Wednesday
April 21, 2004
sports.michigandaily.com
sportsr@michigandaily. corn

SPORTS

17


'M' shuts out
Chippewas in
doubleheader
By Jami Josephson
Daily Sports Writer
In the second game of a doubleheader against
Central Michigan yesterday, the day turned cold
and rainy at Alumni Field. After four and a half
scoreless innings, it was beginning to look like
the No. 9 Michigan softball team was ready to
exchange its Gatorade for some hot cocoa. But
for the Wolverines, when it rains, it pours.
The rally started in the bottom of the fifth inning
of the second game, when sophomore Tiffany Haas
reached on an error. Fifth-year ___AL___GAN___
senior Meghan Doe beat out a
throw to first base, and junior
Nicole Motycka earned a free C
pass. With one out and the
bases loaded, senior Jennifer
Olds stepped up to the plate.
She was robbed of an extra-base hit in her previous
at-bat in the third inning, when her bullet to deep
centerfield was snagged. But Olds got her revenge
in the form of an RBI single that put Michigan on
the scoreboard and set the pace for the Wolverines'
3-0 victory against the Chippewas to sweep yester-
day's doubleheader.
"I cleared my mind and said, 'I'm going to get
a base hit no matter what,' " Olds said. "(I said),
'I'm going to hit it hard, and I'm going to get on
(base).' There was nothing else on my mind but
that. And that's the only time you can get a hit in
softball."
Michigan (11-1 Big Ten, 40-7 overall) also had
a slow start in the first game against Central
Michigan (10-1 MAC, 21-11 overall), but man-
aged a 4-0 win.
"I didn't think we had a lot of good energy, but
in general we played good solid softball," Michi-
gan coach Carol Hutchins said. "I told the girls
before the game, 'Don't take winning for grant-
ed.' I am pleased that we're playing good softball,
but in both games we took a lot to get going."
It wasn't until after Olds's clutch hit that the
Wolverines came alive. Before the end of the fifth
inning, sophomore Grace Leutele knocked in a
run with a sacrifice fly, bringing the score to 2-0
in favor of Michigan.

Daily brings Realest'
to tears duringfarewell

Michigan second baseman Tiffany Haas, right, celebrates alongside her teammates. The softball team took a
pair of games from Central Michigan yesterday during a rainy doubleheader.

"(Early in the game), we were getting down and
weren't as -excited as we should've been," Olds
said. "Once we decided we had to get more up-
beat, that's when we got those two runs and con-
tinued the game like that."
Entering the game in the sixth inning as a pinch
hitter, senior Monica Schock brought another
Michigan run across the plate with a sacrifice fly.
On the mound, freshman Lorilyn Wilson got the
start and held the Chippewas to four hits while
tallying eight strikeouts. Central Michigan threat-
ened in the fourth inning with runners on first and

second base. But with two outs, Wilson got the
next batter to fly out to shallow centerfield. After
Wilson got out of that jam, the Chippewa bats
were quieted for the majority of the rest of game.
"I think she got better as she went along,"
Hutchins said. "I thought she really picked it up
in the final innings of the game ... I'm confident
that we will be able to use her during the weekend
games fairly soon."
Wilson felt she became more determined as the
game went on.
See CHIPPEWAS, page 18

JIM WEBER
The Realest
n its 113 years, I feel like no one
has cared about the Daily more than
me - doesn't seem possible. I want
to pour my heart out in this column, but
no matter how hard I try, I don't feel
like I can empty it. Last night I stared
at a blank screen for an hour and a half.
Instead of writing this column, I just sat
there crying as my eyes scanned the
Daily sports pages that are plastered all
over my walls and my mind skipped
from memory to memory (J. Brady
McCollough told me a column like this
writes itself. Obviously, J. Brady was
lying ... oh yeah, is crying real?).
There's definitely been a lot of drama
during my time at the Daily. Bickering
like children with former sports editors
at Pizza House. Those same editors writ-
ing a headline in the spoof Jeopardy
issue that year that requested that I "Lick
these Sourballs." Getting passed over for
positions at the Daily over and over
again, oftentimes because of personal
issues; becoming so frustrated that I
ended up quitting the Daily, only to come
crawling back a semester later because
of how much I love this place. The anxi-
ety involved with a women's basketball
story that changed people's lives. The
sleepless nights after meeting with some-
one in charge of South Quad's resident
advisors who told me there were con-
cerns that if I was an RA, I wouldn't care
if someone was sexually assaulted after
people read my "Viewpoint" on dry
humping (apologies to the fellas reading
this in the Squad cafeteria that would
have been on my hall if I hadn't decided
to quit after that meeting - it would
have been real).
But through it all, I've grown to love
this place even more. There's just so
much that makes the Daily special.
Here's just a couple of things I directly
or indirectly experienced because of the
Daily:
Getting advice from Detroit Free
Press writer John Lowe, who comes in
and just helps out whenever he isn't
covering the Tigers. It might be the
most selfless thing I've seen in my life.
Knowing John, I'm sure he would say
that he should be the one thanking us.
That's the kind of person he is. The pic-
ture of him standing in the corner of the
library giving his tip of the week at the
Sunday staff sports meeting will never
fade in my mind.
Being trained by former sports edi-
tor Mark Francescutti, whose presence
in this building was electric. "The
Bulldog" used to refer to me as "Bull-

