The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - April 9, 2001 - 5B
Call of the game
"I don't question myself at all. Amen."
Indiana coach Bob Morgan on his decision to pull
starter Matt Rice in Sunday's game. Rice had thrown 7.1
shutout innings. The Hoosiers went on to lose, 3-2.
SERIES SCORE
Indiana 0
SMichigan4
SUNDAY 'S GAME
Idar 2
Mihan 3
Player of the series
Nate Wright
Over the four-game series, the first baseman
went 7-for-14 at the plate with five RBIs. Three
of those came in yesterday's game, accounting
for every Michigan run, including a walk-off
single in the tenth.
Defense ensures final win in series
MICHIGAN 6, INDIANA 2
I MICHIGAN
SWEEP
Continued from Page 13
Indiana had loaded the bases in the 10th innng and
catcher Gibran Hamdan was at bat. He lined a Jeff Trzos
fastball toward right fielder Brandon Roberts. Roberts
caught the ball and in a fluid motion fired it fo1e. ndi-
ana designated hitter Blake St. Clair, who had taggcd up
from third, was still five feet from the plate when the
throw arrived. Michigan catcher Alex Coleman put the
tag on and the rally was killed.
Just a .225 hitter over the season, Roberts knows that
his defensive abilities are highly valued.
"The right fielder is supposed to have one of the
strongest arms on the team.," Roberts said. "The bul
wasn't hit too deep. I had a lot of momnu:m in in
and I had a lot of adrenaline. In that situation they have
got to be tagging."
The play put the Wolverines on an emotional' gh.
"That play that Roberts made was do or di . Any
ro that nails the guy at home plate is a great throw,"
an sid. "That was a huge play it really picked us up
and it is deflating for the other team."
Michigan's pitching, which has been excellent all
y -r, came through Sunday. Starter Rich Hill threw
eght innings allowing seven hits and two runs in his
irs liig Ten start of the year. He set a new career high
wih I I strikeouts.
After a two-out rally resulted in a 2-0 Indiana lead in
the top of the first, Hill settled down for seven scoreless
innings.
"That was a long first inning," Hill said. "I got two
OUt: right away. All I needed was a groundball and I just
lost it for a second there. I felt good after that."
Trzos threw two scoreless innings to get the win in
relief.
The team obviously feels good about themselves hav-
ing won the last six games.
"Winning gets contagious and you start to believe that
there is no way that you can lose," Zahn said.
Player AB R H BI Player 4
Tcusa 2b 4 0 0 0 Haegele 2b
Cantalamessa If 4 2 2 0 Evans dh
Koman 3b 4 1 1 0 Blakeley ss
wright lb 3 2 3 1 St. Clair cf
Sokol dh 3 1 2 1 Spanos 3b
Ghannamcf 3 0 1 0 Maharlf
Fox c 4 02 2 Calkins rf
Roberts rf 4 0 0 0 Hardan lb
Jominy ss 4 0 1 1 O-brien c
Sadler ph
Totals 336 12 5 Totals
INDIANA
4 100
4 0 2 0
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
40.20
2 0 0 0
1 0 0 0
302 5 1
E- D. Haegele (4), Mahar (2), M. Calkins (5). DP-
Indiana 2, Michigan 3. LOB - Indiana 2, Michigan
8. 2G. Hadman (8), Cantalamessa (9) ,B. Jomiy
(3). SH-C.. hannam (3), SB-u. Haegele (13).
CS. Jominy (2).
IP H R ER BB SO
Indiana
Nick Otte (5-2) 4.0 10 5 4 1 1
Vitielliss 4.0 2 1 1 3 5
Michigan
Korecky
9 5 2 0
4
UmirsLen Brickens (home plate), Jonto Yonto
(first base), Tim Calton (second base), Jay Lyons
(third base)
At: Ray L. Fisher Stadium
Attendance:275
Start: 3p.m.
Time: 2:09
BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily
Firstbaseman Nate Wright starts a sweep tag on an attempted pickoff. Michigan
successfully swept Indiana in a four-game series.
$ weep boosts Blue
in- Big Te n standingrs
The rotation recap
No.I BoBBY KoRECKY
IP H R ER BB SO0
9 5 2 0 1 4 Y
Korecky (4-2, 1.99 ERA) pitched
his fifth complete game of the sea-
son, allowing no earned runs in al
6-2 victory on Friday.
No. 2 NicK ALEXANDER
IP H R ER BB SOdy
4.1 7 6 3 2 1
Alexander (1-3, 5.60) was pulled
inthe fit fer surrendering a
walk and a triple. He had a no
decision in Michigan's 11-7 win.
