Bosch: Noah and Oden 'steal show DANCE FLOOR 2B SpDortsMonda On the road and at home, Michigan is king of the court MEN'S & WOMEN'S TENNIS 4B michigandaily.com Monday, April 2, 2007 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Despite slim margi, Blue gets ig win By CHRIS MESZAROS BY THE NUMBERS Daily Sports Writer Mother Nature proved to be better competition than host Northwestern for the Michigan baseball team this weekend. Michigan NOTEBOOK (4-0 Big Ten, 15-6 overall) outscored the Wildcats 39-15 in this weekend's series sweep. Saturday's second game of a double- header was suspended in the bottom of the sixth inning because of dark- ness. That game concluded on Sun- day and the Wolverines won 11-3. In Sunday's scheduled game, the fourth of the series, Michigan was down 1-0 after four innings when the umpires decided to implement a rain delay. The game resumed two hours later, and the Wolverines won 14-7. But those two victories weren't as easy as usual, considering the weather the teams had to play in. With baseballs sailing all over and players struggling to find the ball in the heavy winds all weekend, there was plenty of room for error. Michigan handled the weather well, but the inclement weather got the best of Northwestern (0-4 Big Ten, 6-15 overall). In Saturday's second game, a Mich- igan player hit a shot to Northwestern rightfielder Antonio Muld. While try- ing to make a play, Mule bobbled the ball and it rolled behind him. In an attempt to recover the ball, he slipped on the wet grass and ended up having to crawl toward the ball. Then in Sunday's game, the wind played a big factor in another Mule dropped fly ball. This time, he ended up running all the way to the wall to retrieve it. The miscues didn't stop there. Later in the game, Northwestern shortstop Kenneth Avila hit a ground ball to Michigan's Adam Abraham at third base. But Avila came up a little bit short on his run to first, stumbling and then falling in the wet dirt and See WEATHER, Page 3B STATE COLLEGE - As the Michigan and Penn State women's gymnastics teams prepared for, their final routines, the hearts of 2,729 fans pounded at Rec Hall in State College. And the lives of 14 gymnasts changed forever. A .375 point Michigan lead seemed precarious at best, and the voracious Nittany Lion crowd ren- dered any advantage moot. The Wolverines held their own in the vault, but four amazing perfor- mances on the uneven bars by Penn State obscured the outcome. As the events concluded, both teams headed back to their locker rooms, clouded in mystery and ready to put an end to the agonizing wait. Nei- ther team knew who won, but both experienced a lifetime worth of jit- ters as the results were tallied. The announcer said that the top two teams were separated by a mere loth of a point, hushing the crowd. The moment of truth finally came and the response couldn't have been more pronounced. The women donning the maize and blue shot into the air at the news of their Big Ten Championship, and the tears of joy flooded the stage, stamping an explanation point on a rollercoaster season for Michigan. "I'm just so overwhelmed at how proud I am of these kids," Michi- gan coach Bev Plocki said. "We had so many injuries and so many bad things happen. These kids fought through every single setback we had and they never gave up." The scoreboard read Michigan 196.575, Penn State 196.475. The Wolverines' surreal victory was assured. But it wasn't until the pho- tographers snapped team pictures and handed out championship T- shirts and hats that reality set in. Their pose was symbolic of their mission this season. They embraced on a small platform, figurative of their team effort that won them the championship. As the teammates stood there, they weren't a group of bodies composing a team, but ateam that overcame so much to achievea goal many thought unlikely. "This was the most emotional season and the season where we pulled together the most," junior Katie Lieberman said. "We worked together as a team and have been so close, we had some bumps in the road, but we overcame the adversity and came away with the win." Michigan came into the match as a slight underdog, which is unusual given it has won 13 of the past 15 titles. But the injury-plagued Wol- Michigan's margin of victory over Penn State Number of key Wolverine gymnastsout for the season Numberof Big Ten titles for Michigan in the past15 years .. - . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . verines had to prove they could unite together and bring home a trophy without their full roster. Two-time All-American Lindsey Bruck and freshmen Jordan Sexton and Sarah Curtis were all lost for the season with injuries. "This team is an amazing group of young ladies," sophomore Huneth Lor said. "We've been working so hard to pick up from all the injuries that winning makes it all the better." The Wolverines followed the Nittany Lions in the rotation and bested Penn State's performance in every event except the uneven bars. Michigan posted near season-high scores on all events and pulled away with exceptional performances on the balance beam and floor exer- cise, which are generally two of their weaker routines. Becky Bernard led Michigan on the balance beam. She captured her first individual championship in the event, tying a career-high score of 9.900. She fol- lowed this up with another amaz- ing performance on floor exercise with amark of 9.850. "Becky is my nervous Nellie,she's such a talented athlete in practice, but she gets so nervous when she competes and we've been working on that all season," Plocki said. Lieberman's second consecutive Big Ten Individual Championship on Floor Exercise (9.900) comple- mented Bernard's effort. Lor came up just short in the all-around to round out the individual accolades for the Wolverines. Michigan finished up the eve- See CHAMPIONS, Page 3B Michigan's Zach Putnam was dominant on the hill and at the plate. The sophomore pitched eight innings for Friday. In the three remaining games, Putnam had six RBI to lead a potent Wolverine offense past the Wildca SIW'EEP ON THE LAKE By ANDY REID for anything better. Daily Sports Writer Junior Doug Pickens stepped up to the plate and crushed the EVANSTON - Players from first pitch after the interruption both Michigan and Northwestern for a home run. The blast sparked laid on the artificial turf yester- anoffensive outburstthatresulted day afternoon in Northwestern's in eight combined home runs and practice facility as they traded a 14-7 win for Michigan, which jokes. Two hours had passed completed a four-game sweep of since Northwestern led 1-0 in bot- the Wildcats. tom of the fourth inning, and the "You have to stay loose dur- rain delay was about to become a ing a rain delay," said senior Brad canceled game. Roblin, who added another homer Then the rain let up, and the post-stoppage. Wolverines couldn't have asked Since they were already in Evanston, the Wolverines figured they might as well go out and win, Roblin said. But it wasn't as easy as the Wol- verines hoped. Sporting a comfortable 13-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Michigan couldn't seem to finish off Northwestern (0-4 Big Ten, 6- 15 overall). Wildcat senior Geoff Dietz hit a three-run home run over the leftfield wall. Although the fan favorite's shot sparked comeback See BASEBALL, Page 3B MEN'S GYMNASTICS 'M' falls short in chance for title Bat slenced in ' y Saturday defeat By COLT ROSENSWEIG Daily Sports Writer MINNEAPOLIS - On the night of Friday's Big Ten team finals, the second-ranked Michigan men's gymnastics team awaited the com- petition'sconclusionsilertly.Except for sophomore Jamie Thompson - who hid his tears beneath a jacket - the Wolverines faced their disappointing fourth-place finish (214.35) with stony stares. After getting off to a shaky start on the parallel bars, the Wolverines never fully recovered. Following the second event, high bar-where only two gymnasts got through their routines without coming off - Michigan fell to fifth place. "I think the biggest reason (we didn't win) is that we don't have confidence, honestly," sophomore Kent Caldwell said. "We train well, and we hit well, and we can't trust ourselves in the meet to let our- selves go to that training, and let our bodies take over." Floor exercise, as usual, was the high-water mark. Thompson posted a 9.45, tying his career-high in one of the grittiest performances of the night, his left leg tightly wrapped from mid-thigh to mid-calf. And Caldwell, the top-ranked floor man in the nation, nailed his demanding set for a 9.75. At the halfway point, the Wolverines were in second place, within striking distance of first-place Penn State. But the pommel horse, Michi- gan's old nemesis, derailed the Wol- verines' dreams of a Big Ten title. After two hit routines from sopho- more Ralph Rosso and freshman Mel Santander, the subsequent four gymnasts all came off the horse. "I think we were chickenshit on pommel horse," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "We were scared. ... It takes alot of courage to let it fly, because the feeling is, if you com- pete all out, you're going to make a mistake. But that doesn't happen - that's when you get your best score." To their credit, the Wolverines didn't give up even while facing a deficit of more than three points. See BIG TENS, Page 3B By DAN FELDMAN Daily Sports Writer EVANSTON - The 10th-ranked Michigan and eighth-ranked Northwestern softball teams met this weekend for the fifth and sixth times in the past 11 months. The Wolver- MICHIGAN 11 ines were NORTHWESTERN 4 five outs away from MICHIGAN 3 sweeping NORTHWESTERN 4 the confer- ence-favorite Wildcats and taking an early lead in the Big Ten title race. After an 11-4 win in game one Friday, Michigan took a one-run lead into the sixth inning of game two Saturday. But Northwestern's Jessica Miller crushed a mammoth two-run home run to leftfield that landed atop of the 50-foot high Welsh-Ryan Arena - about 215 feet away from home plate. The shot, the longest hit in Sharon J. Drysdale Field history, gave the Wildcats a 4- 3 lead they wouldn't relinquish. Although Northwestern came back to win the second game of the series, salvaging a split and taking a 2-1 advantage over Michigan onthe year, at least one Wolverine is confi- dent her team will have a chance to regain the upper hand. "Yeah, we did lose (Saturday), but we battled both games, and the second game could've gone either way," freshman catcher Roya St. Clair said. "Unfortunately it went the other way. But we're going to face them again, so I'm not wor- ried." But a quick glance at Michigan's schedule doesn't show another meeting between the teams in the regular season. So what gives? "Big.Ten Tournament," St. Clair said. But for the Wolverines to win, or even get, a rematch of last year's Big Ten Tournament Champion- ship, they have plenty of work to do - both defensively and offensively. "We need our pitchers to be a little more commanding more con- sistently, every pitch of the game and just have a demeanor of 'I'm going to beat you,' versus holding your breath," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "The bottom line is we had moments of timid, whether it was at the plate, not getting our See SOFTBALL, Page 38 Junior Samantha Findlay hit a home run in Saturday's first inning.