dog, Jr." and is the one that made me
realize how special the Daily is. I also
had a lot of fun beating the crap out of
him in wrestling matches. I hope I've
been able to impact people the way he
affected me.
Working with my best friend and the
greatest farewell columnist of all time,
"J." Brady McCollough, since Day
One. I never would have walked into
the Student Publications Building if it
weren't for him - I was intimidated (I
think that says it all about how much
the Daily has transformed me, like you
said a week ago). We co-bylined our
first story on football recruiting and
talked about how we were going to
cover the team together as seniors. Our
dream was always "the flight to Ore-
gon" for this past season's game
against the Ducks. I didn't end up cov-
ering football - hell, I didn't end up
covering any of the three major sports
- but we did it so much bigger than
we ever could have imagined, didn't
we J. Braids?
Putting fun things on the football
page - The Claw, the "Hypemeter,
"Ugh! Turn my headphones up!" and
the "And den!" box. I hope everyone
has as much fun with the football beat
as we did this year.
Watching former sports writer Joe
Smith go to Modesto, Calif., by himself
because he loves journalism so much.
Running down the aisles of the press
box to reach the Daily football writers,
pointing to the student section as you
guys did The Claw, and saying way too
loudly: "Look at 'em, they love it!"
What started as a joke between Brady
and I somehow turned into controversy.
Swapping jokes with former sports
staffer Ryan Maloney, the funniest kid
this staff has ever seen, in the press box
at football games this year as stringers
for different publications. I'll never for-
get laughing our asses off at the idea of
Braylon Edwards scoring a touchdown
and grinding with the members of the
dance team who wear No. 1 jerseys. We
dubbed them "Braylon's Bitches."
My friend, Varun, and I starting a
debate between, Markus Curry and
Courtney Morgan at a party about who
was the greatest rapper of all time, Big-
gie or Tupac. Then watching Chris
Perry charge into the circle with the
Diamond sign up to cast a vote for Jay-
Z while screaming, "HOV!"
Being able to write a letter to my Dad
in the Daily before the Ohio State
game, and then writing about the prank
I pulled on him at the game in Mon-
day's section.
Working with the young writers
throughout the year on Monday's back
pages and seeing them getting as excit-
ed about the Daily as I am.
Working on SportsMonday for 14
hours, then waiting to see the back page
as a PDF on the Daily's website (luckily,
with the late posting, I didn't wait up
See WEBER, Page 18

Blue balances big games with end o

By Matt Venegoni
Daily Sports Writer
With classes ending, papers to
write and finals to take, it's definitely
a stressful time of year. Now, imagine
throwing three baseball games into
the mix, including a weekend series
with a big-time rival. That's this week
for the Michigan baseball team.
Today, Michigan (7-5
Big Ten, 18-14 overall)
hosts Cleveland State in
a game that is sand- Clevel
wiched between last ,
weekend's Illinois series
and this weekend's four-
game series against Th
Ohio State.
"There is no doubt
that all of us are looking forward to
Ohio State, and that is a tough thing
to deal with it," Michigan coach Rich
Maloney said.
It may be difficult for the Wolver-
ines to focus on the Vikings (5-3
Horizon, 7-17 overall), but they also
know that they have to concentrate to
get a win before the big series against
Ohio State this weekend. A win
would give the Wolverines back some
of the momentum they lost when they
dropped two close games over the
weekend against Illinois.
"We have to focus on the team at
hand and take care of business," Mal-
oney said. "On paper, we may win.
But the great thing about this game is
that anything can happen."

Aside from the games, the players
have their minds on the many exams
and papers being thrown their way.
"We are getting ready for exams
and the big series," Maloney said.
"It's a big week for the players as
students and as athletes, so we can
understand the difficulties they have
to go through to be prepared."
While Michigan may have a lot
to think about, Maloney
feels that the situation
f At At is good for his team.
.t a Maloney believes that it
is important for the
team to learn to focus
on every game, not just
the big ones. Today's
game will be a good
test of that.
But Maloney does not spend as
much time preparing for the oppo-
nent as he does on his own team. In
fact, he has barely analyzed Cleve-
land State.
"I don't dwell on the scouting
report for other teams," Maloney
said. "I look at them and review
them, but I do not pay a huge amount
of attention to them."
Maloney believes that it is more
important for him to concentrate on
his team and what his players have
to do to be in top form.
One part of the team that Maloney
and the rest of the coaching staff have
spent a lot of time on recently is the
pitching staff, which has been incon-
sistent as a whole the entire season.

"If the pitching settles down, we
are going to be a tough opponent,"
Maloney said.
Today could be a tough day to sta-
bilize though, because a number of
pitchers will make appearances.
Michigan does not have a midweek
starter like many other teams.
Paul Hammond and Mike
McCormick are both scheduled to
take the mound for the Wolverines.

Each player is scheduled to throw a
couple of innings.
Michigan hopes that the pitchers
who make an appearance today can
have the combined effect of a solid
effort from one pitcher.
"We are throwing so many pitch-
ers, we don't know what we are going
to get," Maloney said. "Midweek
games are always a challenge because
we pitch a lot of guys."

WILLA IHAGOSAS/
Michigan shortstop Jeremy Goldschmeding tries to turn a double play. Michigan
will square off with Cleveland State today at the Fish.

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