THE MICHIGAN DAILY

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1954

inksters,Baseball Team Slip from 1953Jin

ishe


>lfers Drop to Ninth Place'
ith Inexperienced Squad

By JACK HORWITZ
We're building for the future,"
d Coach Bert Katzenmeyer,
aking of the 1954 edition of the
chigan golf squad, which started
season with three untried soph-
ores and three veterans and
shed with three experienced
fers and great prospects for the
:t season.
he Wolverines finished ninth in
Western Conference champion-
ps after winning seven and los-
nine during the dual meet
son.
,atzenmeyer started the season
i Captain Jack Stumpfig play-
the number one position and
McMasters, a young sopho-
re from Detroit, playing in the
nber two slot. Andy Andrews, a
Lor from Midland, took over the
'd spot with Tad Stanford,Chuck
ckett, and Dick Harrison play-
the fourth, fifth, and sixth po-
on, respectively.
'he team took its usual spring
to Pinecrest, North Carolina,
Ing the spring recess and played
pre-season matches with Duke
. North Carolina.The Wolverines
pped the first match to North
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Carolina, 191/2 to 72, and fared
poorly with Duke, iosing t h a t
match, 221/2-42.
Start Dual Meet Season
The Maize and Blue returned
home to start the dual meet season
but found several days of inclement
weather hindering their practice
opportunities. They opened the
home season with a match against
the University of Detroit, dump-
ing the Titans 23-13. Stumpfig
paced the team with a three over
par, 147, to capture medalist hon-
ors for the meet.
After the Detroit meet, the Wol-
verines swung right into the Con-
ference season. The linksters trav-
eled to Columbus, dhio, for a tri-
angular meet with Ohio State,
Indiana, and Purdue. With unex-
expected suprise, the Michigan
linksmen were set down at the
hands of Ohio State, 32.5-3.5, and
Purdue, 24-12, and could only sal-
vage a 23-13 win over Indiana.
The Wolverines continued their
tour, dropping matches to Ohio
State, 24-12, and Purdue, 27-9,
while picking up a win from Illi-
nois, 19-17. The following week the
linksters journeyed to Bloomington
hoping for a repeat win over In-
diana. The Hoosiers had different
ideas, however, and proceeded to
trounce the Maize and Blue, 20-16.
The Wolverines returned home
with disheartening looks on their
faces. Katzenmeyer was quoted as
saying, "With luck we'll finish'
third." He was overly optimistic.
Lose Again to Purdue
The first home conference match
provided the golfers with the op-
portunity to meet Purdue for third
straight week. Purdue was now
rated a co-favorite with Ohio State

BERT KATZENMEYER
.. .looking forward to 1955
for the Big Ten title. Michigan
almost proved the forecasters
wrong as they were just edged out
by the Boilermakers, 19-17. In the
same match, Katzenmeyer's charg-
es downed Northwestern, 21.5-14.5.
The following Saturday the Wol-
verines were again facing the fa-
vorites, this time meeting Ohio
State. In this meet, they again
split, losing to the Buckeyes, 28-8,
and beating Michigan State, 21-15.
After the two week home stand,
Michigan again took to the road,
traveling to East Lansing to de-
feat the Spartains, 19-17. They
wound up the season dumping the
University of Detroit, 18.5-8.5, on
Detroit's Red Run Country Club
course.
Ninth in Conference
A week after the final dual meet,
the Wolverines entrained for Minne-
apolis to compete in the Western
Conference championships. They
played 36 holes for two consecu-
tive days only to finish a disap-
pointing ninth with a 1582 aggre-
gate total. Ohio State captured the
title with a 1521 score with Iowa