IP H R ER BB SOf
_.>. With five scoreless innings, Lev- ;:.::.::<.:::
eue (2-1,0.34) won game two of
Saturday's doubleheader, He's
allowed one earned run in 26.1
innings.9
No. 4 Rici'iHiLL
P H R ER BB S4
The sophomore Hill (2-2, 3.27)
pitched for a win in his first Big
Ten game, setting a new career BRENDAN ODONNELL/Daily
high in strikeouts with 11. Sophomore Tim Leveque is third in Michigan's weekend rotation.
Player j
Tousa 2b
Cantalamessa If
Koman 3b
Wright lb
Ghannam cf/
Fox dh
Coleman c
French rf
Jominy ss
Sokol ph
LaRosa pr/ss
MICHIGAN
AB R H BI Player
2 2 1 2 Haegele dh
4 0 2 1 MaharIf
3 2 2 1 Blakeley ss
3 1 1 0 St. Clair cf
rf4 3 2 1 Spanos 3b
2 2 2 2 Hamdan lb
30 2 1 Calkins rf
401 1 Wargoc
1 0 00 Evans ph
0 00 00 OBrien c
0 1 0 0 Bestler 2b
Sadler ph
Minor 2b
26 11139 Totals
INDIANA
AB R H B
32 1 0
3210.
3 21 0.o
3 1 1 0
1 0 1 1
2 0 1 0
1 0 0 0
1000
28794
MICHIGAN 11, INDIANA 7
Totals
E - M, Calkins (6), Cantalamessa (4), N. Wright
(4), B. Jominy (6), 8. LaRosa (8). DP - Indiana 1,
Michigan 2. LOB - Indiana 3, Michigan 10. 2B - K.
Mahar(4),V. Spanos (2), G Hamdan (9), Canta-
lamessa (2). A. Coleman (1) SB- S. Tousa (7),
CJ. Ghannam (4), B. LaRosa (8). CS - B. St. Clair
(3), M. Calkins (2), Cantalamessa (1), 8. LaRosa
(1).
IP H R ER 66 SO
Indiana,
Edwards 2.2 6 4 4 2 3
Pegg .2 3 3 2 1t 1
Kemp 2.2 4 4 4 4 2
By David Horn
Dall Sports Wrter
OnRay Fisher Stadium, pennants of
each Big Ten school are displayed on
flagpoles along the outfield wall in
order of standings, from left to right.
The Michigan pennant began the week-
enld flying in right field but jumped
poles twice in two days, as this week-
end's four-game sweep of Indiana
earned the home flag a spot in left-cen-
ter and the team a fifth-place ranking in
t conference. The top six teams quali-
or the Big Ten tournament.
The sweep was the first Michigan
has accomplished in two years and the
first sweep at home in four. T he
Wolverines entered the series tied with
Northwestern for ninth place, after
being swept by Penn State last week-
end. The Hoosiers were in eighth place,
1.5 games ahead of Michigan.
ur conference record was "down to
after Penn State, and we were strug-
gling a little bit," Michigan junior Mike
Sokol said. "We set out to win all four
gimes this weekend."
'Wolverine ace Bobby Korecky took
the mound Friday for game one. He
allowed five hits but no runs through
eight innings, then took the mound with
a six-run lead for what proved to be a
challenging ninth.
An error was charged to first base-
Nate Wright on a hard-hit ball
* n the first-base line by second base-
man Dan Heagele. Wright's dropped
ball allowed a run in from Indiana first
baseman Gib.ran Hamdan, who had
ddubled to lead off the inning. Haegele
took two bases on the error.
'-Shortstop Eric Blakeley then singled
to right, driving in Haegele. Korecky
managed his way out of the inning,
(pleting the game without the aid of
the bullpen.
On Saturday at Ray Fisher, the
Michigan flag was hoisted on the third
pole from the right, rather than the sec-
ond stating that the team had advanced
into sixth place. The Wolverines over-
took Illinois, which had lost to confer-
ence-leading Ohio State, and Michigan
State. The Spartans had just dropped
their Friday game to Minnesota.
To make the next shift - across the
centerfield wall to the third flagpole
from the left - the Wolverines would
need to take both seven-inning games
against the Hoosiers.
In game one, Michigan hurlers Nick
Alexander, Bobby Wood and Jeff Trzos
combined for the 11-7 win, in which
there were four lead changes in the
abbreviated game.
In game two, Tim Leveque pitched
five shutout innings for the Wolverines.
His ERA was lowered to 0.34, as he
has now thrown 26.1-straight innings
with only one earned run.
Sunday finally saw the home team's
pennant in leftfield, putting the Wolver-
ines in fifth place in the Big Ten.
Michigan was poised for the sweep, but
got into early trouble as sophomore
Rich Hill, in his first Big Ten start,
gave up two runs in the top of the first.
In the bottom of the eighth, Wright
more than made up for his fielding
blunder that cost Korecky the shutout
by driving in Jordan Cantalamessa and
Brandon Jominy with a single to left. In
the bottom of the tenth, Wright added
his third RBI of the game to seal the
sweep for Michigan.
