8 - Friday, March 25, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
8 - Friday, March 25, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 0
Nebraska-Omaha's balanced
attack poses problem for Blue.
By MICHAEL FLOREK
Daily Sports Editor
Tuesday, a day before the No. 2
seed Michigan hockey team head-
ed to St. Louis for the first round
of the NCAA Tournament, Michi-
gan coach Red Berenson entered
the center ice circle.
Withhisteam
lining the out- Michigan vs.
side of the circle Nebraska-
and finishing up
their stretch- Omaha
ing, Berenson Matchup:
skated in circles, Michigan
slightly tapping 26-10-4;
his stick on the UNO 21-15-2
ice and talked When: Friday
to the team. 5:30 P.M.
Berenson spoke Where:Scot-
about No. 3 seed trade Certrr
Nebraska-Oma-
ha, the Wolver- TV/Radio:
ines' first round ESPN3.com
opponent in the
NCAA West
Regional.
Berenson gives a little speech
like this nearly every practice. But
like 'all things in the postseason,
this one meant a little more.
"He just said it's important
anytime you're on the ice, you
want to look across the ice and
look at whoever you're playing
against, and you just wantto make
sure you win all the battles and
all the footraces," senior forward
Carl Hagelin said. "If we do that,
we should be able to win."
Berenson called the talka "pre-
scouting report." But whether it's
in a pre-scouting report or a full
one, the Mavericks' balance will
be on display. Omaha has eight
players who have scored eleven
goals or more. They also have five
who have 30 points or more.
The Mavericks' balance
has been on display all season.
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SOFTBALL
Michigan looks
for a strong start
to Big Ten season
By MATT SLOVIN Michigan defeated both No. 6
Daily Sports Writer Arizona State and No. 7 Ari-
zona.
In 2009, the Michigan soft- The lone loss of the Judi
ball team opened the Big Ten Garman Classic came in the
portion of its schedule with a last game against Fresno State.
pair of games at Northwestern. Senior Jordan Taylor took the
The Wolverines dropped both loss in that decision, her sec-
- a sweep that would account and of the season.
for two of their three confer- "(Taylor) alone can't win the
ence losses that season. games for us," Hutchins said.
This weekend, Michigan "She certainly has to do her
(29-2) will once again open part."
its conference slate with two And Taylor will look to
games in Evanston. regain her composure this
However, the team would weekend against a Wildcat
much prefer to get off to a squad that has won seven of its
faster start with a tremendous past nine games.
non-conference performance Last weekend, Northwest-
in hopes of helping Big Ten ern (14-7) was also in Califor-
title contention. nia, taking on No. 13 Stanford
But Michigan coach Carol and St. Mary's.
Hutchins refuses to let her The Cardinal swept the
team's eyes fixate on anything series, but the Wildcats
other than the task at hand. rebounded nicely with two 8-0
"I fully expect to keep that victories over St. Mary's.
focus," Hutchins said after last Taking both games on the
weekend's trip to California. banks of Lake Michigan will be
"If we don't, it's just not going important to starting the Wol-
to work." verines on the road to the Big
And by maintaining that Ten championship.
focus, the Wolverines have In fact, entering arguably
enjoyed an opening half of the its biggest weekend of the sea-
season filled with long road son, it's possible that a letdown
trips and even longer winning like the ones suffered against
streaks - including a 17-game Western Kentucky and Fresno
one to open the season. State could be dangerous to
Now, Michigan will remain Michigan's conference title
in the midwest and, eventu- hopes. In winning the champi-
ally, Ann Arbor. The team will onship the past three seasons,
open play at Alumni Field on the Wolverines have averaged
Wednesday against Bowling just two losses during confer-
Green. ence play.
In order to find that early- So whether the eventual
season success, the Wolver- champion is Michigan again or
ines have had to defeat some a new team, anything less than
of the nation's top teams. Last perfection during the opening
weekend in Fullerton, Calif., weekend will not suffice.
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0
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Nebraska-Omaha came to Ann
Arbor in late October (only the
fifth and sixthgamesofthe season
for the Wolverines) and split the
series. Twelve different Maver-
icks recorded a point in the series.
"You could have 20 guys onthat
team with 20 goals, but there's
only going to be probably three of
them on the ice at a time," Beren-
son said. "We've got to take care
of business with the line that's on
the ice. We've got be able to out-
play or outscore or outcheck that
line when they're on the ice, who-
ever it is."
The goal dispersal isn't nearly
as impressive as the points. The
Wolverines themselves have
seven players with nine goals or
more (though one of those, junior
forward David Wohlberg, is out
for the season with a broken col-
larbone), but have just one player,
Hagelin, over 30 points.
