Tuesday
April 1, 2003
michigandaily.com
sportsdesk@umich.edu
iPORTS
10
'M' nine puts hurt
on Hawkeyes 20-4
Tourney action eases
pain of missing Blue
By Jake Rosenwasser
Daily Sports Writer
The Wolverines made Duane
Banks Field in the plains of Iowa
seem more like Coors Field in the
Rocky Mountains. Without the aid of
thin air, Michigan (3-1 Big Ten, 1I-
10 overall) smacked four homeruns,
and the Wolverines bombarded Iowa
(1-3, 7-9) for 21 hits, en route to an
easy 20-4 victory.
"Game four of a series is typically
when the pitching gets thinner,"
coach Rich Maloney said. "On top of
that, the wind was blowing out for
us."
YESTERDAY'S GAME
Michigan 20, Iowa 4
MIchig(3.1, l1-10) Iowa (13, 7-9)
Player AS R H BI Player AB R H BI
Lollio cf 5 2 1 2 Thousand cf 3 0 0 0
Ruddenss 3 3 2 1 Bucklin cf 2 0 1 0
Scheidt 2b 2 1 00 Yoho rf 5 1 1 0
Koman 3b 6 3 3 5 Steele dh 5 1 1 0
Fox dh 4 2 2 1 GuyerIf 4 1 1 3
Kunkel c 2 2 21 Besti1b 4 14 0
Cantalamessa 3 1 1 1 Gremley ss 4 0 2 0
Goldschmeding3 0 0 0 Andrulonis 3b 4 0 2 1
Sokol If 3 1 1 2 Bruckner c 4 0 1 0
Schmidt ph/If 2 0 1 1 Lytle 2b 4 0 0 0
Wrighti1b 6 1 2 3 Jensen p 0 0 0 0
Wuerfeldh 5 2 20 Reasland p 0 000
Tognetti p 0 0 0 0 Seward p 0 0 0 0
Husain p 0 0 ,0 Jackson p A 0 0 0
Leveque p 0 0.0 0 Total 394134
Total 50 202118
LOB- Michigan 7; Iowa 8; E - Koman (10); Sokol (2);
Gremley (9); Lytle (2) OP - Michigan 2 28 - Michigan
6: Koman 2 (13), Kunkel (1). Cantalamnessa (7),
Sokol (9), Burhans (5) 38- Steele (1) HR - Lollio (3),
:Koman (3), Fox (8) Wright (4); Guyer (4) HBP -
Wuerfel.
RH E
Michigan 129 001 124 2021 2
Iowa 000 300 020 4132
IP H R ER BB SO
Michigan
Tognetti 6.2 9 2 2 0 7
Husain 1.1 4 2 2 0 0
Leveque 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
Iowa
Maliszewski 20 7 8 7 1 1
Jensen 4.0 3 5 5 1 0
Reasland 2.0 6 3 3 0 1
Seward 0.2 4 4 2 1 0
Jackson 0.1 1 0 0 0 0
At.- Duane Banks Field, Iowa City
Time - 2:39
In the first inning, Michigan took
advantage of some Iowa mistakes in
the field. After Gino Lollio grounded
out, Nick Rudden walked and
advanced to second on a fielder's
choice. A wild pitch let Rudden
advance to third. Then, Jake Fox's
ground ball to second should have
ended the inning, but Iowa second
baseman Andy Lytle made a throwing
error, allowing Rudden to score the
first run of the game. That was the
start to what was going to be a long
day for the Hawkeyes.
Michigan kept up the pressure in
the top of the second. Nate Wright
followed up a Chris Burhans single
with a homerun to left-center field,
widening Michigan's lead to 3-0.
Iowa pitcher Chris Maliszewski
escaped with just moderate damage
in the first two innings, but the
wheels came off in the third.
The first five Michigan batters
reached safely on base hits. A Rud-
den single was followed by a Brock
Koman double to right-center. Then,
a Fox single was followed by doubles
off the bats of Jordan Cantalamessa
and Mike Sokol. Maliszewski left
without recording an out in the third.
Fox's single extended his hitting
streak to 17 games.
