10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 7, 2005
Cards sink Padres
for two game lead
M'
prevails in
defensive game
Associated Press
When Mark Mulder took a line
drive off his arm in the second
inning and doubled over in pain, the
St. Louis Cardinals figured it would
be a short outing for their 16-game
winner.
Instead, Mulder shook off the
hard shot to his left biceps from Joe
Randa - the same way he tossed
aside a pair of poor tuneup starts
- and put his team on the brink of a.
playoff sweep.
Mulder pitched shutout ball into
the seventh inning and the Cardi-
nals once again built an early lead,
beating the San Diego Padres 6-
2 yesterday for a 2-0 edge in their
best-of-five NL series.
"Once the inning starts there's so
much adrenaline it didn't bother me
much," Mulder said. "If I couldn't
have. made good pitches I would
have said 'All right, I've had enough'
I didn't want to come out of that
game."
Matt Morris will try to clinch
it for St. Louis on Saturday at San
Diego against Woody Williams.
Mulder was with the Oakland Ath-
letics when they squandered a 2-0
lead against the Red Sox in 2003.
"We held home field advantage,"
David Eckstein said. "One thing
we've got to do, we've got to stay
aggressive. We can't wait to get over
there."
The Cardinals, who led the majors
with 100 wins this season, have
advanced to the NL championship
series four times in five chances
under manager Tony La Russa. San
Diego, which limped into the play-
offs with an 82-80 record, hasn't
shown any signs of stopping them.
"We've put pressure on that team,
we just haven't come up with the big
hit yet," Brian Giles said. "We're
playing for our lives now."
The 2003 Red Sox were the last
of the seven teams that have rallied
from a 2-0 deficit in division series
play.
Mulder was 16-8 in his first season
since being acquired from Oakland,
but gave up seven earned runs over
5 2-3 innings in two starts after the
Cardinals clinched the NL Central.
Plus, the lefty was a decidedly bet-
ter pitcher at night (14-3, 2.26 ERA)
than day (2-5, 6.86).
Mulder scoffed at both of those
trends the day before Game 2,
blanking a lineup stacked with seven
right-handed hitters until the late
innings and backed by four double
plays, tying the NLDS record. Mul-
der induced 13 groundball outs and
only one fly out.
"I like using my defense; that's why
when you give up a hit I'm not going to
be that mad," Mulder said. "The next
pitch you can get a double play. That's
part of my game in a way."
Mulder kept the arm loose
between innings by retreating to the
clubhouse and applying a heat pack.
After the game he said it looked like
he had a "golf ball" on his biceps but
said it was just a bruise.
He blamed himself for not fielding
Randa's liner, or at least getting out
of the way.
"Randa has raked me all season,"
Mulder said. "So I should have been
ready for it."
The Cardinals' first four runs
came on balls that didn't leave the
infield - or in one case, even the
catcher's glove. Eckstein had a run-
scoring groundout and a squeeze
bunt, Yadier Molina had an RBI
grounder and Albert Pujols drew a
bases-loaded walk to finish Pedro
Astacio after four innings.
As in Tuesday's opener, when the
Cardinals took an eight-run lead
behind Chris Carpenter before the
Padres rallied in an 8-5 loss, it got a
little closer at the end.
A double by Khalil Greene, a sin-
gle by Randa and Xavier Nady's run-
scoring single cut the deficit to 4-1.
Reggie Sanders, who drove in an
NLDS-record six runs in Game 1, hit
a two-run double off Rudy Seanez in
the seventh that made it 6-1. Sanders
has eight RBIs in eight at-bats this
series after totaling five RBIs in five
previous division series appearances
covering 68 at-bats.
The Padres got another run in the
eighth when Julian Tavarez hit Nady
with the bases loaded, but San Diego
left the bases loaded when Randy
Flores struck out pinch-hitter Mark
Sweeney.
La Russa used Flores instead of
primary left-handed reliever Ray
King, whose father died earlier
Thursday after a long illness.
By David Spielman
Daily Sports Writer
EAST LANSING - Against
in-state rival Michigan State, an
underachieving Michigan team
came in looking for its first con-
ference win of the season.
Sound familiar?
Directly adjacent to Spartan
Stadium - where the Michigan
football team
prevailed
last Saturday
- the No.
