The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - April 10, 2006 - 5B
SUICIDE SQUEEZE
Baseball
Friday's Game:
MICHIGAN 8
WP: Drew Taylor (2-3)
MINNESOTA 6
LP: Tyler Oakes (1-1)
Saturday's Game 1:
MICHIGAN 5
LP: Jason Christian (0-1)
MINNESOTA 6
WP: Gary Perinar (2-0)
Saturday's Game 2:
MICHIGAN 2
WP: Chris Fetter (2-0)
MINNESOTA 0
LP: John Gaub (0-1)
Sunday's Game:
MICHIGAN 2
WP: Adam Abraham (3-2)
MINNESOTA 0
LP: Cole DeVries (3-2)
You've Gotta Have Heart
Wolverines
refuse to buckle
under pressure
By Chris Herring
Daily Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS - From now on, the Michigan baseball
team should know that no lead is safe and no deficit insur-
mountable.
In a crazy, unpredictable weekend, the team fell way
behind, carried a comfortable lead and had a couple of close
contests during its 3-1 series win over Big Ten powerhouse
Minnesota.
Strangely enough, the Wolverines won the game in which
they trailed by six, then blew the game in which they had a
three-run lead.
Down 6-0, Michigan stormed its way back to an 8-6 vic-
tory on Friday. With momentum carrying over from the pre-
vious day, the team built a 5-2 lead and needed just one more
out to take the first two games of the series.
But then something bizarre happened.
The Gophers appeared to have batted out of order with
two outs. If a team is caught batting out of order, it must
forfeit an out, which in this situation, would have ended the
game. But, because Minnesota's lineup card matched the
umpire's lineup card, the batter was ruled legal, and no out
was recorded.
Minnesota then went on to score four runs with two outs
in the bottom of the eighth, stealing a win from the Wolver-
ines, 6-5.
Having orchestrated a huge comeback win in game two,
the Gophers seemed to have all the momentum heading into
the third game of the series.
"We basically stole one from them (Friday), and then they
came back the very next game and stole one from us," senior
Paul Hammond said. "We had a three-run lead in extra
innings, and for (Minnesota) to win that game put the pres-
sure right back on us."
It would have been easy for Michigan to fold under that
pressure.
But the Wolverines did anything but collapse.
Following a complete-game shutout performance from
redshirt freshman Chris Fetter against the Gophers in game
two of Saturday's doubleheader, junior Andrew Hess and
freshman Adam Abraham combined to throw nine innings
of shutout ball in Sunday's finale to win the series three
games to one.
"Our team has a lot of character," said sophomore Nate
Recknagel, who hit what proved to be a game-winning home
run on Saturday, as well as Sunday's game-winning double.
1 "We showed that we can play in any situation - behind,
ahead or close. We get the job done."
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Nate Recknagel
Michigan
The sophomore drove in both of Michigan's
runs in Sunday's 2-0 shutout with a ninth-
inning double, for his second game-winning
hit of the series. He also hit a home run to
put Michigan ahead 1-0 in the Wolverines' 2-
0 second-game shutout on Saturday.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"I'm real proud of him ... He grew
up a lot (Saturday)."
- Michigan coach Rich Maloney on red-
shirt freshman Chris Fetter after Fetter came
back from allowing a game-winning hit and
pitched a complete game shutout.
BY THE NUMBERS
Number of errors made by the Wol-
verine defense over the four week-
end games in Minnesota.
'M' STAT LEADERS
Home runs Doug Pickens and Mike 5
Schmidt
Runs Pickens 24
Hits Leif Mahler 31
RBI Pickens 22
Average Mahler .352
BIG TEN STANDINGS
Team Big Ten Overall
1. Northwestern 6-1 9-16
2. Ohio State 6-2 18-6
3. Purdue 5-3 16-9
4. Michigan 4-4 15-11
Iowa 4-4 14-10
Michigan State 4-4 13-13
7. Illinois 3-5 14-11
Minnesota 3-5 13-13
Penn State 3-5 7-21
10. Indiana 1-6 8-19
AROUND THE BIG TEN
Friday's results:
Michigan 8, MINNESOTA 6
Iowa 6, PENN STATE 1
PURDUE 10, Michigan State 1
Saturday's results:
Michigan 5, 2 MINNESOTA 6, 0
Ohio State 4, 5 ILLINOIS 1, 1
Northwestern 4, INDIANA 2
Iowa 11, 2 PENN STATE 3, 1
PURDUE 6, 0 Michigan State 1, 4
Sunday's results:
Michigan 2, MINNESOTA 0
ILLINOIS 8, 1 Ohio State 6, 9
Northwestern 12, 3 INDIANA 1, 2
PENN STATE 11, Iowa 10
PURDUE 4, Michigan State 3
*Home teams in caps
DIAMOND GRADES
The four Daily baseball writers will grade the team
on four different aspects of the game each weekend.
Sure, baseballs may be simple, but we're classic.
TOMMASO GOMEZ/Daily
Nate Recknagel led the Wolverines to victory in both of their shutouts this weekend at the Metrodome.
Michigan looks forward to using some momentum of its
own, after becoming the first team to beat the Gophers at
home in a series since 2002. It couldn't have come at a better
time, since Michigan dropped three of four to Northwestern a
week ago and battles Ohio State at home this weekend.
