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."