cue £idMgant IU sPORTS NDAY Sports desk: 763-2459 sportsdesk@umich.edu SECTION B Clutch at home - Michigan nine stops Hawkeyes Daily Sports Writer Every so often, there is a very close play during a baseball game when no one envies the umpire who has to make the call. Sometimes, those instances can be critical turning points in the game. In the top of the third inning of Sunday's second game between Iowa and Michigan, home plate umpire Dave Buck was faced with one of those crucial decisions. His call ended up propelling the Wolverines to a 4-1 win - their third in four games dur- ing the opening weekend of the Big Ten season. sThe Hawkeyes had already tied the game at 1-1 on an RBI single by shortstop Jeff Gremley through the left side of the infield. After Gremley moved to second on a passed ball, senior Ian Mattiace laced the first pitch he saw into left field for what looked like the go-ahead RBI. But Michi- gan outfielder Brandon Roberts made a strong throw to beat the runner to the plate. And after catcher Alex Coleman applied the tag, Buck called the runner out to end the inning. Iowa coach Scot Broghamer was upset. by the decision, arguing that Gremley had slid under the tag and beat Coleman to the plate. "I thought he tagged him up around the mid-chest region, and if he did that, it means (Gremley's) legs are six feet farther past where he tagged him and he was in," Broghamer said. Michigan starter Jeff Trzos, who was backing Coleman up on the play, thought that Broghamer might have had a point. "I thought he was safe," Trzos said. "I DAVID KATZ/Daily Michigan catcher Alex Coleman appeals to umpire Dave Buck after tagging out Iowa's Jeff Gremley in the third inning of Sunday's second game. thought he got under (the tag). But I'm not gonna say anything because (the call) is going my way." Coleman, on the other hand, who may have had the best view of what hap- pened, was positive that Gremley never got passed him. "I felt he slid right into my feet and never got to the plate," Coleman said. "I didn't think there was any doubt that the guy was out." Despite all of the differing views, Buck's first impression was all that mattered, and the Wolverines escaped the third with the score tied at one. The game remained that way until the bottom of the fifth, when the Wolverines were able to break things open. Designated hitter Mike Sokol got the inning started for Michigan with a five-pitch leadoff walk. Shortstop Brock Koman moved Sokol to third with a sharp base hit that bounced off of the pitcher's mound and into center field. But after Iowa first baseman Brad Carlson made a spectacular stop on a Roberts' ground ball and threw Sokol out at home plate, it appeared the Wolverines might come up empty handed again. But a passed ball by Iowa catcher Cliff Bruckner and a walk to right fielder Gino Lollio loaded the bases, and Michigan had another chance to surge ahead. This time, first baseman Nate Wright made sure the opportunity didn't go to waste. Wright's slow dribbler down the* first-base line was just enough to score Koman from third and give Michigan a 2-1 lead that it never gave up. Coleman followed Wright with a sharp single into left field to score Koman and Lollio and blow the game open. "I was kind of sitting on changeup and that's what he threw me" Coleman said of his clutch single. "He got it up a little bit, so I just hit it into centerfield." Throughout the game, Trzos kept Michigan close by staying ahead in the count and throwing strikes. The senior lefthander opened the game by tossing first-pitch strikes to five of the first seven' hitters he faced. Broghamer was impressed with the way that Trzos had command of his pitches. "I thought he did a nice job. He kept us off balance" Broghamer said. Trzos felt that his success early in the count was as much a result of a lack of aggression from the Iowa hitters as his own command. He also said that the extra few days of rest he gained from a rain out on See HAWKEYES, Page 4B AP PHOTO Maryland graduate Dave Sacks rejoices as the Terrapins beat the Jayhawks to advance to the championship game. Brackets busted.? It could be worse f you are like most people in the michigandaily.com/Pizza House Challenge, your bracket was shot down long ago. The average Joe Idiot earned 56 points out of a possible 120 by picking Duke over Kansas and stumbling through the other picks. Despite all the carnage on the left side of the board (South and n , West Regions), a few people have stood out from the rest - unfortunately most of those people did so because of their remarkable stupidity. The leaders will get their day in the sun tomorrow, after the final scores are tallied, but today b ife r belongs to the losers. In total, 253 people entered the contest. Five people got zero Elite Eight teams. It doesn't take that much brain power to pick one of the top two seeds in either the East or the Midwest. How did these people get into Michigan? Sixty-four sound-minded people picked Maryland (the third-most popular choice behind Duke and Kansas) to cut down the nets in Atlanta. Someone picked Illinois-Chicago, but nobody had Indiana becoming champions. Our Illinois-Chicago friend came perilously close to being the worst picker of the year. He had the Flames knocking off Boston College for the title - neither team came close to winning once. But despite what appeared to be the best efforts of Mr. Illi- nois Chicago, one man totaled just 32 points. His loan Elite Eight team was, remarkably enough, Kent State. For some reason we think that he was actually trying to win. Duke, Gonzaga, Marquette and Mississippi State is a bad Final Four, but the lack of a No. 15 seed winning the title makes him more likely to be an unlucky fool than a deliberate loser like our friendly Flames fan. These two may have picked the fewest winners, but there can be little doubt that stupider people are out there. Many contestants left lines blank, and still others picked winners that weren't involved in the game at all. Admittedly, we goofed by putting Duke in Arizona's spot in the West Region.