Winning all four games "certainly
helped," Michigan coach Geoff Zahn
said. "Coming in, we felt we had to
take three out of four at least. Taking
four out of four is much better."
Michigan's Big Ten record now
stands at 5-3, good enough for fifth in
the conference, just a half game behind
Minnesota. The Wolverines will face
the Golden Gophers in a four-game
series beginning next Friday in Min-
neapolis. Michigan does not expect to
sweep against its opponent. But each
win pushes that flag farther towards
leftfield.
Winning three of the games "would
have been satisfactory, but only to a
certain extent," Michigan sophomore
Mike Sokol said. "Getting four is
going to give us a lift because we're
going to Minnesota. So this is going to
give us some confidence going into
Minnesota, because it's going to be a
battle next weekend."
Michigan
Alexander
Wood
Trzos
4.1
1.2
1.0
7
1
6
d
0
3
0
0
2
0
0
1
0
0
Umpires-Joe Yonto (home plate). Tim Caton (first
base), Joe Lyons (second base), Len Brickens (third
base)
At: Ray L. Fisher Stadium
Attendance: 531
Start: 1 p.m.
Time: 2:42
survives bses-o
By Benjamin Singer
Daily Sports Writer
When the linescore of a baseball
game reads mostly zeroes, it's a safe
bet good defense played a major role in
the game.
For Michigan, a couple of twin-
killings erased bases-loaded threats,
allowing them to continue on to a 3-2
victory. The first came in the sixth on a
5-2-3 doubleplay of Brock Koman to
Alex Coleman to Nate Wright. The
10th inning ended when right fielder
Brandon Roberts caught Gibran Ham-
dan's fly ball and threw out Blake St.
Clair who was tagging from third.
"It was very big," Coleman said.
"Doubleplays can shut down a big
inning. We came up key. Rich hit his
spots and came up with a big ground-
ball there that shutdown what could
have been a very serious bad inning for
us."
By managing to stay within striking
distance, the Wolverines handed the
game over to their bats. Michigan was
in need of a rally that eventually came
in the eighth with a two-run single
from Wright. In the previous three
games of the series, they had seven
multi-run innings.
"We know we can come back any-
time," designated hitter Jake Fox said.
"Our bats were just phenomenal this
weekend. And we know coming into
any inning we can get two, three runs
an inning."
Leading 2-0 in the top of the sixth,
Indiana began to mount a rally. Insur-
ance runs for the Hoosiers looked
imminent with runners at every base
and nobody out.
But doubleplays are known as a
pitcher's best friend, and Michigan
starter Rich Hill knew how to call on
his companions. He threw a changeup
away to Kevin 0'Brin. the ninth spot
in the order, to induce the grounder to
Koman at third base.
"We wanted to get (O'Brien) to hit a
groundball," Hill said. "It just worked
out perfect vt was a es(me. Right
after that, I knew we were going to
roll."
Indiana's leadoff bater Dan Haegele
then ended the rally with his groundout
to Scott Tousa at second. The threat
was gone, and whei all was said and
done, the Wolverines were still in the
ballgame.
The Hoosiers didn't have to hit Hill
very hard to create traffic on the
basepaths. A walk, error and bunt
loaded the bases. Indiana couldn't get
the ball out of the infield, but Hill
assisted the Hoosiers with that prob-
lem. Aft, -is wak to Nick Evans, he
fielded a Mark Calkins grounder and
threw it into centerfield as he tried to
start the 1-6-3 doubleplay.
"I just didn't set myself right," Hill
said. "It was just a h'd play on my part.
I didn't use fundamentals at all. I had
plenty of time to throw the runner out
at second."
Michigan coach Geoff Zahn wasn't
surprised to see that Indiana's only
ided jams
way of stirring up trouble for Hill was
with station-to-station baseball.
"If you look at his games, that's kind
of what happens," Zahn said. "He
doesn't give up many hits. Walks and
things like that get him into jams, but
he finds a way out of it. He either
strikes a couple guys out or, like today,
guys made good plays."
Good plays continued for the.
Wolverines. Down by one run, they
found themselves in another bases-
loaded jam in the 10th inning. A hit-
batsmen and back-to-back singles
against Jeff Trzos set up the big play
for Roberts to preserve the 2-2 tie as he
threw out the tagging St. Clair at home
to end the inning. The throw went
straight from Roberts' hand to Cole-
man's glove without a bounce.
"It was a perfect throw," Coleman
said. St. Clair "came in pretty hard and
I just wanted to make sure I had the
ball so we got that guy out, but it was a
great throw by Brandon. Once I saw
Brandon release it I could see it was
going to be right at me. It was pretty
shallow in the outfield. He made a
good accurate throw."
