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 :ili g i i ig i ::: i!! 1 i:;: i: i 1 i 1 1: 1: 1 i ; IS n is 1 i: : i:;:, !;:;: i: i:;, i:; i s i f j V# Ik$a .p 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.