and Minnesota pulled a startling
surprise finish for the second and
third spots, respectively. Purdue
finished a poor fourth, 34 strokes
behind the leaders.
Andrews posted a 312 to lead
the individual Michigan scoring,
14 strokes behind Purdue's Bob
Benning who was declared the Con-
ference Individual Champion.
Prospects Bright
The Maize and Blue prospects
for the coming season are bright.
Four returning lettermen will be
the nucleus of the team with the
remaining two positions open to a
large group of freshmen who have
been under the watchful eye of
assistant coach Rod Grambeau. Of
these Henry Loeb is perhaps the
brightest propect. Loeb defeated
Harvie Ward, Jr., in the Western
Open last year and should play in
either the number one or two slots
this season.
Katzenmeyer will have McMast-
ers, Andrews, Blackett, and Harri-
son back for the 1955 season.
Blackett, a local product, has
shown he can produce some fine
golf under pressure and should be
a great aid to the team. McMas-
ters, already a seasoned golfer, has
another year of experience and
should be the mainstay of the golf
squad. With Andrews fine show-
ing in the conference champion-
ships, he will be counted upon
heavily to bolster the team.
DID YOU KNOW ... that the
first sport to be officially recog-
nized by the Michigan authorities
was cricket. In 1865, the Board of
Regents gave $50 for the care of
a cricket field. The next year the
amount was raised to $100. The
Pioneer Club, which consisted of
eight officers and 25 men, had
been formed in 1860. Previous to
recognition by the Regents, they
had played their games on State
Street in Ann Arbor.

'M' Nine Falls
After Winnin
' By CORKY SMITH
Weakened by the loss of several
key players thrugh graduation and
major league offers, Michigan's
baseball team fell from first place
in the nation to a tie for third
in the Big Ten.
Missing three-quarters of the in-
field that paced the Wolverines to
the 1953 NCAA title and playing
without sensational Reno Bertoia
in the infield, Ray Fisher's nine
lacked the hitting punch that was
needed to repeat as a champion-
ship team.
Though possessing a respectable
overall season's record of 22 vic-
tories as against only nine losses,
five of the defeats were suffered
in Big Ten play to place Michigan
.tied for third place with Ohio-State
in the standings, trailing Michigan
State and Wisconsin.
The Spartans, who ended the
campaign with an 11-2 conference
record,took two of three crucial
games from the Wolverines in the
last week of the season to win
the title.
Gone from the 1953 squad were
first baseman Bill Mogk, second-
sacker Gil Sabuco, and All-Amer-
ican shortstop Bruce ~aynam.
Missing too was Bertoia, who was
lured away from Ferry Field by
a nice bonus offer from the De-
troit Tigers.
Five Returning Regulars
Coach Fisher, who next spring
will begin his 35th year at the
helm, was forced to mold his
squad around five returning regu-
lars, Third baseman Don Eaddy,
lone infield returnee, led the team
with a .322 batting average but
could not make up for the lost
scoring punch.
In addition to tallying 28 runs him
self, he collected 38 base hits, tops
for the team in that department
as well. A heads-up base-runner,
Eaddy headed the stolen bases de-
partment with 12.
Paul Lepley, Michigan's out-
standing outfielder in 1953, hit a
t

to Third Slot'
g NCAA Title
respectable .281 in Big Ten com-
petition last season, but still fell
more than a 100 points from his
.396 mark of the previous cam-
paign. Lepley, .though only ?a jun-
ior last season, has decided to
pass up his last year of eligibil-
ity and has signed with a major
league team.
Senior Dick Leach, Michigan's'
catcher for the past three years,.
provided superb protection at the
plate and threw out almost two
dozen runners on the base paths.
His timely hitting and expert re-
ceiving will be sorely missed next
season.
Cline to Captain Squad
Captain-elect for this coming
year, Danny Cline, center-fielder,
had a very good year, winding up
with a .301 batting average. His
sharp eye enabled him to draw
many bases on balls from oppos-
ing pitchers and he tallied 18 times
during the season. In the field,
he made only one error in 29
games.
Disproving the theory "jack-of-
all-trades, master of none," last
year's captain Jack C o r b e t t
pitched, played. first base, and
roamed the outfield, all with amaz-
ing success. As a hurler, he com-
piled a 4-0 Big Ten record, tops
for the club. As a first baseman'
he compiled a .982 fielding average.
As a hitter he batted a hefty .321
for the year, was credited with
21 runs batted in, and hit safely
34 times.
While Fisher was relatively
short-handed when it came to ex-
perienced fielders, his pitching
staff was figured to be about the
best to be had. Along with Corbett
were returning veterans Jack Rit-
ter, Marv Wisniewski, Garby Tad-
ian, and Bob Woschitz.
Sophomore Prospects
In addition to these holdovers
from the 1953 championship squad
were two newcomers, Dick Peter-
john and Marc Ferrelli, both of
whom had shown great promise as
freshmen.