Unfortunately for Iowa, relief
pitcher Nick Jensen did not fare
much better. After recording two
quick outs, Jensen hit Jason Wuerfel
with a pitch and walked Lollio to
load the bases. Rudden advanced
each of the runners one base with an
RBI single to widen the lead to 5-0.
Then the big blow: Brock Koman
cleared the bases with a grand slam
to left center. With one swing, Koman
stretched the lead to 9-0 and all but
assured that the Wolverines would
come back to Ann Arbor with three
wins in four games in their opening
Big Ten series of the year.
"Our confidence level is high - as
44 seior this is- thefirst time that
we've gone on the road and taken
JEFF PHILLIPS
Ramble on
INNEAPOLIS - When
Michigan announced that it
was banning itself from the
postseason this year, my dreams of
attending an NCAA Tournament
game came crashing down. I'd be
lying if I said the decision surprised
me, but it was still a disappointing
turn of events for my last year at
Michigan.
While wallowing in self-pity, two
friends and I decided that instead of
waiting for the tournament commit-
tee to invite Michigan fans to the Big
Dance, we'd just invite ourselves. So
we bought tickets for the Midwest
regional and waited, knowing our
berth was secure.
When the brackets were released,
we were less than pleased with our
region. I saw the most dominant No.
1-seed in the tournament (Kentucky),
with the dullest No. 2 seed (Pitts-
burgh), the most overrated No. 3
seed (Marquette) and an inexplicable
No. 4 seed (Dayton). My hope was
that maybe we would get to see No.
6 seed Missouri take down the Wild-
cats in the regional finals if we were
lucky.
But that is why they play the
games. Instead of witnessing what I
thought would be the most pre-
dictable regional, we saw the most
compelling story of the tournament
so far: The resurgence of Marquette.
My closed-mindedness produced
some god-awful brackets (not one of
my 23 brackets had Marquette in the
Sweet 16), but left me that much
more surprised at the Golden Eagles'
sperformance.
On Thursday, Kentucky was greet-
ed by a stadium full of Wisconsin
fans, which only had to make the
short four-hour drive to the
Metrodome - as compared to the
12-hour trek that Wildcats' fans
faced. The game could not be con-
sidered anything but an away game
in a hostile environment for Ken-
tucky, but thanks to 28 points by
Marquis Estill, the Wildcats narrow-
ly prevailed, 63-57. Not even an
injury to the Wildcats' Keith Bogans
was enough to help Wisconsin.
In the next game, the intermission
featured comments like, "I'm sur-
prised Marquette made it this far"
and "Do you think Bogans will be
okay for Pitt on Saturday?" Of
course, we spoke too soon.
Marquette came out shooting,
knocking down several 3-pointers to
keep the game tied at halftime, 34-
34. At the break, I turned to my
friend and said, "How is Wade so
good? I've never seen him play well
once:" As if on cue, Dwyane Wade
happened. It was a rare performance.
Every possession he demanded the
ball and almost every time he scored.
He looked like a different player. He
absolutely took over the game to
earn the 77-74 victory over the Pan-
thers. He finished the half with 20 of
Marquette's 43 points (after netting
just two in the first), but it seemed
like more.
On Saturday, we questioned
whether the home favorite Golden
Eagles could repeat their perform-
ance against the Panthers. If they
did, they certainly had the crowd
behind them. The feared "Blue Mist"
of Kentucky was no match for what
I've dubbed the "Golden Downpour"
of Marquette - a sea of yellow
across the stadium. I was surprised
to see the support for a school with
an enrollment of approximately
7,300 students. Upon closer inspec-
tion, many of the- yellow shirts were
actually for the Green Bay Packers
or Team Abercrombie, but it's the
thought that copts. The Go~den
See PHILLIPS, Page 11
C
DAVID KATZ/Daily
Michigan pitcher Phil Tognetti stifled Iowa's bats yesterday, giving up just two
runs in 6.2 innings pitched to pick up a win in his first start of the year.
three out of four," Sokol said.
Fox and Lollio added homers in the
later innings to pad the Wolverines'
lead.
"We have a lot of veteran hitters
and we know that it's up to us to
either pick up our pitchers when
they're struggling or help them out
when they're going well," Fox said.
Making his first start of the year
for the Wolverines was Phil Tognetti.
