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