: The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com April 9, 2012
HOME IMPROVEMENT

April 6, 2012
Michigan State 0
Michigan 4

April 7, 2012
Michigan 4
Michigan State 3

April 8, 2012
Michigan State 10
Michigan 8

"It's very unfortunate because team's lead in the sixth inning on
he would've come up how many Friday. He leads the team with
different times?" Maloney said. a .457 on-base percentage, has
"But that's the way it is. We're play- reached base in 17-straight games,
ing a little handicappedb" and he snatched second place on
Maloney's concern usedt the all-time stolen base list with 75
reside at the plate, but as of late, On Sunday, the same string of
the issues seem to be in the'team'saolverines continued strengthen-
fielding. ng their numbers at the platein
On Saturday, Michigan State 13 innings of play. Krantz earned
capitalized on two erors in the a starting spot in the lineup as the
bottom of the fifth inning and designatedhitterandWingerfinal
took a 3-2 lead. But the Wolverines ly pulled himself out of the slump,
answered with anothe " dnul of notching three hits.
surprising heroes. Both teams made strong offen-
After freshman left fielderyWill sive .retaliations and rotated
Drake tied the game on afelde through the bullpen after initial
choice, struggling sophomorefirst struggles on themound.
baseman Brett Winger was due to unior right-hander Ben Ballan-
bat with runners on the crnes. tine duplicatedlast weekend's poor
So, Maloney called onidshirt, erformance and was yanked after
junior Kevin Krantz as aaainch hit-just1. innings4and three earned
ter, which looked like a lose-se runs
situation since he hadn't posted a By the end of the ninth inning,
single hit all season. ichigan and Michigan State were
Once again, the Wolverines 4ocked at eight run apiece.In the
stepped up at exactly the righttime top ofthe 13th inning, the Spartans
- Krantz singled to right-center took advantage of a dropped fly ball
field, driving in the winningrn and fielding error to tally the two
"Krantz had a big htMalo winningruns.
ney said. "I'm liking some of the "We did win the series, which
growth I'm seeing." was pleasing," Maloney said. "On
Though there are plenty of play- the flip side of it, we had a won-
ers starting to emerge rom the derful opportunity ... to finish that
shadows, iunior center fielder Pat- game off. and we lust weren't able


Delaney, Sinnery
improve in series win

SOFTBALL
Michigan parts Red Sea

By ISABELLA ACHENBACH
Daily Sports Writer
And they're back. The Mich-
igan baseball pitching staff
helped lead the Wolverines to
two victories over Michigan
State in this weekend's three-
game series after disappoint-
ing losses to Minnesota last
weekend.
In 8.1 innings of work, senior
right-hander
Brandon Sin- NOTEBOOK
nery allowed
zero runs in Friday's game. His
relief pitcher, freshman right-
hander Matt Ogden, did the
same in his two-thirds innings
S of work, and Michigan picked
up the 4-0 victory.
Saturday's game went back
and forth between the Spar-
tans and the Wolverines, but
finally ended with Michigan
on top, 4-3. One of Michigan's
rising talents, freshman left-
hander Trent Szkutnik, got
the start for the Wolverines
and allowed three runs (two
earned) in five innings of work.
Sophomore right-hander Alex
Lakatos stepped in for the last
four innings and held the Spar-
tans scoreless.
After the series, Michigan
coach Rich Maloney singled
Szkutnik and Lakatos out for
their work on the mound.
"Szkutnik looked really

By DANIEL FELDMAN
Daily Sports Writer
COLUMBUS - Passover calls
for observants to be very selec-
tive of what they can put on their
plate. At
a differ- OHIO STATE 2
ent kind of MICHIGAN 10
plate this
weekend, OHIO STATE 4
the Michi- MICHIGAN 11
gan softball
team was OHIO STATE 5
MICHIGAN 6
almost as
selective.
The Wolverines (8-1 Big Ten,
27-10 overall) swept Ohio State,
10-2,11-4 and 6-5 last weekend.

