Tuesday
June 1, 2004
sports.michigandaily.com
sports@michigandaily.com
SPORTS
13
Double trouble: Blue
loses two heartbreakers
By James V. Dowd
Daily Sports Writer
Instead of dropping on the far side of ASA
Hall of Fame Stadium's fence for a home run like
it would in Stanford's storybook endings, Cardi-
nal second baseman Meghan Sickler's fly ball
landed in Michigan left fielder Rebekah Milian's
glove. It was, however, just what No. 7 Stanford
* needed to knock No. 6 Michigan out of the eight-
team Women's College World Series in Okla-
homa City on Saturday.
As Milian caught the ball, Stanford pinch-run-
ner Shoney Hixson took off for home. Milian's
throw was almost perfect, but a bad hop took
Wolverines' catcher Monica Schock off of the
base path. The slight misfortune ensured that
Hixson would score, gave Stanford a 5-4 victory
and sent Michigan home from the double elimi-
nation tournament.
"Rebekah Milian is a freshman, and I thought
she made an outstanding throw to the plate,"
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "It just took
a bounce slightly away from (Schock), which
took her out of position to be able to block the
plate. (Hixson) really got home and made sure
she got around the tag. It was a great play, and it
just didn't happen for us."R x
It was Michigan's second heartbreaking loss of r
the tournament. The Wolverines were defeated 3-
2 in a 13-inning contest against No. 3 Louisiana
State on Thursday. The game was a scoreless tie 4E
until both teams scored twice in the twelfth :<.. .. f:
inning. After junior Jessica Merchant tripled to 0 .'
open the inning, third baseman Grace Leutele hit r xof.
a home run to give the Wolverines the advantage,
2-0. The Tigers countered with two unearned runs
in the bottom of the twelfth inning and won two' .
Wolverines committed throwing errors on the
same play in the bottom of the thirteenth.s'
"It was a hard fought game for both," MichiganF .
Junior Nicole Motycka said. "There is a lot of AP PHOTO
'coulda, shoulda, woulda' in a game like that, but Stanford's Shoney Hixon (33) slides home with the eventual winning run as Michigan catcher Monica
See WORLD SERIES, Page 15 Schock applies a late tag at the Women's College World Series. Stanford eliminated Michigan, 5-4.
EBASEBALL
Michigan finishes strong at Rough finish doesn't
e By Ryan Sosin which followed a 16-3 loss to
egio behind Daily SportsEditor eventual champion Minnesota,
knocked the Wolverines out of the
By Eric Ambinder
Daily Sports Editor
With 150 meters to go in the finals of
the 1,500-meter race at the NCAA
Mideast Regional, Michigan's Lindsey
Gallo was hot on the heels of Mississippi
State's Tiffany McWilliams.
McWilliams, the NCAA record-holder
in the event is a United States Olympic
hopeful for the upcoming games in
Athens.
An Olympic hopeful.
"I saw (Gallo) running with
(McWilliams)," Michigan women's
track-and-field coach James Henry said.
"I was content. I was pleased. I was sat-
isfied. I thought, 'With 150 meters to go,
she was going to run a great time.' "
Henry didn't expect what happened
next.
"And then all of a sudden she stayed
with (McWilliams) and got closer,"
Henry said. "Then she started chomping
on her tongue and I'm thinking, 'Gosh
- she's going to stay with this girl.' It
wasn't until 20 meters to go (when I
thought), '(Gallo) is going to beat this
kid.' (Gallo) mowed (McWilliams) down,
and I think that kid was surprised."
Gallo won the race with a personal
best 4:11.29, 0.06 seconds shy of the
Michigan record set in 1983 by Sue Fos-
ter. The effort helped the Wolverines fin-
ish third out of 42 teams at the regional
See GALLO, Page 15
A trend.
To a stockbroker, it can be the
ticket to millions of dollars. For the
Michigan baseball team, a trend
meant the end of their search for a
Big Ten Tournament title and a bid
into the NCAA tournament.
One of the season's trends was
the series split. Of Michigan's eight
Big Ten series, three ended in a
split. So when Ohio State faced
Michigan in the teams' second
meeting of the double-elimination
tournament on Saturday, it seemed
appropriate that the trend would
win out. After beating the Buck-
eyes Thursday, Ohio State respond-
ed with a 14-2 victory. The defeat,
double elimination tournament.
Michigan managed to muster only
a pair of hits while committing
four errors in the field against the
Gophers.
After launching a 10-run assault
in the first two innings of the first
contest with Ohio State, the Michi-
gan offense began to lose steam.
Buckeye pitcher Jeffrey Carroll
came in to stop the rally, combing
with two other Ohio State relievers
to keep the Wolverines off the
board after the second inning of
Thursday's 10-4 Michigan victory.
After Thursday's win, Michi-
gan's record was 4-1 against the
Buckeyes. But the Wolverines
worry 'M'
still felt getting win No. 5 wouldn't
come easy.
"I think we were confident as a
team," junior pitcher Ali Husain
said. "But I don't think we took
them lightly or anything. It's still
Michigan-Ohio State."
While the offense struggled, the
pitching was unable to pick up the
slack. With pitchers Drew Taylor
and Bobby Garza injured, the
Wolverines needed the rest of the
staff to pick up the slack. But in
the end, the innings took its toll.
"I want to see my starters do
well and pitch well, but at the same
time, I want to get in there and
pitch," Husain said. "I'm confident
that when I go in there I will pick
up the starters and finish the job
See BIG TENS, Page 14
................
"Don't let your
H A I R
get ahead of ,
you
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