"They don't have any 20-goal
scorers or30-goal scorers," Beren-
son said. "They have really good
players, but so do we. All those
guys with 11 goals on their team
and we've got a bunch of guys
with nine goals. And really that
doesn't matter. It matters what
you do on Friday night, it doesn't
matter what you do in October or
November or December."
A win Friday means another
game - the regional final - on
Saturday. Michigan is focused on
Nebraska-Omaha, but with the
short time in between games, the
coaching staff will have a peek
at the other side of the regional
where No. 1 seed and defending
national champion Boston College
will play No. 4 seed Colorado Col-
lege.
Berenson said Sunday he would
scout all three teams in order to
be ready for any possible regional
final matchup. The Wolverines
beat the Tigers in the finals of the
Great Lakes Invitational this sea-
son, 6-5, but they haven't played
the Eagles since the team's seniors
played in their very first game
their freshman year.
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'M' comes home, faces Spartans
By NEAL ROTHSCHILD
Daily Sports Writer
It might not count in the con-
ference standings, but don't tell
Anthony Toth that the Michigan
baseball team's series against
Michigan State doesn't mean any-
thing.
"It's Michigan State," the fifth-
year senior second baseman said.
"It's dumb that they're off our
schedule for BigTen since it is one
of our rivals, but it's still Michigan
State. We don't like them and they
don't like us."
Since the Big Ten decided to
rotate opponents for each Big Ten
team in an eight-series conference
schedule, the two rivals' games
this weekend will be considered
a non-conference affair. The two
teams will play Friday and Sun-
day in Ann Arbor while Saturday
afternoon's game will be held in
East Lansing. Friday's game will
be the Wolverines' first home
game of the year.
The in-state foes started off
their seasons going in opposite
directions. Michigan lost its first
seven games and dropped to 2-11
before eventually climbing up to
6-12 after a sweep in the Oesetrike
Classic at Eastern Michigan last
weekend. The Spartans, however,
came out of the gates hot. They
are 12-5 and currently lead the Big
Ten in both batting average (.335)
and ERA (2.74).
"We've typically been on the
other side of it," Michigan coach
Rich Maloney said. "The early sea-
son has been a little bit reversed
from what we've usually experi-
enced. If you can win the series,
then all of a sudden, you can cer-
tainly make up for some ills."
Michigan's pitching, which
had been a sore spot for much of
the early spring, started to come
around in Ypsilanti last week-
end as all three starters regis-
tered quality starts. In a series
that brought a smile to Maloney's
face, Michigan's starting pitchers
picked up two wins, both of which
were polished off with saves.
Maloney will start the same
three starters who threw last
weekend - though in a differ-
ent order. Redshirt sophomore
Bobby Brosnahan, who pitched 7.1
innings in a win over Oakland on
Saturday, will start on Friday. In
East Lansing, redshirt sophomore
Tyler Mills will get the nod and
sophomore Kyle Clark will take
the mound on Sunday.
"Hopefully last weekend was
a little warm-up for those guys,"
Toth said. "To see Bobby back to
his true form like he was last year,
it's good for him and it's good for
the rest of the team. Clark's past
four outings have really been
lights out. He's really pitching and
not just throwing. Guys have a lot
of confidence in him."
If Michigan's pitching is able
to maintain its performance from
last weekend, the games could
turn out to be pitching duels as
Michigan State's starters average
a 2.18 ERA. And even though the
Wolverines picked up three wins
last weekend, their bats weren't
exactly on fire. Division-III Alma
College held Michigan to four
runs in a 12-inning game last Fri-
day and the Wolverines averaged
just 3.67 runs per game in the
series.
Michigan State's offensive
attack is spearheaded byinfielders
Torsten Boss, Ryan Jones and Jeff
Holm - all three of which were
named to All-Big Ten teams last
season. But, it's senior Brandon
Eckerle who has been the Spar-
tans' most pleasant surprise this
year. The leadoff-hitting center-
fielder leads the Big Ten in bat-
ting (.500), on-base percentage
(556) and hits (36).
The series against the Spar-
tans will provide a change of pace
- the Wolverines have dealt with
non-conference opponents and
have yet to face a traditional rival.
"They're a team that comes
out with a lot of hooting and hol-
lering, and we need to make sure
that we match their intensity and
hopefully get up on them early,"
Toth said.
While the Wolverines would
love to take the series from Mich-
igan State, they also know they
can't afford to be deflated for the
first conference series against
Indiana next weekend if they
underperformagainst the Spar-
tans.
"There's going to be more
motivation," Toth said. "There's
going to be more energy. So we're
looking forward to them coming
into our house and us being able
to hopefully open our home sea-
son with a big win over them." 0
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