Wednesday, May 13, 1992 -The Michigan Daily Summer Weekly -11



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Softball tops Big Ten
Hitters face Arizona in NCAA Regional opener

by Meg Beison
Daily Sports Writer
The road to the Big Ten championship is
always a long and tough one. This year proved
tobenoexception as the Michigan softball team
gained automatic qualification to the NCAA
Tournament by capturing its first Big Ten title,
finishing one game ahead of Iowa. Michigan
concludedconference play with aleague-record
22 victories against six defeats, while Iowa
ended its season, 21-7.
TheWolverineswillface defendingnational
champion Arizona in a best-of-three series
beginningSaturdayin Tuscon,Ariz.Thewinners
of the eight regionals advance to the Softball
WorldSeriesMay 21-26inOklahomaCity.The
Wildcats, who will make their sixth straight
appearance in the tournament, earned the
tournament's No. 2 seed with a 53-5 record.
Arizona won it's first ever Pac-10 title this year,
beating the No. 1 seed UCLA (47-2).
"Arizonais a very good team, and that's the

way it should be," Michigan coach Carol
lutchins said. "The draw really doesn't matter
- we are all 0-0 right now. The pressure is on
them, we're the underdog and we have nothing
to lose by going there. I always tell my kids that
they have nothing to lose when they walk on the
field."
The Big Ten championship came down to
the last weekend. Michigan chose the perfect
time to pick up its fourth Big Ten sweep of the
season by downing Minnesota in four games.
Ohio State drowned Iowa's title hopes by drop-
ping the Hawkeyes, 1-0, in the bottom of the
tenth inning in Iowa City last weekend.
Hutchins has been at Michigan for eight
seasons and has seen her team finish second in
the Big Ten four times.
"I think Michigan's program has always
been capable of winning the Big Ten in soft-
ball," Hutchins said. "I believe Michigan
See SOFTB LL, Page 12

FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan softball team qualified for its first NCAA tournament appearance last weekend.

Penn State
by Mike Hill
Daily Sports Writer
The long struggle has finally come
to a close.
TheMichigan baseball team(11-17
Big Ten, 21-32 overall) dropped both
games of a doubleheader to Penn State
(11-17, 24-24) Monday at Fisher Sta-
dium. The 9-2,7-2 beatings concluded
a disappointing season that included a
school record number of losses.
Game one of the twinbill was prac-
tically overbeforeitbegan.TheNittany
Lions pounded Michigan starter Eric
Heintschel (5-8) with five runs in the
first inning. Penn State's Dave Hall
doubledin threeruns and catcherDerek
Ryder followed with a two-run single.
The Nittany Lions added four more
runsin thelateinningsandcoastedtoan
easy victory.
Theonepositive fortheWolverines
was senior outfielder Steve Buerkel.
Buerkel's two hits gave him 188 for his
career, placing him seventh on the all-
time list for Michigan.
The first inning of game two had an
eerie similarity to the first game. Penn
State got toMichiganhurler Ron Hollis
for an early two-run lead.
Hollis cooled off and shut down
Penn State for the next 4 2/3 innings.
"Ron had himself a nice outing,"
53 YEARS
SERVING
ANN
ARBOR
FAMILIES
DASCOLA STYLISTS
on Liberty off State
668-9329

sweeps dou
Michigancoach BillFreehansaid. "But
individual performances like that are
overshadowed when your team loses."
'We had a tough season.
This is a disappointing way
to end it. Hopefully we can
learn from a season like
this for next season.'
- Bill Freehan
Michigan baseball coach
The Wolverines tied the score in the
bottom of the fifth. Ryan Van Oeveren
led off with a single to center. Scott
Timmerman's double scored Van

bleheader
Oeveren. When Penn State's Ryan
Wheeler botched Steve Buerkel's
grounder, Timmerman scored and it
looked as though the Wolverines were
in for a big inning. But Penn State's
Randy Geis (4-1) ended the threat by
retiring Scott Winterlee, Nate Holdren
and Toby Brzoznowski.
Penn State blew the game open with
five runs in the eighth off Michigan
reliever ToddMarion(0-2).Chris Buzzi
scored the game winner when Marion
hit Wheeler with the bases loaded.
"We had a tough season," Freehan
said. "This is a disappointing way to
end it. Hopefully we can learn from a
season like this for next season."

Penn State swept the Michigan baseball team in Monday's dou


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