claimed the greatest feat in modern golf yesterday by winning The Masters, giving him a clean sweep of the four professional majors in a span of 294 days. When that 18-foot birdie putt dis- appeared into the hole, Woods raised both arms in triumph as the massive gallery roared its approval. He doffed his cap to cover his tears as he left the green and walked into the arms of his father .Erl. who Regional repeat sends women to Georgia By Chris Burke Daily Sports Writer On its way off the Crisler Arena floor, after finishing the final event of the night, the Michigan women's gymnastics team waved hello to its fans. Then the Wolverines waved good-bye to their opponents. Punch the plane tickets to Georgia - the Wolverines are headed back to the national championships for the ninth-consecutive year. Sparked by senior Bridget Knaeble's all- around co-title in her final home appearance, the seventh-ranked Wolverines posted their second-highest team score of the year with a 197.225. The mark was good enough to wrap up the Northeast Regional title, holding off the sec- ond-place mark of 196.725 posted by No. 6 Stanford which also aualified for nationals. AP PHOTO Tiger Woods speaks to the Augusta crowd after earning his second green jacket, down the haunting back nine of Senior Bridget Knaeble's top all-around score was key in Michigan's regional championship.