'M' baseball cruises, 14-6

Michigan baseball coach Geoff Zahn was worried about his team being rusty, and with good reason. The Wolverines' past five games were cancelled due to weather, leaving the team with a dangerous idle stretch preceding the beginning of the conference season.

As it turns out, Zahn had little to worry about. The Wolverines showed no signs of sluggishness yesterday, blasting Ball State, 14-6, in their home opener at Fisher Stadium.

Behind a massive 12-run fifth inning, Michigan (6-9-1) got a much-needed victory before beginning the Big Ten season at Illinois this weekend.

NATHAN RUFFER/Daily Left, Michigan shortstop Brian Kalczynski takes a cut yesterday against Ball State. Kalczynski had one hit in five at bats.

"We needed this game big-time, and we played well for not playing for nine days," Zahn said. "We came out and swung the bats, and played pretty well defensively."

It took the Wolverines a while to get their bats going, but starting pitcher Mike Hribernik gave them all the time they needed. The right-hander shut down the Cardinals, allowing just three hits and no runs in five innings. He faced just 16 batters in his appearance, and could have stayed in the game, but Zahn wanted to use the blowout as a chance to prepare more of his pitching staff for this weekend's series with the Illini.

Junior Ryan Kelley took over for Hribernik in the sixth inning and gave up two runs in two innings. He was replaced in the eigthth by Vince Pistilli, who allowed four runs. Freshman Nick Alexander pitched the ninth to close out the game.

"We got good pitching out of Hribernik," Zahn said. "And we got some innings for some guys who haven't been able to pitch. That was big for us."

Another bright spot for the Wolverines was their hitting, which came alive in the bottom of the fifth inning against Ball State pitcher Jamie Spottz. After second baseman Scott Tousa and third baseman Mike Cervenak reached base on singles, Ball State shortstop Brian Dorrmann booted Derek Besco's ground ball, loading the bases.

In the next at bat, Bryan Besco lined the ball up the middle, scoring Tousa and Cervenak and giving the Wolverines a 3-1 lead. Shortstop Brian Kalczynski then singled in Besco, opening the floodgates for a major Wolverine rally.

When it was all over, Michigan had scored 12 runs, capped off by Bryan Besco's three-run homer in his second at bat of the inning.

"We had a pretty good game today," said Tousa, who went 3-for-5 with two RBI. "We finally got some runs on the board, and got to blow somebody out. It feels pretty good."

03-26-98