Oklahoma lookin' OK for 'M'

One thing missing from Oklahoma City might be the huge hometown crowd that cheered the Wolverines on at the NCAA Regionals this past weekend.

But that might be OK with them.

Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said that the Alumni Field record crowd of 1,452 made her team a little nervous this weekend.

What wouldn't be OK, though, is for the Wolverines to think that simply making it to the Women's College World Series is OK.

"We're not gonna focus on the World Series this year, we're gonna focus on softball," Hutchins said.

JOSH KLEINBAUM/Daily Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins said that the No.1 thing for the Wolverines to focus on is softball, not the pageantry of the Women's College World Series.

That's a tall order for most teams, but maybe this group of seniors - a group that's never missed the World Series - will be the one to do it. No member of this team has ever finished her season in a place other than Oklahoma.

Except the freshmen.

Marie Barda, Kim Bugel, Chrissy Garza, Courtney Murdock, Melissa Taylor and Rebecca Tune might need to be shaded from the spotlight. And maybe the experience on the team can keep the stars out of all their eyes (not just the freshmen's) and their minds on softball.

Sara Griffin, the self-proclaimed "old grandma" of the team, could be just the one.

Griffin, who likes to lose about as much as a seven-year-old likes to take a bath, said that even when she was a freshman, she wasn't 'just happy to be there.'

She wanted more, and she was denied three times. Last year, it was due to a fracture in her left (non-pitching) arm.

But this year, she's healthy and ready to take her last stab at the title.

After their win yesterday, the Wolverines stood around Alumni Field, between the lockerroom and the field, chatting with parents and friends. They basked in the mid-afternoon sunlight and the satisfaction of a job well done.

But their job's not done.

Hutchins likes to compare her team's task this season to, appropriately enough, rounding the basepaths.

And Oklahoma is where the glory basepaths of glory end. Home plate is only sixty metaphorical feet away.

And reaching it to give Michigan its first national championship in school history?

That would be, well, OK.

05-18-98