Monday
June 6, 2005
sports.michigandaily.com
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SPORTS
11
Blue falls despite
Taylors dominance , fif:
By Pete Sneider
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan's leadoff man reached
base in six of nine innings. Unfortu-
nately for the Wolverines, in those six
innings only one led to runs.
Missed opportunities and sloppy
base running eliminated Michigan
(42-19) from the NCAA tournament
yesterday with its 4-3 loss to South
Carolina.
The Wolverines, who received an
at-large bid to reach the tournament,
posted a 1-2 record in the Atlanta
Regional. Michigan's sole win came
against Furman, sandwiched between
two losses to South Carolina.
The Gamecocks scored all four of
their runs in the third inning, three by
way of Nick Giesler's two-out home
run to left field. The three-run jack
marred senior Drew Taylor's solid out-
ing - the Wolverine starter allowed
just one hit in his remaining 6 1/3
innings, retiring 14 consecutive batters
at one point.
"In the first two innings, I relied on
my changeup - that's how I got outs,"
Taylor said. "Then they made some
adjustments and started getting hits.
I made an adjustment too and didn't
give up a hit for four innings, but not
before that big home run."
The Michigan offense had plenty
of chances to help out Taylor - 10
hits and three Gamecock errors -
but repeatedly took itself out of an
inning, leaving nine runners on base.
"That's the way it goes some-
times," Taylor said. "You got to give
them credit - they kept us down. We
had chances to score, but you can't
really say what would have happened
if I didn't give up the home run."
In the first inning, junior Chris Getz
got picked off second base with one
out and senior Kyle Bohm at the plate.
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In the next inning, with runners on
first and second and no outs, junior
Mike Schmidt struck out on three
straight pitches. Junior A.J. Scheidt
then grounded into a double play.
In the seventh inning - with run-
ners at the corners, one out and a 3-
1 count to Bohm - sophomore Leif
Mahler was picked off at first. After
Bohm walked, senior Matt But-
ler grounded out to second, ending
Michigan's best shot to come back.
"No question, the second (pick-off)
was huge," coach Rich Maloney said.
"I really felt bad for Mahler - it was
a mental lapse. You don't want that
kind of thing on the mind of any of
your players, but it's inexcusable,
especially in that situation. If you
want to win in tight games, you just
can't do that."
Ironically, all three Michigan runs
came with two outs, despite the afore-
mentioned lack of clutch offense. The
first score came in the bottom of the
third on a two-out single by Mahler,
who batted second in the lineup for
the first time all season. Mahler was
moved up in the order followed two
games in which he batted 5-for-7.
The two other runs came by way of
Scheidt's RBI double in the sixth
inning.
Michigan opened up tournament
play on Friday with a 6-5 loss to
South Carolina. The back-and-forth
game featured five lead changes and
a two-out RBI single by Bohm in
the top of the ninth, tying the game
at five. But in the Gamecock's next
at-bat, first basemen Steve Pearce
knocked a bases-loaded single just
beyond the reach of Getz. The game-
winning hit had the Wolverines one
loss away from elimination.
But Michigan kept itself in con-
tention the next day with a 6-3 vic-
tory over Furman. An RBI double
After allowing four runs in the third inning, senior Drew Taylor settled down, allowing just one hit in the next 6 1/3 innings of work.
by sophomore Brad Roblin in the
bottom of the sixth gave the Wolver-
ines a 4-3 lead. Senior Paul Ham-
mond picked up the win, working 4.1
innings of relief.
Despite the early exit, Maloney
feels the experience is necessary for
an emerging program.
"We didn't play our best, but I'm
happy we got in. We proved that we
deserved to be there. It's also one of
those hurdles that you need to get
over if you want to be a successful
program."
It was Michigan's 18th trip to the
NCAA tournament and its first since
1999.