-for the first bracket we published. But that is no excuse for picking a Duke vs. Duke national semifinal, as one crackhead did. But the most amazingly braindead bracket of the year had a different Duke vs. Duke game. This time the real Duke (from the South) faced off against a magical Duke (which somehow won the other semifinal between Maryland and Kansas). The result of this Duke vs. Duke championship game? Of course, Kansas won. If anyone out there knows the owner of this bracket, please advise him to seek professional help. Wolverines walk past Ohio State, take three on weekend By Kyle O'Ne.Il Daily Sports Writer Bases loaded. Last inning. Two outs. Tie game. Full count. That was the situation that freshmanJessica Mer- chant faced in the first game of Michigan's doublehead- er against Ohio State. After fouling off two pitches to stay alive in the count, Merchant stepped in, stared down Ohio State's ace Wendy Allen and took the game-winning walk to give the 13-ranked Wolverines (3-1 Big Ten, 24-7 overall) a 5-4 victory for their second win of the weekend. They added a third victory yesterday with a sweep of the Buckeyes (29-8, 2-2) thanks to an 8-2 win. Michi- gan split with Penn State on Saturday with a loss of 1-0 and a 3-0 victory. Surprisingly, the game-winning walk wasn't the biggest gift the No. 25 Buckeyes gave to Michigan in the final inning of the first game yesterday. With two outs, runners on second andthird and the Wolverines down 4-3, Michigan junior Marissa Young hit what appeared to be a game-ending groundball to Ohio State second baseman Jennifer Link. Link bobbled the ball, allowing Kelsey Kollen to score from third and tie the game at four. Michigan's Melinda Moulden was intentionally walked by Allen to get to Merchant, who was hitless in the game. Allen threw three straight balls to Merchant and worked from behind the rest of the at bat until she threw a fastball up and away for ball four and the loss. "Obviously Merchant had a great at bat," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "They walked Moulden, and that was a good call and maneuver. We had a 3-1 take (sign) on for Merchant to make (Allen) throw two more strikes. There was a lot of pressure, and Merchant did a great job because she had to fend off a lot of pitches." In the second game of the doubleheader, Michigan got to Ohio State pitcher Katie Chain early and often, scoring five runs in the third inning to break a 1-1 tie. The Wolverines added two more in the final four See BUCKEYES, Page 5B DAVID KATZ/Daily Second baseman and leadoff hitter Kelsey Koillen celebrates after cranking a home run In the fifth inning of yesterday's second game. 'M' tankers break top 10 once again MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING ATHENS, GA CHAMPIONSHIPS By Courtney Lewis Daily Sports Writer ATHENS, Ga - The Michigan men's swim- ming and diving team has worn them all year: Blue T-shirts with a single maize word lettered on the back - ONE. The shirts symbolize the Wolverines' commitment to team success. Maybe those shirts explain why even though the Wolverines left the NCAA Championships with some disappointing individual swims and no champions, they were still able to finish in the top 10 in the team standings. While Texas battled Stanford to the last race before winning its third consecutive national title Saturday, Michigan used a strong perform- ance in the first race, the 1,650-yard freestyle, to move up from 11th. The Wolverines ended the meet in ninth with 183 points. "We figured we'd finish anywhere from sev- enth to 10th," Freshman Brendan Neligan said. "'I think we're somewhat pleased with how we swam. I think it's going to open some eyes for next year." a fifth-place finish. Junior Justin Drake was ninth, and Andrew Hurd and Dan Ketchum also scored. Jason Coben, Jeff Hopwood and the 400 freestyle relay team rounded out Saturday's point-winners. Ketchum was Michigan's top swimmer for the weekend, earning All-America honors in four races, but he wasn't completely satisfied. After finishing fifth in the 500 freestyle on Thursday, he missed the 200-freestyle title by .09 seconds. "I thought I really had a shot at winning the race, and Adam (Sioui of Florida) just swam a great race and touched me out," Ketchum said. The Big Ten Swimmer of the Year was in front for most of the race, but faded slightly. "Everything was going real well, I think I just tightened up in the last 25 even," Ketchum said. "It was more of a 'please don't die, please don't die instead of attacking the race." Garrett Mangieri, an All-American in three events, touched sixth in the 200 free. Ketchum and Mangieri also swam in the 800 freestyle relay with Hurd and Neligan. Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek thought that race would pionship, but Southern California was too much for Michigan - and everyone else. The Trojans won the race in an American record time of 6:17.36, more than six seconds ahead of Texas. Michigan took third. Michigan's ninth place in the final team standings was one spot better than last season's Wolverines finished, and Urbanchek said achieving the success of Texas or Stanford requires patience. "The time we ended up winning the NCAAs in 1995, we started out with 1lth place, and we gradually moved up one by one, within an eight or nine-year span," Urbanchek said. "This is a start. We're going in the right direction." Legendary diving coach Dick Kimball will be heading in a different direction. The NCAA Championships was his last meet after 43 years of coaching at Michigan, and the NCAA hon- ored him with a presentation during Friday night's competition. Kimball's fellow diving coaches gathered around him as he received a standing ovation and a plaque which called him "one of the greatest coaches to ever touch the PATRICK JONES/Daily Tha MIchIdan man's swimming and diving team aEhieved its onal of flnishing In the top ten at NCAAs by