BOB HUNTN
The "On the Road"
guy says goodbye.K
PAGE 3B
The SportsMonday Column
STORIES IN INK
A dedication. For inspiration. Or just for fun.
A glimpse at some of the tattoos of Michigan
athletes and the stories behind them.
PAGE 6B
SPORTS AY
April 1I, 2005
1B
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Field
of Nightmares
, Michigan 12, Michigan 4,
Michigan
3,
k: 7,Michigan 6
Wolverines
fall to
1-7 in
Big
Ten play
By H. Jose Bosch
Daily Sports Writer
After a terrible 0-4 start to the Big Ten season against three-time
defending conference champion Minnesota, Michigan looked to
rebound against Iowa. Under Michigan coach Rich Maloney's ten-
ure, the Wolverines had a 6-2 record against the Hawkeyes. But Iowa
improved upon its record against Maloney this weekend, taking three
of four from Michigan including a 7-6 win yesterday.
"It was Iowa's weekend - there's no question," Michigan coach
Rich Maloney said. "(Iowa) battled, and I didn't think ourids played
bad. Unfortunately, we didn't get that big hit, and, to theirtredit, they
put a lot of balls in play and they were finding a lot of holes and you
have to tip your hat off to them."
The sixth inning of yesterday's game epitomized the entire week-
end for the Michigan baseball team.
The game went back and forth, but the Wolverines (1-7 Big Ten,
18-10 Overall) took a 5-4 lead after senior Matt Butler hit a two run
home run in the fourth. Two batters later, senior Kyle Bohm made it
6-4 when he singled in junior Chris Getz from second. After a score-
less fifth, Iowa (5-3, 9-15) struck again in the sixth.
Junior Derek Feldkamp began the top half of the inning with a
strikeout. He then hit the next batter and gave up two consecutive hits
before being pulled from the game for senior Paul Hammond. Ham-
mond was able to record the second out of the inning but quickly fell
behind to Iowa senior Justin Petty, 2-0. Petty roped the third pitch of
the at-bat down the rightfield line and three runs scored as a result of
the triple.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Wolverines had air opportunity
to regain the lead when they loaded the bases with one out. But sopho-
more Brad Roblin struck out and junior A.J. Scheidt grounded out to
the first baseman, ending the inning and the Michigan threat.
"It seems like this weekend has just been a weekend where we
didn't put anything together in the end," Getz said. "It was alriiost
kind of lax, too lax. We're a team with passion, and we're not show-
ing that."
The Wolverines had trouble all weekend coming back after losing
the lead in all three of their losses.
In Friday's game, Michigan gave up 10 runs in the eighth and was
trailing 13-11. But the Wolverines only answered back with a fly out
and two groundouts in the bottom half of the inning. In the ninth,
junior Mike Schmidt led off with a walk. But Scheidt and Roblin both
struck out looking on tough pitches from Iowa reliever Tim Gudex.
Freshman Doug Pickens was able to single in Schmidt - who
advanced to second on a wild pitch - to bring the game within one,
but sophomore Eric Rose ended the game with a weak ground ball to
the pitcher.
"There's not much you can say out there," Getz said. "It's not like
we're booting the ball. We didn't really lose it ourselves - I mean,
they out-hit us."
The Wolverines' troubles continued in the second game of Sat-
urday's doubleheader. In the seventh and final inning of the game,
See HAWKEYES page 5B
TOMMASO GOMEZ/Daily
After a 16-3 non conference record, the Michigan baseball team has gone 1-7 in conference play.
'Big' innings typify rough weekend
By Matt Singer
Daily Sports Writer
One minute, your team is cruising
along and the game appears to be under
control. But all of a sudden, hell breaks
loose. Pitchers drop like flies, hitters keep
finding the gaps and the scoreboard lights
up as a constant stream of runners cross
the plate.
The big inning is often a critical turning
point in a baseball game - a previously
close contest can turn into a blowout, or a
seemingly out-of-reach matchup can sud-
denly tighten up.
Michigan's four-game series against
Iowa featured six "big" innings of four
runs or more, including at least one in each
game. But no frame was more significant
than the top of the eighth in Iowa's 13-12
victory on Friday.
After putting up two five-run innings of
their own to take an 11-3 lead in the series
opener, the Wolverines looked ready to
cruise home to their first Big Ten victory
of the season. With senior Jim Brauer's
pitch count already over 100, Michigan
coach Rich Maloney decided to bring in
junior Jeff Niemiec - who entered the
game with a 1.38 ERA - to finish off the
Hawkeyes. But the seemingly comfortable
situation quickly turned into a circus.
"You're up 11-3 - the game's in hand,"
Maloney said. "Jimmy (Brauer) is at 103
pitches. And if the bullpen can't hold an
eight-run lead with two innings to go,
what are you going to do?"
Niemiec got off to a rough start, walk-
ing two straight Iowa hitters on full
counts. He then gave up three consecu-
tive hits, and Maloney went to senior
pitcher Phil Tognetti in -an attempt to
stop the bleeding.
See BIG page 5B
Weekend
.sweep: M'
outscore s
foes 26-2
By Seth Gordon
Daily Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 1 Michigan softball
team can score runs. Just give them time.
The Wolverines proved this again yesterday when
they followed up their 4-0 win in the opener with an
11-0 mercy victory to close out their doubleheader
against Minnesota.
"I would not want to have to pitch against our line-
up," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "We have
some good hitters. (Their pitchers) brought it near the
plate, and we hit it. We were aggressive."
For the second time this weekend, it took until
the second game for the Wolverine bats to heat up.
Michigan (7-1 Big Ten, 40-3 overall) earned an 8-0
mercy win over Wisconsin on Saturday after a close
3- 2 decision over the Badgers on Friday.
A r-%Y* -A r--------
0 MEN'S GYMNASTICS
Tumblers place
sixth at NCAAs
By Sara Livingston
Daily Sports Writer
Despite the best-laid plans, things
don't always go your way. And on
Friday night, the No. 4 Michigan
men's gymnastics team's hopes of
winning a national championship
were shattered as the team came in
sixth place in the NCAA Champi-
onships team finals. It finished last
in three events and only racked up
219.775 points - 5.9 points short
of first place Oklahoma. It was
a disappointing weekend for the
team, which was unable to get the
momentum going right from their
first apparatus, the high bar - an
event they would finish in sixth
place.
Due to the team's poor showing
during the competition, only three
Wolverines qualified for the indi-
vidual finals. Despite coming in
first macepin the pevent onFridav.
homa just walked into the arena,
and as soon as they walked onto the
floor, you could see they just knew
they were going to win. And I think
we saw that in them and lost some
confidence and lost a little focus,
and that just followed us through
the meet."
Going into the NCAA Champion-
ships, the Wolverines were trying
to increase their stick-percentage
and were working on tightening up
their routines to cut down on small
mistakes that result in huge point
deductions. While the team thought
its last minute training would pay
off at the Championships, it soon
learned otherwise. It had a low
stick-percentage again, which was
a problem it ran into at the Big Ten
championships as well.
"We definitely gave our best shot
at it," senior Dave Flannery said.
"We did certain workshops, and
we tried to work out as hard as we
MIKE HULSEBUS/Ualny
Michigan sophomore Lorilyn Wilson earned three victories over the weekend.