"I'm not even sure how many times Northwestern has won
a series against Michigan," Michigan coach Rich Maloney
Blue's Fetter comes back from
close loss with stellar performar
said. "So that was a huge blow, especially knowing that we
had an outstanding Minnesota team to play and knowing
that we had Ohio State and Purdue to follow. We needed to
do something like this."
As far as the accomplishment of being the first team to win a
series against the Gophers in Minneapolis since 2002, Maloney
said, "The timing couldn't have been better for us."
GOPHERS
L Continued from page 116
innings en route to a 2-0 win.
1c e "We had the emotion of winning in
come-from-behind (fashion) in the first
game (and) losing when you had it in
your hands," Maloney said Saturday.
"And then to have a gem that (Fet-
ter) pitched was just an absolute huge
deal."
The Wolverines may not have pulled
themselves to the top of the Big Ten
standings, but taking three of four from
the Gophers (3-5, 14-13) puts them
ahead of the curve compared to last
year's team that began the Big Ten sea-
son 1-7.
By H. Jose Bosch
Daily Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS - Zero innings, a walk
and a double.
That's all it took for Minnesota to beat
pitcher Chris Fetter and
the Wolverines in the first
game of Saturday's double-
header.
Seven innings, a walk
and three strikeouts.
That's all it took for Fet-
7.o
A 0
ter to shut down the Gophers in game two.
"I was pretty disappointed after the first
game," Fetter said. "I wanted to do anything I
could to get that first game back."
Fetter hasn't had to worry about too many
bad outings to get back from. He sported a
2.70 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 20 innings
before Saturday, and he's had a propensity for
. clutch performances.
Two weekends ago against Northwestern,
Fetter entered the fourth inning of game three
with Michigan trailing 4-2. The redshirt fresh-
man kept his team in the game by throwing
four scoreless innings, striking out four and
allowing just one baserunner in the process.
Saturday, following the heartbreaking loss
to Minnesota in game two of this weekend's
series, Fetter came back and started the next
game, going the distance in a complete-game
shutout.
"He showed a lot of intestinal fortitude to
come back and pitch a shutout when our team
needed it," Maloney said. "What he just did
was a championship effort."
Maloney wasn't sure how Fetter would react
to starting so soon after giving up a game-
winning hit. But pitching coach Bob Keller
convinced Maloney to go with Fetter, and, by
the end of the day, neither coach regretted the
SUNDAY'S GAME
Michigan 2, Minnesota 0
Michigan (19-, 1-0) Minnesota (11-17, 0-3)
Player AB R H BI Player ABR HBI
Schmidt LF 4 0 0 0 VanderAarde CF4 0 0 0
Colt Rosensweig
Mahler SS 4 0 1 0 Lyons SS
Kunkel C 4 1 1 0 Mee LF
4 0 0 0
4 0 1 0
Pickens RF 3 0 1 0
VanBuskirk 1B 4 0 0 0
Scheidt 3B 3 1 0 0
Recknagel DH 4 0 2 2
Christian 2B 2 0 0 0
Hunter1B 3 0 0 0
Kommerstad RF4 0 0 0
Baran DH 2 0 0 0
MacLean 2B 3 0 1 0
Maciej 3B 2 0 1 0
Herbert C 2 0 1 0
DeVries P 0 0 0 0
DEFENSE
The defense did not make
a single error in the Min-
nesota series - an impor-
tant consideration in tight
games like this weekend's.
PITCHING
Pitching was pretty solid
this weekend, especially
Saturday and Sunday. The
shutouts were key, as the
team only managed to score
two runs in each of the
games and won anyway.
OFFENSE
Though the Wolverines didn't
put up tremendous hitting
stats, they came through in
the clutch in the Metrodome,
where runs are hard to come
by. This weekend timely
hitting propelled the team
to three wins on the road.
TOMMASO GOMEZ/Daily
Fetter bounced back from a tough outing in game one on Saturday with a shutout in game two.
Chris Herring
This weekend marked the return of Mahler
into the everyday lineup for the Wolverines.
The junior was forced to sit out most of the
series against Northwestern due to an unspeci-
fied injury, according to Maloney. But Mahler
showed no signs of favoring either leg while on
the field, and his defense looked as impressive
as ever this weekend.
"I'm feeling much better, and I think the
worst of the problems are over" Mahler said.
With Mahler back platooning at shortstop,
the left side of the infield becomes almost
wouldn't have any other shortstop behind me.
He makes big plays at the right time. You can't
say enough about Leif.'
THIS IS SOMETHING YOU WORK ON IN THE OFF-
SEASON: In the final inning of the series' sec-
ond game, it appeared Minnesota was batting
out of order when its No. 8 and No. 9 hitters
switched.
According to baseball rules, if a team bats
out of order, that batter is automatically out.
This would have had huge implications for
the Wolverines, since they were guarding a
Putnam PH
Cislo 28
Roblin CF
Hess P
1 0 0
2 0 0
0 0 0
0
0
1 0 0 0
0
Abraham P 0 0 0 0
Totals
32 2 5 2
29 0 4 0
R H E
Michigan
Minnesota
000 000 002 - 2
000 000 000 - 0
5
4
0
I
E - Michigan 0; Minnesota 1: Maciej (8). DP
- Michigan 1; Minnesota 0. LOB - Michigan 6; Min-
nesota 5. 28 - Michigan 3: Mahler (4), Pickens (7),
Recknagel (7); Minnesota 1: Maciej (2). 38 - Michi-
gan 0; Minnesota 1: MacLean (2). HR - None. BB
David Murray