Michigan
Michigan State
Parrish Pounds Spartans, Helps U-M Sweep Twinbill
5/1/1999 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Site:Â Ann Arbor, Mich. (Ray Fisher Stadium)
Score:Â Michigan 12, Michigan State 3; Michigan 9, Michigan State 8
Records:Â U-M (24-20, 11-8 Big Ten), MSU (24-19, 7-11 Big Ten)
Next U-M Game:Â Sunday, May 2 -- at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.), 1 p.m.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Sophomore catcher David Parrish (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza HS) went 7-for-8 and hit three homers to pace the University of Michigan baseball team to 12-3, 9-8 doubleheader sweep of Michigan State Saturday (May 1) at Ray Fisher Stadium. The sweep moves the Wolverines (24-20, 11-8 Big Ten) into third place in the league standings, while Michigan State (24-19, 7-11 Big Ten) is now tied for sixth with Penn State.
Parrish collected two doubles and three homers and drove in eight runs in the doubleheader. He jumped his batting average from .261 to .303 and doubled his 1999 home run output, from three to six.
In the opener, junior/sophomore RHP Bryce Ralston (Tacoma, Wash./Curtis HS) collected his sixth win of the season and improved to 4-0 in Big Ten play with a career-high nine strikeouts. Sophomore RHP Vince Pistilli (Highland, Ind./Highland HS) notched his third win of the season in the second game of the doubleheader but needed relief help from freshman RHP Bobby Korecky (Saline, Mich./Saline HS). Korecky worked the final 1.1 innings to earn his fifth save of the season.
Senior DH Dan Sanborn (Grand Ledge, Mich./Grand Ledge HS) opened the scoring in the opener with a first-inning solo homer to the right of the hitting backdrop in centerfield and Parrish made it 3-0 with his first homer of the day, in the third inning.
MSU scored once in the third and twice in the fifth off Ralston, but only one of the runs was earned as Ralston dropped his ERA to 3.79, second-best on the squad behind senior RHP J.J. Putz (Trenton, Mich./Trenton HS), who leads with a 3.72 mark.
MSU starter Dan Horvath walked the leadoff man in the fifth inning and that was his final batter, but he was tagged with the loss when the Wolverine erupted for six runs. Parrish earned the "gamer" in the opener with his bases-loaded double that snapped the 3-3 tie. Later in the fifth inning, co-captain Bobby Scales (Roswell, Ga./Milton HS) launched a three-run homer. moving the lead to 9-3.
The Wolverines closed out the scoring in the sixth as Rob Bobeda (DeWitt, Mich./DeWitt HS) hit a two-out, run-scoring double which allowed Parrish to bat for a fourth time. Parrish hit his second homer of the game, setting U-M season highs for RBIs (6) and total bases (12).
In the second game, Parrish hit a homer, a run-scoring double and single to give him a 7-for-7 day and a streak of nine consecutive hits before flying out to end the sixth inning. Parrish is 10-for-12, (.833) in his last three games: 3-for-4 vs. Notre Dame, 4-for-4 and 3-for-4 vs. MSU.
Michigan's four-run fifth inning was the difference in the game, with veterans Scales (two-run single) and Jason Alcaraz (Albuquerque, N.M./Eldorado HS) (RBI single) collecting two-out hits to push the margin to 9-3.
Michigan survived the five-run Spartan sixth which was highlighted by junior catcher Joe Kalczynski's three-run homer. Kalczysnki's brother, Brian, was Michigan's MVP in 1997 and captain in 1998.
Michigan closes out the weekend series with a single game at MSU Sunday (May 2, 1 p.m.) and plays non-conference games at Ball State (Tuesday, May 4) and at Eastern Michigan (Thursday, May 6) before returning home with a rare Saturday-Monday Big Ten series with Indiana (May 8-10).
NOTES
• Career hit update: Senior 3B Mike Cervenak (New Boston, Mich./Dearborn Divine Child HS) collected one hit vs. MSU on Saturday and moved within three hits of Ken Hayward's all-time Wolverine record of 267 hits. Meanwhile, RF Jason Alcaraz had three hits and moved his total to 246 hits. He is fourth, just eight hits behind Jim Paciorek (254 hits, 1979-82).
• The newest member of the top 10 is 2B Bobby Scales. With four hits Saturday, Scales now has 198 hits and moved passed All-America 2B Jeff Jacobson (197 hits, 1980-83) into 10th place. He is one hit shy of Rod Goble (199 hits, 1992-95) and two hits shy of becoming the ninth Wolverine to collect 200 hits.
• Cervenak's lone hit vs. MSU on Saturday was a double, his 55th career two-bagger, which adds to his U-M career record. He also added six at-bats to his U-M career record, which stands at 748.
• Senior 1B Bryan Besco's (Westland, Mich./John Glenn HS) two-out, run-scoring triple snapped a 2-2 tie in game two of Saturday's twinbill. Besco's game-winning RBI was his second of the series and 12th of his career.
• Senior CF Brian Bush (Warren, Ohio/Howland HS) went 0-for-4 in the opener Saturday to snap his career-best hitting streak at 14 games.
