Monday
! May 5, 2003
michigandaily.com
sportsdesk@umich.edu

SPORTS

13'

Blue loses home
'field advantage

'M' Nine holds
off Buckeyes

By Sharad Mattu
Daily Sports Writer
With a Big Ten regular-season
title on the line yesterday, the
Michigan __C__GAN ___
softball team
came out
swinging against Michigan State.
The Wolverines hit the ball well,
but in the end, had nothing to
show for it. Michigan finished
with nine hits, but failed to score
after the first inning and lost 2-1.
"I told them it wasn't meant to
be," Michigan coach Carol
Hutchins said. "When you hit the
ball as well as we hit it all day, I
don't know what else you can do."

after Michigan scored just one run.
The Spartans (13-6, 35-15)
responded in the third inning with
a little help from the Wolverines.
With two outs and a runner on
first, Michigan State's Margaret
Schick hit a slow roller between
the pitcher's mound and first base.
Three Wolverines attempted to
field, but no one covered first base.
Natalie Furrow followed
Schick's single with a scorcher
down the left field line to drive in a
run, but senior left-fielder Melinda
Moulden overran the ball, and her
error allowed a second run to score.
In the third inning, after
Moulden hit a one-out single,
Michigan State coach Jacquie

Michigan (13-5 Big Ten, 39-12 Joseph put in her ace, Jessica Senior Melinda Moulden fails to bring home a run for Michigan as she is
overall) also had a chance to Beech, who had shut down the tagged out in the Wolverines' 2-1 loss to the Spartans.
clinch the conference title on Sat- Michigan lineup Saturday.
urday, but a walk-off homer gave Monica Schock was the first Though Michigan continued to ing to get to her," Joseph said. "I
the Spartans a 2-0 win. Wolverine to face Beech, and hit the ball solidly the rest of the wanted to go down with our num-
The Wolverines loaded the bases lined out to left field. Merchant game, it could never muster more ber one pitcher on the mound."
with one out in the first inning. But followed by smacking the ball off than one hit in an inning offBeech. With Michigan's losses, Iowa
after sophomore Jessica Merchant the bottom of the fence in left-cen- "I just felt like (starter) wins the regular-season champi-
hit a sacrifice fly, senior Marissa ter. Hutchins sent Moulden home, Stephanie (Christner) had seen onships, and will host the Big Ten
Young lined out to end the threat but the relay beat her to the plate. them all once, and they were start- Tournament beginning Thursday.
Crew captures another Big Ten tit e

By Josh Holman
Daily Sports Editor
When Rich Maloney took
over as head coach for the
Michigan baseball team last
summer, __CHGAN___
there was
only one
direction he could take the
program: up. That's exactly
what's happening.
Coming off an upset victo-
ry over No. 16 Notre Dame
on Tuesday, Michigan (12-10
Big Ten, 25-19 overall) hand-
ed Ohio State its first home-
series loss since 1996 and left
Columbus in fourth place in
the Big Ten standings.
Yesterday's 9-4 victory
started out all Michigan and
ended the same way. Senior
center fielder Gino Lollio
went 3-for-3 on the day,
including a single that drove
in two runs and gave the
Wolverines a 3-0 lead. Lollio
also added a solo homerun in
the sixth. Ohio State (15-7,
28-13) pushed four runs
across to cut the score to5-4
in the eighth, hut Michigan
ended the threat as senior first
baseman Mike Sokol blasted
a three-run homerun in the
top of the ninth inning.
Sophomore pitcher Drew
Taylor improved to 6-1,
recording seven strikeouts in
his 7.2 innings of work.
"They haven't been beat-
en three out of four in their
park since it opened," Sokol
said. "It was a great team
victory, and to be able to do
that was great for our pro-
gram and the new era of
Michigan baseball."
Michigan made most of its
noise in Saturday's double-

header, taking two games
from the Buckeyes by scores
of 5-4 and 3-1.
The Wolverines needed
extra innings to win the open-
er. Sophomore right fielder
Matt Butler's single brought
in sophomore left fielder
Chris Burhans for the win-"
ning run in the top of the
eighth inning. Freshman
pitcher Ali Husain - who
ended Ohio State's rally in the
bottom of the seventh - shut
down the Buckeyes in order
in the eighth for his third win
of the season.
"You have to win some
close ball games to get over
the top," Maloney said. "We
were playing in frontof 2,400
hostile people and to pull out
three games in Ohio State has
to be a huge confidence
booster for our team."
The second game of the
twin bill starred another
Michigan pitcher - sopho-.
more Phil Tognetti - who
allowed one run on four hits
in 5.2 innings to improve his
record to 5-3.
Tognetti had his share of
help, though. When the Buck-
eyes scored their lone run in
the sixth, senior Tim Leveque
entered and forced catcher
Dave Kinnear to fly out with
the bases loaded and two
outs.
The Wolverines will host
Northwestern next weekend,
which sits at third place in the
Big Ten standings.
"I honestly believe we are
the best team in the Big Ten,"
Taylor said. "We can play
with some of the best teams
in the country and now we're
starting to peak. That's going
to make the difference."

By Rajesh Bandla
For the Daily
It couldn't get much worse for a Michigan
sports team than spending the weekend in
Columbus watching Michigan State win a Big
Ten Championship. Unfortunately, the women's
rowing team couldn't do anything about the
unfriendly fans in crimson and silver. Luckily,
Michigan was able to prevent a Spartan win as
the team took the Big Ten Title from Michigan
State in the final race of this weekends' meet.
"We knew going in that it was going to be
very close," coach Mark Rothstein said after
this weekend's Big Ten meet.
Going into the final race, No. 7 Michigan
needed a win from the first varsity eight and a
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3rd place showing or worse from Michigan
State to win the meet. Michigan did its part as
the first varsity eight won its sixth straight race
with a time of 6:27.8 - the fastest time of the
meet. Michigan State also chipped in by finish-
ing the race in third, allowing the Wolverines to
win the meet on a tiebreaker. The victory gave
Michigan its third conference title in four years.
Adding to the win's sweetness was the fact
that rivals Michigan State and Ohio State fin-
ished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Also, last season
the Buckeyes prevented Michigan from taking a
third-straight conference title.
Michigan had every reason to feel like a
favorite going. into the meet. The first varsity
eight had won five consecutive races, including
victories over No. 11 Ohio State in the Big Ten

Invitational and No. 10 Virginia in the
ACC/Big Ten Double Dual.
Michigan also had two No. 1 seeds going
into the Big Ten meet (first varsity four and
first varsity eight) and the highest overall rank-
ing of any Big Ten school at No. 7.
In addition to the first varsity eight's Grand
Final victory, the first varsity four narrowly
stayed ahead of Iowa to win their Grand Final,
beating out the Hawkeyes by 1.8 seconds.
With the NCAA qualifying meet coming up
in two weeks, Rothstein hopes to use the
momentum from this weekend to end the sea-
son on a high note.
"We have a lot of speed that we can gain,"
Rothstein said. "We need to enjoy this week-
end, come back on Monday and get better."

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