The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 27, 2006 - 5B

'M' uses bats to topple

Toledo

By Nate Sandals
Daily Sports Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Michigan needed just
two innings to beat Toledo.
Putting up three runs in the fifth inning and
seven in the sixth, the Wolverines rounded out
a perfect 4-0 weekend in Louisville, Ky. with a
10-0, six-inning victory over Toledo.
After managing
just one hit as a team .OD
through four innings,
Michigan found some offense. Sophomore
center fielder Alessandra Giampaolo finally
got No. 12 Michigan on the board in the fifth
inning when she drove in two runners on an
0-2 changeup that she laced down the first-base
line into the corner. Following sophomore first
baseman Samantha Findlay's ground-out to
third base, senior catcher Becky Marx doubled
down the leftfield line to drive in the Wolver-
ines' third run of the inning.
Michigan (17-9) put the game away with a
whopping seven runs in the top of the sixth
inning - an inning that saw Toledo (7-16)
pull its starting pitcher only to put her back in
the game five batters later. With two runners
in scoring position, freshman Teddi Ewing hit
a sharp ground-ball that bounced off Toledo's
shortstop and into the outfield, allowing both
Wolverine runners to score.
Michigan's next two runs came on a warn-
ing-track single by sophomore Samantha Find-
lay. To top off the slugfest, Marx crushed a 1-1
offering over the 220-foot sign in straightaway
centerfield for her seventh home run of the sea-
son.
"In the beginning of the game, I wasn't
seeing the ball at all," Marx said. "I couldn't
figure out what was wrong. Then Angie
(Danis) told me that it didn't matter what was
wrong, just make it right. And that's what I
tried to do."
Despite the final run output, Michigan coach
Carol Hutchins expressed disappointment with
the lack of run production in the game's early
innings.
"I don't think our approach at the beginning of
the game was where it needed to be," Hutchins
said. "I said, 'You mercied them in two innings
- where were you the other four?'"
Nevertheless, the 10-run showing was a wel-
come sight for Michigan, especially consider-
ing it posted just eight runs in its previous three
games of the weekend.

FILE PHOTO
Michigan junior Kara Delicata appeared headed for a sure victory, leading 6-3, 4-0. Her blown
lead was one of many disappointments for Michigan in its 7-0 loss to Northwestern yesterday.
Netters knocked
around b ildcats

By Daniel Levy
Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan's women's tennis team wel-
comed No. 4 Northwestern to the Varsity Ten-
nis Center yesterday.
Trying to pull off the upset, the Wolverines
gave everything they had
to knock off the Wildcats. NORTHWESTERN 7
Michigan hung tough inMCHGN
virtually every match, but
the team had too much fight and not enough fin-
ish in a 7-0 loss.
"I thought we fought hard," Michigan coach
Bitsy Ritt said. "Northwestern is tough. Give
them credit, we came up short - way short."
The most telling matches of the day were
at No. 1 and No. 4 singles. The overall match
had already been decided, but both individual
matches appeared to be going Michigan's way
early. Then they took drastic turns for North-
western late.
Kara Delicata raced out to a 6-3,4-0 lead over
Cristelle Grier, ranked ninth in the nation, in
the No. 1 singles match. From there, the junior
ran out of gas. Grier claimed seven of the next
eight games to force a third set super tiebreaker
(first to 10 points) which she won 10-6.
At No. 4 singles, senior Debra Streifler
coasted to a relatively easy 6-3 first-set victory.,
and appeared poised to extend her record at No.
4 singles to 8-0 this season. But Northwestern's
Georgia Rose had other ideas. Rose started
extending points by keeping more balls in play
and frustrated Streifler into going for bigger
shots and making unforced errors in an attempt
to end points early. Rose won the second set,
6-1, and then took the third set, 6-3, to win the
match.
Those matches could have made the final
score a little friendlier for Michigan (2-1 Big
Ten, 8-5 overall), but Ritt was not concerned
with the difference between a 5-2 and a 7-0
loss.

"If (Delicata and Streifler) could have gotten
those wins, it would have been great for them
individually," Ritt said. "But in terms of the
team, there's no such thing as a moral victory
in coming up short, 4-3, as opposed to love-
seven."
Northwestern (3-0, 11-3) started the day by
taking the doubles point with 8-5 wins at both
No. 2. and No. 3 doubles to overcome an excit-
ing 9-8(3) win by Delicata and Streifler at No. I
doubles. Senior Nina Yaftali fell 6-1, 6-1, at No.
2 singles, and junior Elizabeth Exon was over-
powered, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3 singles to give the
Wildcats a comfortable cushion at the start.
Down a set at No.6 singles, sophomore Allie
Shafner battled her way to a 5-4 second-set
lead over Northwestern's Nazlie Ghazal, but
the freshman fought back to take the next two
games, and the two found themselves in deuce.
A few points away from a tiebreaker and pos-
sible third set, Ghazal came up with two good
points, hitting a service winner on match point
to snuff out any hopes of a comeback for Shaf-
ner.
Michigan freshman Chisako Sugiyama held a
5-4 lead in the first set of her match at No.5 sin-
gles before the Wildcats' Feriel Esseghir came
charging back, behind some great play from
the baseline, to take the first set 7-5. Esseghir
carried the momentum from the comeback into
an easy 6-2 second-set win to take the match
against a visibly shaken Sugiyama.
The lopsided defeat was a compete turn-
around from Saturday, when the Wolverines
dominated visiting Wisconsin, 7-0. Despite
following up a solid win with a lopsided loss
to Northwestern, Ritt is excited about what this
Michigan team can do this season.
"I like this team." Ritt said. "There's still
so much tennis to be played, and we're still
learning a lot about ourselves. This was a real
challenge for us this weekend, and I was proud
about how we came out and beat Wisconsin and
proud of our effort (yesterday)."

