THE MICHIGAN DAILY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17,1956 THE MICHIGAN DAILY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17,1958 [' Diamondmen Lose 'Close Ones,' nish in Fourth Place in Conference Wrestlers Cop Second Big Ten Crown in Row e inning loss to Indiana in the sea- other teams in the league to help ing the close ones hurts! son's opener hindered the Michi- them. act can be attested to by gan cause. However, it was still a successful h place finish of the Wol- Victories Would Have Helped season with a mark of six victor- aseball squad in Big Ten les against five refeats which was Victories in any of them might a slight improvement over last tade some bad mistakes have changed the picture. year's fifth place finish with a c cost us" commented vet- The Wolverines also had trouble record of 8-7. oach Ray Fisher. "We with the weatherrman. as double- Needed Another Pitcher ave been right up there." headers with second place Ohio Coach Fisher was still looking ing two games to Confer- State and third place Wisconsin for another steady pitcher as the ,mpion Minnesota and one were rained out. Thus, they had no season ended, a basic weakness of o Purdue, all by the mar- direct way to climb higher in the the team. ne run, along with an 11- standings, having to rely on the Because of the shortage of hurl- 5 a. .x; Ih; 5 54 f 4 t Q i {h tit 7 eYv fY f 5k; <'s E4: rr +F f" f ii. b; s" ;t i3s :Ov A 4 yy£ S n a n ?g d u: ax moo? yi *j Go i y2 v :BZ f u a: h ii 1 Of"2 1"Y iK T{:'r ers, outfielder Bruce Fox was drafted for mound duty and turn- ed in a very creditable perform-! ance with a 2-1 r7ecord in Confer- ence competition and a 2.76 earned run average. Don Poloskey and Bill Thurston also turned in 2-1 pitching records with a 3.43 and 4.09 earned run averages, respectively. Tippery Leads Hitters Second baseman Ken Tippery turned in the highest batting av- erage of the regulars with a .379 mark. He was named to the All- Conference second team along! with shortstop Moby Benedict who' was team captain. Tippery has been elected cap- tain for next season. Howie Tommelein led all Big Ten outfielders in fielding as he recorded 36 putouts without an error. The season ended on a high note as the men from Michigan swept a doubleheader from MSU to take the weekend series, two games to one and send the Spartans down to eighth place. No Predictions Although Fisher would make no predictions as to the strength of next year's squad because of the many uncertainties, the outlook is very encouraging. Only one regular, two relief pitchers and a reserve infielder will be lost by graduation. The loss of Captain Moby Benedict at short may leave a hole in the infield which will probably be covered by third baseman Steve Boros. The power of reserve infielder, Frank Ronan's bat will be lost too. Ronan hit .400 while filling in at second and third base. ' Fisher Starts 37th Year Fisher will start his 37th season with almost the same team. How- ever it will have an additional year's experience hehind it. His starting pitchers will all be back, and with one or two men to bolster it, the staff should prove more than adequate. The infield should be strong with Boros, Tippery, Bob Sealby and catcher Gene Snider all re- turning and Tommelein, Fox and All Sigman back for outfield duty. All this coupled with some help from this year's freshman team make next season's outlook very bright. Add to this the experienced coaching eye of Fisher, and assist-, ant Matt Patinelli and you have a combination that, should spell trouble for Big Ten opponents., By ED BERNREUTER MOBY BENEDICT ** graduated star shortstop HEN TIPPERY (Fielding) returning star second baseman Only NCAA Title in '53 Michigan's one and only Nation- al Collegiate Baseball Champion- ship came in 1953 when the Wol- verines upset favored Texas in the final game of the NCAA playoffs, 7-5, to take the title. Although Illinois had tied Mich- igan for the Big Ten crown with a 10-3 record, the Wolverines gain- ed the chance to represent the Conference in the national play- offs because of its two wins in two encounters with the Illini. A top-notch mound staff in- cluding Jack Corbett, Marv Wis- niewski, Dick Yikorsky and Jack Ritter was the prime factor in the Wolverine championship. It was a great relief joi by Rit- ter that actually clinched the ti- tle. With the bases loaded with Texans in the last of the ninth, he came in to save the 7-5 tri- umph by striking out the opposi- tion's leading hitter and inducing the next batter to ground out for the final out. T, Compensating