14 Michigan field hockey team (1-
3 Big Ten, 7-6 overall) hoped to
reverse its fortune at the Michigan
State Field Hockey Complex. The
two programs both have a storied
history, but the Wolverines have
a 30-22-6 edge in the all-time
series. As if this rivalry needed
any more fuel to burn, both Mich-
igan and No. 10 Michigan State
(0-3, 8-5) came into yesterday's
match winless in conference play
and in dire need of a victory.
Freshman forward Erin Dallas
scored for Michigan two minutes
into the match. From that point
on, both sides played physical field
hockey, with scoring opportunities
at a premium. In the end, Dallas's
goal proved to be the game's only
score and the Wolverines came
away with a 1-0 win.
Fans on both sides understood
the importance of the game
and were involved from the
start. Michigan cowbell chants
bounced off the bleachers, to the
chagrin of the Spartan faithful,
and the intensity in the crowd
was a reflection of the Wolver-
ines' play on the field.
"It was a very closely con-
tested match," Michigan coach
Nancy Cox said. "(Goalie) Beth
Riley stepped up big for us in the
second half."
Riley stopped seven Michigan
State shots - including three
penalty-corners - to record her
12th career shutout. Riley needs
to blank just one more opponent
to take over fifth place on Michi-
gan's all-time shutout ranking.
It was clear that Michigan felt a
huge sense of relief after it suffered
two difficult losses against Indiana
and Penn State last weekend. Many
of the players also received some
extra satisfaction from beating the
Spartans.
"It was a great match for us,
and we're really excited to beat
Michigan State on its field," Riley
said. "It feels great to be back in
the win column. We're happy with
how we played, and we're going
to move on from here."
The Wolverines put nine shots
on goal, but they believe their
solid team defense and overall
intensity in the match will help
them as the season progresses.
Cox thinks her team may have
turned a corner.
"All of the adversity that the
kids have seen early on is going
to pay big dividends and yester-
day everyone got to see that,"
Cox said. "This game could
potentially be the tipping point
for us."
AMY UDUMM/Daily
Freshman Erin Dallas scored the only goal in last night's 1-0 Michigan win.
0,11
I
NOTE
Heller, Maravic lose in first
round, but win consolations
After steamrolling through qualifying in the
Polo Ralph Lauren All-American classic, fresh-
man Ryan Heller bowed out yesterday, losing 6-
3, 6-0 to Miami's No. 26 Luigi D'Agord. Heller
won three consecutive matches in qualifying to
place him in the 64-player main draw.
On a chilly Monday morning, he won his first
match in straight sets (7-5, 6-2) over East Tennessee
State's Felix Insauralde. Heller then took on Georgia
Tech's David North, in a match that almost halted
Heller's run. Heller lost the first set 6-2 and was a
game away from losing the match in the second set.
However, he rallied, and won the second set 7-6(5)
in a tiebreaker to even up the contest.
This was the turning point in the match, and
Heller then cruised to a 6-1 third-set victory, a
match away from entering the championship brack-
et. On Wednesday, Heller did just that, repeating
his scores from the first round - this time beating
Ole Miss's Bram ten Berge, 7-5, 6-2.
After losing to p'Agord, Heller cruised to a
solid win in the consolation bracket, beating Vir-
ginia's No. 12 Somdev Devvarman, 6-3, 6-4.
Sophomore Matko Maravic joined Heller in
Tulsa, when he earned an automatic invitation to
the main draw. Maravic fell just short of upset-
ting No. 3 Ben Kohlloeffel, falling in three sets
7-6(12), 4-6, 6-1. Following in Heller's foot-
steps, Maravic earned a win in the consolation
bracket, coming up with a hard-fought 7-5, 7-
6(6) victory over No. 32 Joseph Jung.
- Michael Schneider
LIFE IS GOOD. DAILY SPORTS.
0
0
To the twenty '31 E scholars who will be
wearing this pin on campus this year
Michael Bohn
Brandon Eagon
Brendon Fike
Douglass Fynan
Connor Henley
Andrew Laskowski
Alisyn Malek
David Masselink
Matthew McKeown
Kristen Neubauer
Loc Thang
Jeremy Tolbert
Justin Valley
Bethanie Yaldin
Adam Barnett *
Griffin Dixon *
Casey Griswold *
Collin Hayward *
Christopher Mark *
Brianna Satinoff *
I
I