Michigan fell behind 2-Din the
first inning of the series opener
before scoring 10 unanswered
runs, highlighted by two home
runs from freshman designated
player Sara Driesenga and four
RBIs by junior second baseman
AshleyLane.
Nine of the 10 runs scored by
Michigan came in the second,
third, and fourth inning, includ-
ing five in the third inning.
"Our energy never stops," Lane
said.
The Wolverines' energy was
not just limited to making contact
but extending the at-bats as well.
"We made (Buckeye pitch-
er Mikayla Endicott) throw a

lot,"said Michigan coach Carol
Hutchins. "I thought that would
bode well for us."
For a quick comparison, fresh-
manpitcherHaylieWagnerthrew
104 pitches in seven innings in the
first game for Michigan. Endicott
threw 103 in three innings.
In the second game of the
series, the Wolverines again fell
behind early before unleashing a
season-high 16 hits to win 11-4.
Trailing 3-1 after one, Michi-
gan had a five-run inning to
catapult them into the lead for
the second-straight game. After
junior Jaclyn Crummey scored a
run on a fielding error, senior first
See SOFTBALL, Page 3B

LACROSSE
'M' falls to Delaware at home

Freshman Dylan Delaney rounds the bases against Michigan State.

good, Alex Lakatos looked
really good," Maloney said.
Szkutnik was credited with
Saturday's win, putting him at
two wins and one loss for the
season.
Szkutnik and Lakatos both
made appearances in unex-
pected places in Sunday's
game. Both pitchers played on
the offensive side when the
game went into extra innings
and the benches thinned.
"I used every guy we had in
this game," Maloney said. "We
even had to pinch hit Szkutnik
who hasn't even hit (this sea-
son), but we had no one left."

Szkutnik hit in high school
and had only a short amount of
time to warm up in the batting
cage before stepping up to the
plate.
Maloney wasn't far off when
he said he used every guy he
had in Sunday's game. Five
pitchers took the mound -
junior right-hander Ben Bal-
lantine, junior right-hander
Kyle Clark, senior right-hander
Kevin Vangheluwe, freshman
right-hander Matt Ogden and
redshirt freshman right-hand-
er Jay Perry.
The Wolverines ultimately
See NOTEBOOK, Page 3B

By KYLE SAUKAS first half. The Wolverines' inabil-
Daily Sports Writer ity to gain possession of the ball
allowed the Blue Hens to attempt
A slow start and a lack of 24 shots in the first half. Michi-
opportunities led to the Michi- gan finished the game with 23
gan lacrosse team's 10th loss of shots. Delaware was able to hold
the season onto the ball for most of the game,
Saturday, DELAWARE 11 taking an early lead that it built
falling to MICHIGAN 7 upon until the final whistle blew.
Delaware, Trouble winning faceoffs, fail-
11-7. The Wolverines (1-10) played ing to collect ground balls and
most of the game on the defensive unnecessary turnovers-were the
end of the field against the Blue main flaws the Wolverines dis-
Hens (4-7). played against the Blue Hens.
Michigan won only one faceoff "We got killed on faceoffs in
and picked up just 10 ground balls the first half today," said Michi-
compared to Delaware's 22 in the gan coach John Paul. "That stuff

adds up, and today with ground
balls that really added up."
The Wolverines had less pos-
sessions than they needed to cre-
ate a successful attack, but they
aren't making any excuses for not
producing more goals on Satur-
day.
"It is on (the attackmen) to
get the offense going when we
are lacking possessions," said
fifth-year senior attackman
Trevor Yealy. "There is no excuse,
regardless for how long the ball is
on the defensive end, for not being
ready on the offensive end."
See DELAWARE, Page 3B


SCHEF'S SPECIALTY
U The Daily Sports staff puts together its
second-annual Michigan athletics award
list - The Schefters. Page 2B

ON TO OKLAHOMA
The Michigan men's gymnastics team
placed second in the Big Ten Champion-
ships and is on to the NCAAs. Page 3B