20 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Netters sent home
early by
By Brad Johnson
Daily Sports Writer
Facing the unknown was certainly
not an issue for the Michigan men's
tennis team last week at the Big Ten
Championships in Evanston, Ill.
In fact, four days after defeating
Wisconsin at the Varsity Tennis Cen-
ter on April 20, Michigan encountered
the Badgers again in the opening
round of the season-ending tourna-
ment. Although the matchup was the
same, the result was not: The Wolver-
ines (3-7 Big Ten, 9-13 overall) fell 4-
3 after dropping the doubles point to
begin the match.
"We played the match outdoors
which was a little uit different from
when we played them the week before
inside," Michigan coach Mark Mees
said. "One of the things we have been
doing for quite a while is that we have
a situation where one (doubles) team
plays well, one team plays poorly and
the other team comes up just a little
bit short."
After surrendering the doubles
point, the Wolverines won three of
five singles contests, squaring the
match at three.
In the deciding singles match, sopho-
more Vinny Gossain fell to Wisconsin
freshman Alex Conti, sealing the victo-
: ry for the Badgers.
"(Vinny) certainly felt awful after the
match, but that was only one of the four
points that we lost," said Mees. "He has
Bad
nothing to be ash:
hard and did the be
Michigan strugg
play throughout the
"When you coi
match down 1-0
doubles point) iti
singles matches a
team," Mees sai
was an issue wit
tried different co
just did not have
our performance.'
The Wolverine
send any players t
and Doubles Cham
while their season
summer work is jus
"Hopefully all(
out and play a lotc
Mees. "They will t
then start working
will go out and pla
because that is w
make alot of impr
Mees added thai
to tell which team
the summer and wI
Michigan will a
freshmen come fa
Chicago and Steve
"I think we are
cantly better nex
"We've got two f
signed letters of in
in and will be very
I'm excited about{
to be a good group
gersk
amed of. He played
st that he could do."
led with its doubles
regular season.
nsistently go into a
(after losing the
is tough to win six
gainst a comparable
d. "That certainly
h us this year. We
mbinations but we
any consistency in Michigan second baseman Nick Rudden slides into third base in Satu
over Penn State. The Wolverines dropped Sunday's game 6-4 to spliti
s do not expect to BASdisastrous inning yieldingj
o the NCAA Singles In the top of the seci
pionships in May, so Continued from Page 16 State offense provided Far
is essentially over, said. "I told my team, 'That's a bulldog support, putting four runs
st beginning. effort.' " The Wolverines tied th
of the guys will go Farrell's final product was very in the bottom of the third
of tournaments," said impressive, especially when it looked as sacrifice fly and a Sokol R
ake a little break and though he may not even make it out of Michigan's last true o:
out. Hopefully they the first inning. came in the fourth inning
y a lot in the summer Michigan senior center fielder Gino ines had loaded the bases
here you can really Lollio led off in the bottom half of the but Farrell calmly squash
ovements." first, and took a Farrell 3-1 offering rally, striking out Rudde
t in the fall it is easy deep over the wall in left-center. Farrell Koman to ground out tott
is worked hard over then plunked Michigan's next two bat- Farrell's most impressi
hich did not. ters (sophomore Nick Rudden and sen- in the game's final five in
Iso gain two talented ior Brock koman), and junior catcher held Michigan hitless.
L1 in Ryan Heller of Jake Fox jumped on a first-pitch fastball "He settled into (the ga
Peretz ofNewYork. doubling to the wall. But, thinking his said. "A good pitcher, w
going to be signifi- hit had cleared the bases, Fox advanced they battle back, and they
t year," Mees said. to third - which Koman already occu- Penn State prevailedi
freshmen that have pied - and was tagged out. series opener on Friday
itent that are coming "A couple of base-running blunders Wolverines struck bac
good tennis players. really cost us," Maloney said. games in Saturday's dot
(the team). It's going The Wolverines' next hitter, Mike game one of the double
to work with." Sokol, worked the count to a hitter- took a 4-2 lead on back-
friendly 2-1, and Farrell threw the ensu- runs from Koman and F
ing pitch to the outside half of the plate looked back. In the late
against the left-hander. The senior drove test, the Wolverines erase
the ball down the third-base line, but deficit, and won 6-5. L
Penn State third baseman Mike Milliron Michigan with the games
snagged the ball and tagged third, dou- ning run, hitting a two-P
bling off Koman. Farrell escaped a near- bottom of the sixth.
just two runs.
ond, the Penn
rell with some
on the board.
e game at four
I via a Koman
RBI single.
ffensive threat
g. The Wolver-
with one out,
hed a potential
n, and getting
third base.
ve work came
nings when he
uoe)," Maloney
vhat they do is
settle into it:'
in an exciting
, 6-5, but the
k taking both
ubleheader. In
dip, Michigan
to-back home-
ox, and never
afternoon con-
d an early 4-0
ollio provided
' eventual win-
un shot in the
Long ball
aids Blue
victories
By Jake Rosenwasser
Daly SportsWriter
"We're more ofa line-drive doubles
team than we are a true power team,"
Michigan baseball coach Rich Mal-
oney said.
Most of the time, the skipper's state-
ment holds true, but this past weekend
the Wolverines flexed their muscles by
smacking five homeruns against Penn
State. Michigan utilized the long ball in
both of their wins.
In the first game of Saturday's double-
header, the teams were locked in a pitch-
ing duel, but in the bottom of the fifth
iming Michigan's power hitters broke a
2-2 tie. Senior third baseman Brock
Koman started things off with a homer
to left field and junior Jake Fox followed
with a monstrous shot to center. This
marked the first time that Michigan went
back-to-back this season.
"This park normally isn't conducive
to power, but ironically we've gotten a
lot of days where the wind has been
blowing out," Maloney said. "It usually
doesn't because of the way the field is
set, but it's not a bad way to go if the
wind is blowing that way."
In the second game of the day, two
seniors provided the firepower. Senior
left fielder Jordan Cantalamessa's three-
run jack cut Penn State's lead to 4-3 in
the third. The Wolverines still found
themselves down by one in the sixth
when senior center fielder Gino Lollio
clobbered the first pitch he saw into the
trees past the center-field fence.
"Coming out of the bullpen, every
coach teaches every pitcher to throw
strikes. With a man on second holding a
one-run lead, the last thing he wanted to
do was walk me," Lollio said. "Coach
(Maloney) told me to look for the first
one, and Ijumped all over it."
SCARED OF THE Fox: Through the first
35 games of the season, Fox only walked
eight times. But in the four game series
this past weekend, Michigan's clean-up
hitter received six free passes, five of
which came in the final two games.
"I had a few good games at the plate
in the beginning of the series, so I knew
they weren't going to give me much to
hit at the end of the series," Fox said. "It
was frustrating, but I didn't let it bother
me too much because I knew we had a
bunch of goodhitters behind me."
In the series finale, Penn State pitcher
Jim Farrell intentionally walked Fox in
the third inning with a man on third and
two outs. Michigan senior Mike Sokol
followed the walk with an RBI single.
"Walking me just puts another runner
on base and creates another scoring
opportunity," Fox said. "It backfired for
them in that situation."
Fox was tempted to swing at some
pitches he normally would not swing at,
but he laid off them in the end.
"You have to make sure you swing at
pitches you can hit," Fox said. "There
was one pitch when they were intention-
ally walking me, that I thought I could
get to, but we need base runners in these
close games, so I let it go."