Gentile lost for entire '99 season

Second back surgery in four years silences biggest bat in 'M' lineup

For Melissa Gentile, softball season ended seven months early.

The Michigan catcher didn't know it at the time, but when she awoke on Nov. 6 last year, she could feel it. Her back, which she had coaxed through two seasons, was worse than ever.

Following surgery at the University Hospitals, her doctors told her she would miss the entire 1999 softball season.

"Anytime you lose 60 RBIs, 20 home runs, it's just a blow," Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said. "If every kid on the team picks up 40 points, we'll make that up. Almost."

JOSH KLEINBAUM/Daily Michigan catcher Melissa Gentile will miss the entire 1999 softball season as she rehabs two herniated disks.

Gentile had played through the pain for two seasons. Her back hurt worst when she would swing and miss, giving her more than ample motivation to connect. She was playing on borrowed time.

And last fall, for one reason or another, her time came.

"I don't know, maybe I slept wrong and I triggered it," Gentile said. "It's like a sharp pain, from my back down my legs, down to my feet. Before the surgery, I had a numbness and tingling in my feet."

She couldn't turn her upper body after that, and an MRI revealed she had two herniated disks, and bulges above and below those, Gentile said.

So to save her senior season, she had to sacrifice this one.

With a canyon in the batting order, Hutchins has not decided on her new cleanup hitter. Almost the entire order will need reshuffling to click without Gentile.

"There's no doubt she's a tremendous loss to Michigan," Iowa coach Gayle Blevins said. "A player like Skeeter makes eeryone better around her."

"The best kids do."

Hutchins said Traci Conrad was a likely candidate to move to third, and Tammy Mika or Pam Kosanke might bat fourth and fifth. Freshman Kelsey Kollen might be asked to bat leadoff.

Replacing Gentile behind the plate will be sophomore Kim Bugel.

"I've been really pleased with her. She has good instincts, she runs the field well. A catcher's like your captain out there, they tell everybody what to do, and she's got really good game instincts."

OK, Bugel will play catcher. But no one is asking her to replace the catcher called Skeeter.

"You don't replace Skeeter, Hutchins said. "There's only one Skeeter."

02-03-99