Lorilyn Wilson broke out of her slump this weekend, tossing a no-hitter and recording two victories.

Coming off of a no-hit, near-perfect game
victory against No. 20 Louisville on Satur-
day, sophomore Lorilyn Wilson continued to
rebound from her early-season struggles with
a second straight shutout victory. Recording 11
strikeouts, Wilson got ahead of almost every
batter and managed to work out of a jam in the
bottom of the fourth inning when she struck

out Toledo's last two batters with a runner in
scoring position.
Michigan will finally return to the friendly
confines of Alumni Stadium when it hosts
Bowling Green in the home opener on Tuesday
at 4 p.m. It will be the Wolverines' final tune-
up before they host Minnesota in the Big Ten
opener on Sunday.

Blanked: Wilson no-hits Cardinals

By David VandeVusse
Daily Sports Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky - Lorilyn Wilson
was almost perfect.
But a two-out walk in the seventh to
Louisville's Courtney Moore kept the
junior pitcher from throwing what would
have been the first perfect game in Michi-
gan softball history since Marissa Young
recorded one against Utah State in 2002.
Wilson responded by retiring the final
Cardinal batter to secure a 3-0 win and her
first no-hitter in a Michigan uniform.
"After the game, she was at first disap-
pointed when she realized she almost had
a perfect game," senior catcher Becky
Marx said. "But right away that changed
to excitement about the no-hitter. I was so
proud of her."
Wilson looked sharp from start to fin-

ish, recording nine strikeouts and allow-
ing just two balls to leave the infield. With
both her inside and outside pitches work-
ing well, she posted her third shutout of
the season and the seventeenth of her col-
legiate career. She is the first pitcher to
blank Louisville, who was averaging five
runs per game coming into the game.
Wilson surrendered just a handful of
hard-hit balls, and when she did, her team-
mates made plays.
Freshman shortstop Teddi Ewing field-
ed everything that came her way, record-
ing four assists.
"The infield was awesome," Wilson
said. "And the only balls that were hit out
of the infield were caught."
The Salem, Ore. native threw first-pitch
strikes in nearly every at-bat, rarely falling
behind in the count. By avoiding jams, she
never had to pitch herself out of trouble.

Wilson, who improved to 5-4 as a starter
with Saturday's win, has struggled to find
the consistency that helped her to a stellar
22-2 record in 2005.
With Saturday's win, she earned what
was her second straight victory as well as
her first win over a ranked opponent this
season.
And with a victory over Toledo yes-
terday, she appears to have found her
rhythm.
"Lorilyn made a lot of great strides this
weekend," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
said. "She can keep us in any game."
Wilson and her counterpart Jennie Rit-
ter have both experienced tough outings
this season. But with each posting 2-0
records this weekend, the mound looks
to be a strong point for the Wolverines. If
both can find their form, the Maize and
Blue will be a tough team to beat in 2006.

BASEBALL

Hyrne helps out
slumping offense

All four one: Blue sweeps away Oakland

By Chris Herring
Daily Sports Writer

By Eileen Hengel
Daily Sports Writer
When the No. 16 Michigan water
polo team lost to No. 17 Indiana on St.
Patrick's Day, coach Matt Anderson
was flabbergasted.
But Anderson kept his exasperation
to a minimum after the 6-5 loss to the
Hoosiers on Saturday at the Fluid Five
Challenge in Bloomington, blaming
this loss on fatigue, not necessarily the
lack of offense.
Michigan (6-1 CWPA, 21-9 over-
all) went 2-1 on the weekend, beating
* Marist, 7-1, and Wagner, 12-11.
In the final game of the tourna-
ment, the Wolverines capitalized on
the power play, scoring four times.
Michigan tied the game with less than
two minutes remaining off a goal from
senior Megan Hausmann. Unfortunate-
ly, the Hoosiers immediately turned the
tide in their own direction, scoring the
game-winner just 30 seconds later. But
the loss wasn't the defense's fault.
Since the opening tournament of
the season where the Wolverines
went 6-0, they have failed to match
the same offensive domination.
They scored 63 points in those six
games.
Michigan posted 11 goals against
Indiana in the first game of the season,
but the Wolverines have scored just