Coming off of a solid relief win
against Central Michigan last week,
the sophomore went 6.2 innings
"while surrendering just two runs.
"Phil Tognetti threw really well
(Tuesday), and he did the same
today," Fox said. "He was keeping
batters off balance all day."
With the win, the Wolverines find
themselves over .500 for the first
time since the 2001 season. They are
also 3-1 where it matters the most -
in the Big Ten season.
"We've talked about being pre-
pared for the Big Ten because every-
thing before this weekend was
preseason," Fox said. "Everyone has
increased their focus."
The Wolverines will look to
improve on their winning record when
they host Eastern Michigan tomorrow.
11
Fatigued Wolverines travel to Kalamazoo
By Daniel Bremmer
Daily Sports Writer
Sometimes, there's just no time to
rest.
Today in Kalamazoo, the Michi-
gan softball team is finding that out
the hard way. Less than 48 hours
after it wrapped up a 3-
1 victory over North-
western to sweep a To
doubleheader, the Mich
Wolverines are back in Wstem
action for two more
games against Western Tne
Michigan. Fran +
"I think the biggest Kana
fatigue factor comes " -"""""'
from being outside -
those kids were on the field from
10:45 until somewhere after five
o'clock," Michigan coach Carol
Hutchins said. "And I tell you
what: (The cold weather) makes
you really tired and sore. It makes
your muscles tired, so the fatigue
factor comes from the cold, and
that will be something they'll have
to overcome."
Michigan (3-1 Big Ten, 19-8 over-
iga
:t
e: U
all) can't afford to come out slug-
gish against a Broncos team on the
rise. The team is hitting a collective
.288, .50 points higher than last year
at this time.
In addition, Western Michigan
has already slugged 19 homeruns
this season, almost doubling the
previous school record
""""""'""'''" of 10 set in 1996
AY "I think that they're a
an at rapidly improving pro-
lich ig gram," Hutchins said.
"They're a good hitting
p team, and our pitchers
t Field are going to have to
oo come to play."
S Western Michigan
junior Jaymie Voss leads
the Broncos with a .348 batting
average and 14 RBIs, and is third on
the team with three homeruns
through 26 games. The Kalamazoo
native will probably be the toughest
out for the Wolverines in the dou-
bleheader.
The Broncos (4-2 MAC, 14-12)
have faced two Big Ten opponents
so far this season, defeating Illinois
5-1 on March 7 and falling to Pur-
due 4-1 a day later.
Michigan split games with Illinois
this weekend, dropping a 4-0 deci-
sion on Friday before coming alive
in a 12-4 win on Saturday.
Senior Marissa Young will be one
of the pitchers that Michigan will
turn to in today's action.
After taking her first loss of the
season in a start on Friday, Young
bounced back on Sunday, pitching
well in a no-decision in the first
game and earning a win in relief in
the second game.
Young leads the team with an 11-
1 record and an impressive 1.38
ERA through her 16 appearances.
She just moved into sole possession
of second place on Michigan's all-
time wins list with 77.
Young also led the team at the
plate over the weekend, hitting the
game-winning homerun in the bot-
tom of the ninth inning in the first
game and driving in two of runs in
the top of the eighth inning of
game two.
Following an 0-for-2 mark at the
plate on Friday, Young bounced
back with an impressive 4-for-4 per-
formance on Saturday, including
three RBIs and two runs scored.
"I was seeing the ball a lot bet-
ter," Young said after Saturday's
game.
Young - who leads the team with
six homers on the season - will be
an asset to her team today, as she
has been all her career, according to
Hutchins.
"Marissa Young has been valuable
since the day she walked into Ann
Arbor," Hutchins said.
Junior Monica Schock has also
been hot at the.plate for the Wolver-
ines. The catcher combined for three
hits on Sunday and extended her hit-
ting streak-to 10 games, a team-high
this season.
Most importantly for Michigan,
the team will look to find a sense of
stability at the plate following a
weekend where it scored zero, 12,
six and three runs in its four out-
ings.
"In general, I want us to come
back from a great two wins (on Sun-
day) and stay consistent," Hutchins
said. "We're looking for consistency
at this point."
0
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