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 IE TA1J3 1 f939' 304 1/2 S. 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