Monday, May 14,2007 1
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
BASEBALL
'M'-Nine suffers setback in Big Ten race
By ANDY REID heals."
Daily Sports Writer Michigan struggled in large part
to a slew of injuries to starters, most
The Michigan baseball team's notably seniors Andrew Hess, Brad
weekend was filled with frustration, Roblin and Eric Rose.
pain and Earlyinthe first game of Sunday's
heartbreak PENN STATE 15 doubleheader, Rose chased a pop fly
- themes MICHIGAN 5 to the warning track from his posi-
that PENN STATE 9 tion in centerfield, crashing into the
haven't MICHIGAN 3 wall in the process. The Blissfield
filtered native came back to the dugout,
into the Wolverines' locker room coughing up blood and was taken to
many times this season. The tough the University Hospital. Michigan
weekend included three losses in a coach Rich Maloney said he didn't
four-game series with Penn State. It know the official diagnosis.
marked the first time that Michigan Rose is just another player in a
lost a Big Ten series in its last 13 tries, string of bruised-and-battered Wol-
a streak dating back to April 2,2006. verines. Roblin, who sustained and
The Wolverines entered the forearm injury against Michigan
weekend with a two-game lead in State two weeks ago that requires
the Big Ten, but they lost ground to a light cast, and Hess, a pitcher
second-place Minnesota, who split who has a sore throwing arm, both
a four-game series with Ohio State missed the weekend series as well.
over the weekend. All three players could be back
The conference regular-season next weekend.
championship will come down to "We don't have a lot of time to
the last weekend of Big Ten play. get healthy," Pickens said. "Guys
Michigan faces off against fourth- are probably going to have to play a
place Iowa and Minnesota plays little hurt."
perennial bottom dweller Indiana. Hess was sorely missed as the
"We're going to go win (at Iowa). Wolverines had to reach deep into
That has to be our mentality going their bullpen to try and replace
in,"junior Doug Pickens said. him. The Nittany Lions scorched
Earlier this season, the series the Michigan pitching rotation
between the Wolverines and the throughout the entire weekend.
Golden Gophers was cancelled due "(Hess) is an outstanding pitch-
to poor weather conditions. er," Maloney said. "He's having a big
"They're an outstanding team," year. It certainly hurt us (to lose him
sophomore Zach Putnam said. "It for the weekend), but we have other
would have been nice to get to play guys that need to step up. Obviously
the guys that are nipping at our that didn't happen this weekend."
Michigan (18-6 Big Ten, 36-13
overall) could have all but wrapped
up a Big Ten title with a strong per-
formance against Penn State, but
the Wolverines struggled through
most of the series.
In the fourth inning of the first
game of Sunday's doubleheader, the
Nittany Lions (17-9,25-23) put on an
offensive clinic: A triple, two dou-
bles, a single and a two-run homer
gave Penn State a comfortable five-
run advantage over Michigan.
The usually high-powered Wol-
verine offense had been silenced
throughout most of the afternoon,
and Penn State's big inning seemed
to awaken the Michigan dugout. A
solid stream of expletives, words
of encouragement and challenges
flowed from the maize and blue
bench after the Wolverines trot-
ted off the field in the middle of the
fourth inning.
The confrontation seemed to
fire up the Michigan lineup, when
Pickens drove in the first run of the
game. The Wolverines eventually
loaded the bases before sophomore
Jason Christian, one of Michigan's
best power hitters, stepped up to
the plate with a chance to tie the
game. But Christian was unable
to answer the call, popping out to
right field to end the inning.
"Beingdown a couple runs puts a
lot of pressure on the batters," Pick-
ens said. "I think we pressed a little
bit, and that was our fault. But you
have to give (Penn State's) pitchers
a lot of credit. They threw well."
straight sets.
Freshman Mike Sroczynski was
up two breaks over Illinois's GD
Jones in the second set, Jones's
experience as a senior and his abil-
ity to slow down the game extend-
ed the match to a third set.
Despite the exit from the tour-
nament, the Wolverines have
proven they can compete with
the nation's top teams. With the
nation's fourth-ranked incoming
class, it wouldn't be surprising if
Michigan has a greater impact in
next year's tournament.
But all the success this season
just makes it harder to endure the
season-ending loss.
"I would trade [my singles win]
for a team win," Heller said of his
career's final match. "I know that
I'm leaving at least knowing I did
what I can do. I guess that's some-
thing that eases the pain."
The Nittany Lion pitchers threw
well enough to preserve a 9-3 win.
Although Sunday's doublehead-
er was marked with misfortune,
Michigan started the series on a hot
streak, taking the first contest 11-5
and holding a 4-0 lead heading into
the sixth inning ofgame two.
Sophomore Mike Wilson, who
had pitched brilliantly to that point,
looked tired in the sixth. The Nit-
tany Lions took advantage and
crushed two home runs, a solo and a
three-run shot, which tied the game
at four, eventually sending it into
extra innings. Penn State notched a
5-4 come-from-behind win.
"It's too bad that we let that one
get away from us," Maloney said.
"The wind just blew that, and their
guys took it out for a three-runjack
and that was the difference. That's
about all you can say about it; you're
not goingto win them all."
I I
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TENNIS
From page 13
square one.
Unlike the service duel earlier
in the match, the winner would be
determined by who found his serve
first.
Unfortunately for Michigan,
Rowe beat Maravic to take the lead
at 4-3. Rowe then delivered the
final blow, breaking Maravic in four
straight points to close out the next
game and the victory for the Illini.
In his final three service games,
Maravic won just two points.
And as Michigan did back in Ann
Arbor in April, Illinois celebrated
on its home court.
"Bruce said this moment would
come some point this year," Mara-
vic said. "I wouldn't think we
would win the national champion-
ship, but we definitely believed we
could beat Illinois today."
Illinois stormed out of the gate
in singles, breaking Michigan's first
service game in four of six matches.
Senior captain Brian Hung, sopho-
more Andrew Mazlin and fresh-
man George Navas didn't have any
answers. All three Wolverines were
taken out in straight sets.
"When you're playing a great
team, you're not going to win
them all, but you still want to put
your best tennis out on the court,"
Michigan coach Bruce Berque
said. "Unfortunately, we had three
courts that didn't play well."
Even with the three losses, the
Wolverines had chances to take
out Illinois for the second time
in three matches this season by
claiming three of six first sets. But
Heller was the only one to take
advantage, beating his opponent in
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