Roberts' throw was not indicative of
his recent warm-ups. The rightfielder
said he has been struggling with toss-
ing the ball around.
"As of late I've been throwing the
ball terribly in the infield in pregame
(drills)," he said. "I've been throwing
really bad. Luckily today I was able to
get off a good throw in a key situa-
tion."
Player
Tousa'2b
Cantalamessa If
Koman 3b
Wright lb
Sokol dh
Ghannam cf/il
Fox c
Roberts rf
LaRosa ss
Totals
MICHIGAN
AB R H 6
3 22 20
f 2 0 2 1
3010
3 00 0
2 0 0 0
266 10 6
I
S.
Player 1
Haegele 2b
Evans 3b
St. Clair cf
Spanos dh
Mahar If
Blakeley ss
Colkins rf
Hamrdan lb
O'Brien c
Totals
INDIANA
AB R H S
4 0 2 0
30 0 0
4201
2 0 1 0
283 8 2
INDIANA 3, MICHIGAN 6
E - Ghannam (1). OP - Michigan 1. LOB - Indiana 9,
Michigan 6. HR - LaRosa (1), Cantalamessa (2).
Indiana
Cary (a-1)
Smith
Michigan
Leveque (2-)
Pistilli
Wood
IP H R ER B SO
4.0 8 S5 5 2 4
2.0 2 1 0 0 1
5.0
1.0
1.0
4
4
0
0
3
0
0
3
0
4
1
0
4
0
0
Umpires. Tim Catton (home plate), Jay Lyons (first
base), Len Brickens (third base).
At: Ray L. Fisher Stadium
Attendance: n/a
Start: 4:20 p.m.
Time: 1:53
Ll
MICHIGAN 3, INDIANA 2 (10)
INDIANA
Player AS R H BI
Tousa 2b 4 1 2 0
Cantalamessa t 4 1 1 0
Koman 3b 2 00 3
Wrighti1b 5 02 0
Ghannam cf/i 3 00 0
Fox dh 4 0 20
Coleman c 4 0 0 0
French rf 1 0 0 0
Rutkowski ph/cf 1 0 0 0
LaRosa ss, 2 0 1 0
Jommy ph/ss 2 1 1 0
Totals 323 93
Player j
Haegele 2b
Blakeley ss
Mahar If
St. Cllair cf
Spanos dh
Evans 3b
Calkins rf
Hamdan lb
O'Brien c
Totals
INDIA
AB RH 81
5 0 2 0
4 1 0
5 0 11
5 0 1 0
4 0 2 0
3 0 0 0
52 102
E - Hamdan (5), Coleman (2) Hill (2). DP - Indiana 3r
Michigan 2. LOB-Indiana 12, Michigan 10.28-St.
Clair (10), Tousa (2).
IP N4 R ER 68 SO
ndiana
Rice
Vitielliss
Pegg (3-3)
Michigan
Hill
Trzos (1-0)
7.1
0.1
1.1
4
2
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
0
2
5
0
1
Si* "' " Nl0
t.rai U
8.07 2 2 4 11
2.0 3 0 0 0 0
By David Horn
Daily Sports Writer
This weekend's sweep, in conjunction with two
non-conference victories last week against Bowling
Green, on Tuesday and in Ypsilanti at Eastern
Michigan on Wednesday, is the first time the
Wolverines have won six-straight games since 1998.
That year, Michigan began the run with a victory in
the tail-end of a four-game Ohio State series in
Columbus, followed by two non-conference wmIs
against Bowling Green and Oakland. Thy hen pro-
ceeded to knock off Minnesota in the lriday gam' of
a series at Ray Fisher Stadium, then took both ends
of the Saturday doubleheader. The Wolvcnns wll
They also wore the blue yesterday to close out the
series.
"There's one on order," Sokol said of his white
jersey. "But it hasn't come in yet."
Sokol had a pinch-hit walk in Saturday's first
game and started as the designated hitter in the
nightcap.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: Three Michigan players
who hail from Colorado led the way in Saturday's
doubleheader. Sophomore Brock Koman went 5-7 in
the two games, including a home run in the first
game that tied him with Nate Wright for a team-best
five home runs on the season. Fellow sophomore
Jordan Cantalamessa had two extra-base hits and
three RBIs in the two games. But the real "mile-
Umpires- Jay Lyons (home plate), Len Brickens (first
base), Joe Yonto (third base), Tim Catton (third base)
At: Ray L. Fisher Stadium
Attendance:619
Start: 1 P.m.
Time: 2:40
BIG TEN STANDINGS
Conference Overall
Team W L W L
Purdue 8 2 15 14
Minnesota 7 2 19 12
Ohio State 6 2 23 7
Penn State 7 3 16 17
Michigan 5 3 16 12
Illinois - 4 6' 15 15
Iowa 3 6 12 12
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