Softball rivalry not so big with State

Traci Conrad has been hearing stories about them ever since she joined the Michigan softball team. They're the arch-rivals everyone loves to hate.

But they won't be on the Wolverines' minds today as they ride the bus - and a 16-game winning streak - to East Lansing for a doubleheader with Michigan State.

Wait a minute. Michigan playing Michigan State, and no thoughts of the big rivals seethe in the Wolverines' minds?

For Michigan, the Spartans just "aren't as big as some other teams in the Big Ten," said Traci Conrad, who plays first base for Michigan.

So which teams are bigger? The school every Michigan fan loves to hate, Ohio State?

JOHN KRAFT/Daily The Michigan softball team will need some follow-through, and not just from Tammy Mika, above, today when it faces Michigan State twice in East Lansing. The Wolverines haven't lost a Big Ten game in more than a year.

Surprisingly, no.

Iowa.

Wait a minute. The Hawkeyes?

"I can't even tell you when it started," Conrad said, adding that "things have happened."

"Things that weren't good, let's put it that way."

Although Michigan's star pitcher, Sara Griffin, suffered a season-ending injury against the Hawkeyes last year, Conrad said the rivalry has nothing to do with the sidelining of her roommate.

But Iowa and the rivalry will be three states away as the Wolverines take the next step towards securing bragging rights in their own backyard.

Conrad characterized the mood of the team: "We've already beat Central, so let's take care of State."

And if the Wolverines, riding high on their 34-3 record, want to "take care of" the Spartans, they'll once again rely on the golden arm of Griffin.

The senior's victory total is at 21 and counting, and she has yet to suffer a loss this season.

But she'll have to contend with the size-.349 bat of Michigan State's Margaret Hollis, along with the rest of the Spartans' lineup, to extend Michigan's streak.

A victory in today's first game would also extend Michigan's Big Ten winning streak to 25, and take the streak past the one-year mark as well. The Wolverines' last conference loss came on April 13, 1997, in a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Northwestern.

But streaks rarely weigh on the minds of the athletes who create them. As Conrad - Michigan's top hitter - put it, today's game should be "another day, another game of softball."

Maybe for the No. 2 team in all the land. But for a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team like Michigan State, this could be a chance to turn around a so-so season. And, Conrad said, "teams get up for us."

Who wouldn't get excited at the chance to knock off an in-state rival, and one of the nation's top team to

04-14-98