Whatever her name, she still torches 'Cats for 7 RBI

Almost everyone calls her Skeeter, but after this weekend, opposing pitchers might have other names they'd like to call her.

Michigan catcher Melissa Gentile (that's the name on her drivers' license, anyway) has been hitting the softball with dead-eye accuracy, and if she hadn't made a name for herself yet, she has now.

Her 5-for-9 performance in this past weekend's series against Northwestern, which included her eighth and ninth homeruns of the season pleased, among others, her coach, Carol Hutchins.

The hot-hitting sophomore capped off her weekend with a two-run blast in yesterday's 5-4 squeaker over Northwestern. But she was just cooling down. She called Saturday her own, with five RBI including the game winner in the second game.

Hutchins joked after that game, "I'm mad at her," but if anyone was mad, it was probably Northwestern pitcher Jackie DeBoard, whose offerings Gentile feasted upon in every game.

LOUIS BROWN/Daily Melissa Gentile pounded seven RBI out of Northwestern's softball team this weekend, including three on homers.

Even in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, when McBoard struck out five Wolverines and allowed only two hits, Gentile found a way to get to her, as she sent DeBoard's pitch over the right-field fence for the only run in Michigan's 1-0 victory.

This came on the heels of a game in which Gentile simply fired away at everything the Northwestern pitching staff offered.

She started the blaze with her first-inning single to right, which scored Kellyn Tate, and then scored a run herself.

In the second, she came back, but she and her teammates had already chased DeBoard from the pitching circle.

When Gentile stepped to the plate in the second, Brooke Siebel became her next target.

Different pitcher, same result. Gentile singled in a run again, this time to left field.

But she wasn't finished yet.

In the third, Gentile came to the plate for the third innning in a row. This time, the bases were loaded.

The shot she sent deep was no clay pigeon. It came within six feet of a grand slam, as her deep fly ball bounced off of the 'Big Ten Champions' sign in centerfield. Gentile had to settle for a two-RBI double.

Gentile only went 1-for-3 in the nightcap, but her approach had just changed from quantity to quality.

Hutchins called her star behind the plate "a hard out."

And it's hard to get someone out if they feel as comfortable behind the plate as Gentile did on Saturday.

"It comes with confidence," Gentile said. "I was seeing the ball well."

And seeing's believeing, especially for her latest victims - the Wildcats.

04-20-98