tions of the game where we struggled,
but overall aspect of some of the shots
not going in, well that just happens.
Compared to last weekend, I think it
was just a case of, 'We were struggling
shooting.'"
Shooting struggles for the Wolver-
ines were not isolated to last weekend's
game against Indiana. Michigan also
failed to score a single goal against
No. 7 San Diego State in a 13-0 loss
on March 19.
With 18 freshmen, Hausmann
admitted, inexperience played a huge
role in the loss.
"We're very young," Hausmann
said. "And it's a long season. We're still
learning to play with each other"
Along with junior Shana Welch and
Hausmann, one freshman has consis-
tently found the back of the net, offer-
ing a beacon of hope for the struggling
offense. The youngest member of the
offensive trio, Julie Hyrne scored in
both the game against Indiana and
Wagner. Hyrne also recorded a hat
trick against the Hoosier at the Wolver-
ine Invite earlier in the season.
"She's gotten a lot more confident,"
said Welch. "Just looking at the stats
you can see the difference she has
made in our offense. She's come a long
way and she's got a long way to go."
Now, over halfway through the
season, the Wolverines are looking at

It was a weekend of firsts for the Michigan baseball
team in its series against Oakland.
The team made its home debut on
Friday, and highly-touted freshman SAKLAND 2
Zach Putnam notched his first col-
legiate victory. With Saturday's win,
the team's record was above .500 for AA*
the first time this season. On Sun- P CHGAN 8
day, the Wolverines pounded out
nine runs in the first two innings of games one and two,
combined.
But the most important of all the team's firsts this
weekend was the sweep it picked up against Oakland
(1-17). Michigan (10-7) took all four games from the
Grizzlies. After an easy 14-5 victory on Friday after-
noon, the team slipped past Oakland, 8-7, on Satur-
day. The team won 3-2 and 8-5 in the doubleheader
yesterday.
Redshirt freshman Chris Fetter threw five innings
for the win in game two, and senior Paul Hammond
tossed two innings of relief to nail down the victory.
With the Wolverines trailing 2-1 after the first inning,

the first five Michigan hitters reached base to start the bot-
tom of the second. A questionable call helped the Wolver-
ines during the inning. After swinging and missing for
a third strike, sophomore Doug Pickens ran to first after
seeing Oakland catcher Andy Brinker drop the pitch.
Oddly, Brinker held the ball instead of throwing to first
for the out. Freshman Kevin Cislo capitalized on the mis-
take, tripling on the next pitch to score both Pickens and
senior A.J. Scheidt, who had previously singled. Junior
Brad Roblin then walked and stole second, and junior
Leif Mahler, who had three hits in the game, followed
that with a single up the middle, scoring both Cislo and
Roblin to put Michigan up 5-2.
Michigan's four, five and six hitters all contribut-
ed later in the game as well. Batting cleanup, Derek
VanBuskirk hit a sacrifice fly to score a run in the
fourth inning. The five hitter, senior Mike Schmidt,
hit a solo homer in the fifth to push Michigan's lead
to 7-4. Senior Jeff Kunkel hit sixth and knocked in a
run in the bottom of the sixth, scoring VanBuskirk to
give the team its eighth and final run. Hammond then
came in and pitched a perfect seventh, striking out two
Oakland hitters.
The sweep serves as a teaching tool for the some of
the players.

"We learned a couple things about ourselves this
weekend;' said senior Drew Taylor, who threw a two-
hitter and picked up the win in game one. "We can work
on our defense and execution at certain times over the
next week heading into the Big Ten season. There were
a couple facets of the game in which we were lacking,
even though we found a way to win."
Defensively, Kunkel had an impressive weekend,
throwing out two runners attempting to steal and pick-
ing off another two who were too far off first base.
"(Defense) is something I take a lot of pride in," Kun-
kel said. "If I can help control the other team's running
game, especially picking a guy off ... then I will help
the pitcher out."
But Kunkel's defensive performance stood apart from
that of his teammates.
The team committed 10 errors over the weekend,
including four on Friday, and four in the second game of
Sunday's doubleheader.
"I was disappointed with our defense this week-
end -- no question," Michigan coach Rich Maloney
said. "We have been solid (defensively) all year, and
it needs to be a strength everyday. For our fans this
weekend, we didn't show the same defense we've
played all year."

0 WOMEN'S GOLF
i wins weather-shortened match

By Usa Gentile
Daily Sports Writer
The women's golf team can't seem to get on Mother
Nature's good side.
After battling with cold and rainy conditions in
Michigan, the Wolverines traveled down to North
C~nrnlihnlrnmnv fnr lttc~r .nthar

afternoon, Michigan coach Kathy Teichert said.
"I thought that in the morning the group effort, in
terms of the team play, was a nice format for our girls,"
Teichert said. "They could learn something from one
another, how they play, when they make mistakes,
how to recover and that sort.... I feel the weekend has
really been a success."
The Him of senior A rn Sc~hmuckepr and unior AlIi

when they needed to, a few chips and putts," Teichert
said. "I thought it was a key match at the end for Kelly
Easton, she ended up making a nice par save."
After a two-week break in which Michigan was
unable to play a full round of golf, the team was glad to
come back and perform well against the Spartans.
"I was happy to see some of their scores with the other
girs" S'chmuicker said. "With the break. to see ome of