Thursday, April 12, 2007 - 9A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

Panter ready to
make impact

Senior leftfielder Rebekah Milian led Michigan to a 6-1 victory over her sister Elizabeth's Ball State squad Tuesday.
oftba l ters face off

By DAN FELDMAN
Daily Sports Writer
Elizabeth and Rebekah Milian
were grilled by teammates head-
ing into Tuesday's Michigan-Ball
State matchup.
Elizabeth is a freshman pitch-
er for the Cardinals.
Rebekah is a senior leftfielder
for the Wolverines.
The two are sisters, and Tues-
day they played against each
other for first time in organized
play.
Elizabeth's teammates wanted
to know what it would be like for
her to face her older sister.
"I just pulled the team togeth-
er and said 'I don't want any of
those questions,' " Elizabeth
said. "I just want this to be a nor-
mal game."
Rebekah's teammates and
coaches wanted to know how to
hit against her younger sister.
"She wasn't really much
help before the game," Michi-
gan coach Carol Hutchins said.
"I said, 'Well jeez, what's the
pitcher got?' And she said 'I don't
know, ask Nikki."'
Michigan freshman pitcher
Nikki Nemitz faced Elizabeth in
a high school state semi-finals
game last year (Nemitz's Regina
squad beat Elizabeth's Grand

Blanc team 1-0 in 10 innings).
Hutchins said Nemitz was
much more helpful with her
assessmentofElizabeth (she likes
to jam hitters with her screwball,
curveball and riseball).
Although Ball State coach
Craig Nicholson said Elizabeth
did a pretty good job of keeping
her pitches inside, Rebekah still
turned on a pair of pitches, going
2-4 and scoring a run.
"Rebekah and I were even,
that's what we're going to call it,"
Elizabeth said. "I won twice; she
won twice. We'll call it good."
Both players said they blocked
out their link during the game.
But the relationship was still
somewhat of a concern.
"In warm-ups, I was a little bit
weirded out by it," Rebekah said.
Said Sarah Milian, the sisters'
mother: "I just wanted them both
to do well. I kind of knew that
Michigan had too much power
for them. But I wanted Eliza-
beth to do well pitching against
them."
That led to an obvious ques-
tion from the older sister:
"What are you going to do
when I hit off of her?"
Like the sisters in the situa-
tion, Sarah had nosolid solution.
The special confrontation led
to talk of a pitch as intriguing as

Boston Red Sox rookie Daisuke
Matsuzaka's gyroball.
"I know that Elizabeth was
working on a very special pitch
to pitch to Rebekah all sum-
mer long," said Sarah Milian,
who keeps score at Michigan's
games (Rebekah popped up to
third base in her third-inning at
bat). "I think she pitched it, too.
I think that might have been her
FS."
Said Rebekah: "I kind of
thought (Elizabeth) was (work-
ing on a pitch for me) because
they had this pitch they kept talk-
ing about. I was thinking 'What
is that pitch?' So I figured it was
(just for me), but she wouldn't
tell me. They were keeping it a
secret."
So what's up with this myste-
rious pitch?
"No, we didn't pitch that one.
And it wasn't just for her," Eliza-
beth said with a laugh. "Mom
likes to exaggerate. ... It's an off-
speed pitch, that's all."
Followingthegame, the sisters
gathered with family and friends
just outside of Alumni Field, tak-
ing pictures and talking.
"We've known Elizabeth
almost as long we've known
Rebekah," Hutchins said. "She's
a real quality kid. It's really a
nice family, a great family."

By KEVIN WRIGHT
Daily Sports Editor
it's been 10 years since wide
receiver Russell Shaw joined the
Michigan
football
team as a EARLY
junior col- ENTRANCE
lege trans- .
fer. A sneak peak
After at the four
Shaw's two early-enrollees
seasons for Michigan
with the PART 4 OF 4,
Wolver-
ines, Mich-
igan coach Lloyd Carr has never
brought in another junior college
player.
Until this past winter.
Middle linebacker Austin Panter
enrolled in the University during
the winter semester and has been
practicing with the team.
Panter played at Butler Com-
munity College in Kansas, where
he shined for two years. He earned
the 2006 National Junior College
Defensive Player of the Year. Fol-
lowing last season, several Big 12
schools and Minnesota were inter-
ested, and Panter said, the Gophers
pushed the hardest.
But for all the big name schools
looking at him, Panter's mind was
made up when Michigan entered
the picture.
"I just felt like it was the right
place for me," Panter said in a tele-
conference in December. "I just
decided that I'm not taking other
visits and I was just happy with my
choice."
For the Wolverines, signing
Panter and integrating him into the
program right away will help fill
the large void left by former line-
backer David Harris.
Harris roamed the middle for
Michigan and became an intimi-
dating force for the Wolverine
defensive unit that dominated its

competition for the majority of last
season.
Panter, who played at Kensing-
ton High School in Kansas, points
to that vacancy as one of the rea-
sons Michigan seemed like the
right fit.
"(The coaches) told me they lost
two starting linebackers and that
they needed some help," Panter
said. "When I came up here for my
visit, they really stressed that they
were looking for a guy that could
come in during spring ball ... and
come in next fall and try to com-
pete for that starting spot."
The junior college transfer didn't
take the conventional path to Mich-
igan. Hailing from, El Dorado, Kan.,
a town of just more than 400 peo-
ple, Panter had to make do with the
means available to him. His high
school only had enough students to
field an eight-man football team.
But when it came time for Panter
to look at the next level, he didn't
have as many options as other
recruits. Big 12 schools don't look
at high schools with eight-man pro-
grams, so Panter thought his best
option was to play for Butler in El
Dorado, see where that took him.
Though he had walk-on offer
Panter said he "really didn't feel
like that was the right way."
"I just went to Butler Communi-
ty, and everything's worked out for
me," he said. "I'm glad I'm up here
at Michigan."
Panter has already transitioned
from eight-man high school foot-
ball to the junior college level, and
now he will have to adjust to the
competition at Michigan.
He started training with the
team during winter workouts this
year, and he's had to adapt to the
rigors of conditioning to play Divi-
sion I football.
He joked about fellow linebacker
Shawn Crable making fun of the
weight he lifts, and he said that
offensive lineman Adam Kraus has

taken him under his wing.
"At first, it was kind of over-
whelming at conditioning and
workouts,"Panter said with alaugh.
"It's a lot more intense, and I didn't
know if I could make it. But being in
the system a month, I could tell it's
a great program."
As Panter's path has brought
him from suiting up with seven
other players to having the chance
to run'out of the Michigan Stadium
tunnel next year with close to 80
teammates, he can finally realize a
lifelong goal.
"It's always been a dream of
mine to play for a Division I school,
and I didn't really care where it was
at," Panter said. "I grew up a Big 12
fan, but everyone's heard of Michi-
gan. (It's) the No. 1 program in the
entire country. To hear that they
were excited about me, ... (it) over-
whelmed me at first."
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