RAY FISHER
... diamond sage

,
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However the pitching staff as
a whole failed to live up to pre-
season expectation and was not
able to overcome the failure of the
Michigan hiters to produce as
they had done the year before.
While the Wolverine pitching
was not consistently good, it was
certainly not what one might con-
sider poor. In racking up a total
of 22 victories as against only
nine defeats, the Maize and Blue
hurlers turned in many masterful
showings.4
In the strikeout department,
Michigan pitchers seemed to shine.
Leading the mound corps in strike
outs was Ritter, who whiffed 68
batters in 64 innings as he com-
piled a five won and three lost
record.
Ritter, who along with Wisniew-
ski will be back next season,came
within two strikeouts of a Big
Ten record when he set 16 Purdue
hitters down via the strikeout route
in one game.
Wisniewski, who like Ritter is
a southpaw, struck out 64 hitters
in 75 innings while compiling a
6-3 record for the year.
Though finishing the season with
an unimpressive 2-3 record, Peter-
john proved that he has the abil-
ity to be a winning pitcher. The
six-foot left-hander fanned 46 bats-
men in 37 frames while allowing

only 19 hits and eight runs in the
10 games he worked.
Ferrelli, while not given a real
chance to prove him~self, did per-
form well in the five games in
which he appeared. In the 11
frames he hurled, he set down
10 batters on strikes and was
credited with a victory.
A third sophoniore, Mike Bel-
lows, won the only game in which
he pitched. He, along with Peter-
john and Ferrelli, should see a
great deal of action in the 1955
season.
With the graduation of Haynam
and his keystone partner Sabuco,
Fisher had to rely on a pair of
sophomores, Moby Benedict and
Frank Ronan, to fill the hole.
While the duo committed a total
of 23 errors between them, they
still managed to come up with
more than a dozen double plays.
With a year of experience under
their belts, Benedict and Ronan
should provide the Wolverines -
with a strong second base combin-
ation this coming season.
The only newcomer to the outer
gardens was left-fielder Howie
Tommelein. A left handed batter,
Tommelein knocked out 20 safeties
including four doubles. His 16 runs
batted in placed him fourth among
Michigan batters.
The Brighter Side
Looking at the brighter side of
the season, a Michigan fan can
point to the 22 victories, 10 of
which did come in conference play.
Included among the Wolverine ac-
complishments was an extremely
successful spring tour, which found
Michigan defeating some of the
finest teams in the east and south.
Throughout the . course of the
season, 16 home runs were belted
by Michigan players. Eaddy led
the. team with four, followed by ,
Lepley with three, and Cline and
Leach, two each.
With only a few seniors leaving
the team, the Wolverines should
a field a strong, experienced base-
ball squad in 1954. Powered by
the hitting of Eaddy, Branoff, and
Cline along witht he pitching of
Ritter, Wisniewski, Peterjohn, and
Ferrelli, Coach Fisher's diamond-'
men stand an excellent chance of
bringing the Big Ten title back to
Ann Arbor again next spring.

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GOLF CLUBS-j
BRUNSWICK BOWLING
BALLS -BAGS -SHOES
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