10 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 'M' Nine hands ball to freshman By Matt Venegoni Daily Sports Writer To be a contender for the Big ference title, a team needs young to step up throughout the season. For the Michigan baseball tean man pitcher Michael McCormick has to do just that for the Wolverines if they want to beat in-state rival Central} Michigan today. McCormick will make his first start for the Wolverines after making six relief appear- ances and pitching 9.2 innings this year.3 Although Michigan coach Rich Maloney and the rest oft would like to bring him and som other younger players along slom cannot. Many of the veteran pitcher team have been worked hard a rest, so it is up to McCormick advantage of the spot start. "It is time for him to get som ence," Maloney said. "He hase stuff, he just needs the work." After a solid bullpen session on Maloney penciled in McCormick Ten con- g players m, fresh- start against the gritty Chippewas today. McCormick, a lefty, will have to pay attention to baserunners. The Chippewas are one of the most aggressive teams Michigan (5-3 Big Ten, 15-12 overall) will face. this year. "(Central Michigan) will try to steal 120 to 140 bases in a season," Maloney said. DA"Having a lefty starting should help keep them close to the bag." The Chippewas (5-1 MAC, 16-13 overall) present a tough T s ai a challenge for the Wolverines, as they are similar to Michi- gan. Both teams are blue-col- lar, small-ball teams. The the staff entire pitching staff for Central Michigan ne of the mixes its pitches well and keeps batters on wly, they their toes. Michigan feels it needs to beat Central s on the Michigan to establish itself as the dominant nd need team in the state. to take If Michigan can beat Central Michigan, after defeating Eastern Michigan last week, e experi- it would help the Wolverines toward excellent recruiting in the state, something Maloney feels Michigan needs to control to be the Monday, best in the Big Ten. k for the "We have to get back to dominating the state," Maloney said. "To do that, I think we need to win eight out of 10 games against the in-state teams. No easy task." Maloney has not been able to see as much of Central Michigan as he would have liked due to the Wolverines' road trip to Iowa City, but he feels that Michigan is ready to face the team. A few Wolverines are swinging hot bats right now. Second baseman Chris Getz had eight hits and five RBI last weekend. "Getz is really coming into his own right now," Maloney said. "He wasn't hit- ting poorly before, but he hadn't caught fire yet, either." Getz is not the only Wolverine hitting well. Maloney feels that the team is show- ing flashes of good, timely hitting. Michigan may not be hitting .330 as a team, but it has been hitting with men on base and when the game is on the line. That was evident this weekend in the final game against Iowa. Third baseman A.J. Scheidt hit a double that scored first baseman Kyle Bohm and ultimately won the game. While timely hitting goes a long way, solid pitching always beats good hitting, and McCormick hopes to provide that today when he goes for his first career win. Second baseman Chris Getz has improved his hitting, producing eight hits and five RBis last weekend. Final step Tumblers hoping to finally break through at Nationals LEWIS Continued from Page 9 from that I was always wondering about what got left out and went unsaid. The most gratifying part has been that people not only read my stuff, but also cared enough to respond and tell me what they liked or why I was wrong. The first time someone thanked me for what I wrote stopped me in my tracks - I still feel like I should be thanking people for read- ing my columns, not the other way around. And I was humbled when I read an e-mail last week and learned that what I write can actually change the way someone thinks and even behaves. With my time at this University and my space in this column run- ning out, I'm sitting here thinking about all the hours I've spent in this building, all the effort I've poured into this column and this newspaper. I know that whatever I've put into it has been far overshadowed by what I've gotten out of it. Thank God my five-year-old self liked the color blue better than green. Courtney Lewis would like to give a shout-out to Pete, so he can finally stop bugging her about putting him in one of her columns. She can be reached at cmlewis@umich.edu. 6 By Jeremy Antwr Daily Sports Writer After a season of ups and downs, the Michigan women's gymnastics team is finally right where it wants to be: competing for the pro- gram's first national cham-' pionship. Michigan has y** made the trip to Nationals before - it has qualified for CA the meet in each of the last 11 seasons - but has never T come up with the illusive Pav first-place trophy.Ls. Some of the keys to the ____ team's success this weekend could be its experience and the tough schedule it has competed in this season. Michigan coach Bev Plocki believes that, for a team competing in nationals for the first time, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and not fully concentrate on the task at hand. But this year's team has as much experience as any of Ploc- ki's teams in the past. "For the majority of the team, they've been here before," Plocki said. "They've been through it and they're more able to mentally prepare for it." Adding to this experience is the