for a season of. disappointing dual meet competi- tion the 1956 Wolverine wrestling squad, in spite of being pre-tour- nament underdogs, batteled to its second straight Big Ten Cham- pionship at host Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. Once again Iowa was strongly favored' to take the title. Once again the Maize and Blue did the impossible and upset the Hawk- eyes, 63-59. "In all my 37 years of wrestling, I have never seen such a tourna- ment where the fellows gave them- selves to the last ounce," com-. mented veteran head coach Cliff Keen, "Everyone wrestled better than he knew how." Story Behind Story The story behind the battle to retain the coveted championship was one of bitter rivalry, shrewd movements, mistakes, and possi- bly a little luck. Entering the meet, the Hawk- eyes had a national champion Dick Govig, at 123 pounds, but he was eliminated on a referee's de- cision in his first bout of the tournament; a Big Ten champion, John Winder, at 157, but he was relegated to fourth place; a sure bet for the 177 pound title was Gary Kurdelmeier, but he was beaten in the final bout by Wol- verine Jack Marchello. However, Michigan did not find it necessary to rely solely on Iowa's bad breaks. Instead, the squad turned the tide several times in its own favor. Deepe Places Third Dan Deepe, rated at best a con- tender for fourth place at 123 pounds, placed third, as he pinned three men along the way. Charlie Anderson, grappling at 130, was not even expected to finish in the running for points-but he deci- sioned two opponents to gain fourth place. Another Wolverine, Frank Hirt, gained an upset decision over top- ranked Bill Muther of Illinois at 137 to take a vital second. Undoubtedly the most exciting match of the entire meet was be- tween Michigan's All-American Mike Rodriguez and Larry Ten- Pas of Illinois for the 157 pound Conference title. This match be- tween team captains was also a matter of personal pride and a grudge match dating back to the 1955 season. SETS AN EXAMPLE-Mike Rodriguez, 157-1b. Big Ten wrestling champion for the past two years, shows how he has been winning points for Michigan. Here he pins his opponent in a regular sea- son match at Yost Field House. Rodriguez finally emerged the winner by a fall in the second pe- riod as each man earned numerous points for reversals and near falls on one another. Marchello Wins Title Marchello's bout with Kurdel- meier was the final and decisive one which gave Michigan the ti- tle. It seemed to everyone but Marchello that the Wolverine title hopes were all but gone. But Marchello fought the battle of his career, winning on points, the decisive one being earned with but ten seconds remaining in the third period of his match-the last of the tourney. This entered the Maize and Blue once again on the record book as Champions of the Western Confer- ence. In preparation for the all-im- portant Conference meet the Wol- verine participated in the Wilkes B a r r e, Pa. Tournament over Christmas vacation, but were forc- ed to accept a second place finish behind Pitt. Lose To Pitt Later in the season Michigan again faced Pitt, however this time in dual meet competition, Pitt proved much too powerful for the inexperienced and injury riddled squad as Michigan's only winner was Frank Hirt at 137 pounds in the 28-5 trouncing. Indiana edged out favored Mich- igan, 19-18, in the season's big. gest disappointment. In this dual meet the Wolverines won ,nore matches than the Hoosiers but could not garner the needed points to win. Another dual meet against Ill4 inois once again found highly rat- ed Michigan on the short end of a 21-16 score. Rodriguez and John McMahon, who later lost a close match for the 167 pound cham- pionship, were the only winning Wolverines. Michigan was ably represented in the post-season NCAA wres- tling tournament by Rodriguez and Marchello as each downed two men to enter the semi-finals only to lose. Rodriguez was forced to forfeit due to a knee injury, while Marchello lost a very close deci- sion. Hirt finished fourth in the 130 pound division. A century ago and quality HEADQUARTERS FOR YOUR CLOTHING NEEDS ::. ;: : : .4 of leadership in Men's Wear that has made them a leading first Suit and Sport Coats: "There are two kinds of coats.' He told us-There are SAFFELL & BUSH Coats-and there are all the others- WASHTLNAW AVl VUE MUNICIPAL PARKING6 L07 AMPUsAST a ,QUAD Michigan lien demanid the FINEST Quality ... I, Whether or not you've been to SAFFELL & BUSH -we can't say. 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