12 Monday, May 17, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 'M' rallies to clinch series Blue grabs Big Ten title Wolverines win rubber match with Wildcats after falling down 14-0, win in extras By CAITLIN SMITH Daily Sports Writer In the top of the tenth inning Sun- day senior first baseman Mike Dufek launched his sixth home run of the season out of Ray Fisher Stadium. And it couldn't have come at a better time. Dufek's walk-off homer tallied the final run in Michigan's NORTHWESTERN 3 monumental MICHIGAN 41 15-14 come- back victory NORTHWESTERN 10 over North- MICHIGAN 8J western,_ which saw NORTHWESTERN 14 15 unan- MICHIGAN 15 swered runs for the Wolverines. The game started off like a breeze for the Wildcats, as the Wolverines' pitchers walked in the first four runs of the game in the top of the second inning. Northwestern's third baseman Chris Lashmet eventually took advantage of the bases-loaded situ- ation, knocking a grand slam out of the park. The Wolverines were quickly down by eight runs, and things looked grim. Despite cycling through two pitch- ers by the third inning, Northwest- ern still managed to extend its lead to 14 with a six-run rally in the top of the third inning. The initial trio of Michigan pitch- ers - sophomore right-hander Brandon Sinnery, senior lefty Eric Katzman and redshirt freshman lefty Matt Broder - only lasted a combined four innings and allowed 14 runs on 15 hits. But the Wolverines clawed back into the game, scoring often from the third inning on. Down 14-12 in the bottom of the ninth, Michigan was down to its last out. Junior leftfielder Ryan LaMarre had just sent a long ball to center field, falling just short of a home run. But senior catcher Chris Berset came up big, keeping the Wolverines alive by launching a home run over the centerfield fence and sending the game to extra innings. Then came Dufek's game-winner. "He threw me a changeup first pitch," Dufek said. "I took a great big Junior Ryan LaMarre celebrates with coach R swing, I swung through it actually. I was thinking he might come back with it again, so I moved up in the box so I could get it before it really broke down. "He did it again and I guessed right. I got a pretty good piece of it. I knew it was gone right after the bat. It was great." Going into this weekend's series, the Wolverines were in a four-way tie for first in the Big Ten with North- western, Purdue and Minnesota. "This is one you'll never forget for the rest of your life." And at the start of the weekend, Michigan showed it was worthy of its lofty spot. On Friday, LaMarre led the Wolverines offensively to a 4-3 win with two hits, two runs and two RBI - one of which brought in freshman centerfielder Patrick Biondi in the bottom of the seventh inning to put Michigan up by the deciding run. On Saturday, 10 runs on 18 Wild- cat hits marred Michigan's 10-8 loss - and its chance for another huge TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daiy Irh Maloney after Sunday's victory. comeback win. Going into the sixth inning, the Wolverines were down 7-2. After Toth began the inning by popping out to first base, LaMarre launched his fourth home run of the season. Berset and sophomore designated hitter Coley Crank followed suit to mark the season's first back-to-back- to-back home runs. The Wolverines' hot hitting con- tinued, as seven straight hitters reached base. The six-run rally brought Michi- gan out of the hole and into the lead. But the eighth inning proved to be trouble for the Wolverines. North- western had a comeback of its own, scoring three runs on four consecu- tive hits off junior right-hander Tyler Burgoon. Michigan had a chance to answer with the bases loaded for Crank, but he struck out to end the threat. Although the Wolverines were able to take just one of their two comeback attempts on the weekend, they showed they have the necessary heart to win a conference crown. "This is one you'll never forget for the rest of your life," Maloney said. "Even though it didn't win a cham- pionship, it's (amazing) just to win a game when you are down 14 to noth- ing. "We will go back to the drawing board and keep working, but what a victory it was for today." Michigan sweeps Iowa in final series to clinch third straight regular season crown By ALEX HERMANN Daily Sports Writer This weekend's series at Iowa marked several important firsts for the No. 2 Michigan softball team. It was the first time in history a Wolverine pitcher has MICHIGAN 8 reached IOWA 2 the 20-win _ mark in MICHIGAN 6 four differ- IOWA 0 ent seasons as well as the first time a Big Ten pro- gram has won back-to-back-to-back conference championships as Michi- gan defeated the Hawkeyes 8-2 on Friday and 6-0 on Saturday. The Wolverines' Big Ten title, secured after their first win on Fri- day, is the program's 13th, leading all conference teams. "Just winning this third one, especially the third one, because it's never been done before(has been the most significant for me)," sophomore second baseman Amanda Chidester said. The second milestone - senior pitcher Nikki Nemitz's fourth twen- ty-win season - couldn't have come at a more opportune time: Saturday was the lefty's birthday. "It's a great honor to be able to leave my mark on such a prestigious university and be among the greats that Michigan's had ," Nemitz said. "To be honest, you can't really do anything without your team because I can't score and can't play defense all by myself." But just as she has all season, Nemitz did help her pitching effort by providing some run support at the plate. She backed up her one- hit, complete-game shutout by going 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI. The offense also got a boost from Chidester, with three RBI on the weekend while extending her hit streak to seven games after having mild struggles earlier in the year at the plate. "It's coming down to the end of the season, and I've been working at it and my team has been support- ive throughout my whole slump," Chidester said. "The coaches and everyone never gave up on me and it was just time for me to ... just do it, I guess. "And now it's just about having fun and I'm not stressing anymore about it." Friday's game was a little bit of an oddball for the Wolverines. Though Michigan only had four hits on the day, Iowa pitchers gave Michigan batters 17 free bases on 11 walks and six hit-by-pitches which the Wolverines capitalized on with eight runs. "The key stat in softball on offense is on-base percentage - you don't score runs if you're not on base, you can't, " Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "We found ways to win. Sometimes we hit home runs, sometimes we throw perfect games. In this case we used on-base per- centage." But one normality on Saturday was junior pitcher Jordan Taylor's performance on the mound against the Hawkeyes (10-9 Big Ten, 25-23 overall). Taylor struck out 14 batters in 25 at-bats and gave up just two runs and "You have to just stay relentless.. to just attack the other team." four hits en route to her 24th victory of the year. The Valencia, California native leads the Big Ten with 278 strikeouts on the year, 60 more than her closest rival. Now the Wolverines (18-1, 46-6) will look ahead to obtaining their ultimate goal, a Women's College World Series appearance and a national championship, beginning with the NCAA regionals next week- end. Hutchins said that she wished to see her team play similar to the Con- necticut women's basketball team, which won its second consecutive national championship this past sea- son as part of its 78-game winning streak, an NCAA record. "You just have to stay relentless," Hutchins said. "You have to just attack the other team. You can't get on your heels when things don't go your way. And things have been a little tougher for us - we've had to grind out victories as of late. "And I think that's been good for us because we have to trust that we can win even if we're not hitting well because we pitch well, and if we're not pitching well we can hit well."