fact that Michigan had a grueling schedule this season that included the likes of No. 5 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia and No. 1 UCLA. Plocki feels that the schedule will benefit the team this weekend. "The first couple years when we got to Nationals, it was all brand-new teams we had not seen all season, and I think our kids felt like they were the outsiders who didn't belong there," Plocki said. Michigan has already competed against six of the 11 teams it will face off against tomorrow. Another factor that might contribute to the team's success is the rotation of events. Ideally, Plocki said she would like to start on the vault and end the competition on the floor exercise. Ploc- Man .. ki said the reason for this is that, historically, the judging on floor exercise starts out tight and then gets more lenient as the meet goes on. This is never done intentionally. It usually occurs because, early in the meet, the judges have to allow them- selves room to give scores for better performances Michigan-Indiana may be Final Four preview later in the meet. The one event that most teams would not like to start or finish on is the balance beam. It is difficult to compete in an event that requires so much control at times when excitement and adrenaline are at their peak. At regionals, Michigan had the bad luck of ending on the floor exercise. But rather than faltering under the pressure, Michi- gan responded with an incredibly clutch performance. The Wolverines earned the highest score on the beam of any team in the competition, and it propelled them to a qualifying score of 196.375. Due to Michigan's range of perform- ances this season, Plocki said it would be difficult to predict how the team will per- form this weekend. "We're prepared physically," Plocki said. "The question for us throughout the season is: Mentally and emotionally, which team is going to show up?" Plocki did make one prediction, howev- er. "If the team that competed at Big Tens shows up again on Thursday night, I pre- dict that we have a very strong chance of qualifying to Friday." WATER POLO Continued from Page 9 "This team does a good job of not overlooking people," Anderson said. "I generally go one game at a time. This weekend we have to prepare for three different opponents because we already know what our path is." Michigan's head man is worried about the possible distractions that can come from playing at home, however. This weekend's tournament will mark the first time the Wolverines have played a non exhibition game since Jan. 25. Between then and now, the team has been criss-crossing the country from the West Coast to the East Coast seemingly every week. "Being at home for a regular game is always nice," Anderson said. "When it's something like a conference championship, where there's stuff at stake, being at home can actually cause distractions. Yes, I'm glad we're home because we don't have to travel. I'm also hesi- tant because there are a lot of dis- tractions that can make us forget why we are playing." Anderson remarked that he had two main concerns about distrac- tions: The presence of family and friends and the possibility of his players getting out of their game- day routine, which includes follow- ing a proper diet and staying focused. "It's easy to say, 'Oh, I'll get on the Internet or talk to my room- mates (instead of getting focused)," Anderson said. Distractions aside, the coach is still confident that his team will take care of business this weekend. Regardless of what happens in the CWPA championship, Michigan will travel to Lewisburg, Pa., to compete in the Eastern Champi- onship on April 23, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. "Our game Sunday could very well be a preview of next Sunday's championship game for a bid to the Final Four," Anderson said. "(Michigan or Indiana) will be the top seed, and both of us will be in the top three seeds for the NCAA Regional. "I do like the fact that we will play a team that will get us ready for the exact same team that we will have to play a week later." JASUN UUU.E/Uaily Sophomore Jenny Deiley and the rest of the women's gymnastics team will face tough competition this weekend at the NCAA tournament. Last time around The Michigan women's gymnastics team will head to Los Angeles this weekend to com- pete in the NCAA Championship. Even though the team has had a winning record this season (9-1 Big Ten, 14-6 overall), it has not fared well against other toumament-bound teams. The Daily looks back at this season's matchups against these opponents. Date Jan. 1 Jan. 24 Feb. 14 Feb. 27 Mar. 7 Mar. 12 Opponent Nebraska Iowa Utah Georgia UCLA Alabama Score L, 195.075-196.550 L, 196.325-196.750 W, 196.725-196.350 L, 196.300-197.000 L, 195.725-198.325 L, 197.025-197.725 All-Around Champ (for Michigan) Calli Ryals (39.450) Calli Ryals (39.550) Calli Ryals (39.500) Elise Ray (38.975) Elise Ray (39.450) Elise Ray (39.575) 0 JASON COOPER/Daily Sophomores Becca Clauson and Jenny Delley, along with senior Caill Ryals, cheer on a teammate in Michigan's win over Michigan State. DORY GANN Junior goalie Betsey Armstrong sets up a shot. Michigan hosts the CWPA Championships this weekend. Aw Interested in a Career in Sport Business? The faculty of the University of Michigan's Sport Management Program is holding an information meeting for prospective undergraduate students on Wednesday, April 14th '. Textbooks