Michigan Captures Big Ten Season Championship

Sunday, May 2

Ann Arbor, Mich.

1:00 PM

Michigan

46-9-1, 18-3

Wisconsin

26-17, 10-8

Wisconsin

Michigan

5/2/1999 12:00:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

By: Amy Carlton

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Alumni Field)
Result: #4 Michigan 7, Wisconsin 4
Records: U-M (46-9-1, 18-3 Big Ten); Wisconsin (26-17, 10-8 Big Ten)
Next U-M Games: Saturday, May 8 -- vs. Indiana (Alumni Field), 1 p.m. DH

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- No. 4-ranked University of Michigan won the 1999 Big Ten Conference softball season championship with a 12-hit, 7-4 victory over the University of Wisconsin Sunday (May 2) at Alumni Field. The newest title, a conference record-setting sixth by the Wolverines, makes Michigan the top seed and host for the May 14-15 Big Ten Softball Tournament.

Michigan (46-9-1, 18-3 Big Ten) capitalized on the three-hit performance of freshman second baseman Kelsey Kollen (Cerritos, Calif./Mater Dei HS) and the two-hit showings by Catherine Davie (Westlake Village, Calif./Westlake HS) and Rebecca Tune (Aloha, Ore./Jesuit HS) to halt Wisconsin's bid at a weekend series sweep. The Badgers (26-17, 10-8 Big Ten) won Saturday's doubleheader with a pair of 3-1 victories.

Wisconsin jumped to a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning when four of the first five batters faced by U-M freshman Kate Eiland (Fresno, Calif./Clovis West HS) either singled or doubled. Wolverine head coach Carol Hutchins inserted Jamie Gillies (Saugus, Calif./Saugus HS), who retired the final two batters in the inning, then went on to allow four hits and a run over five innings of work for the win (16-4). U-M hurler Marie Barda (Darien, Ill./Hinsdale South HS) entered with one out in the sixth and the bases loaded to stop the Badgers and earn her second save of the season.

Michigan took the lead in the bottom of the first, scoring four runs on five hits and a Wisconsin error. U-M tied the game, 3-3, when Davie scored on a wild pitch. Pam Kosanke (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central HS) singled to leftfield to score Stefanie Volpe (Plymouth, Mich./Plymouth Salem HS) for the go-ahead run. U-M added two runs in the second on RBI by Melissa Gentile (O'Fallon, Mo./Wentzville HS) and Kosanke. A run in the bottom of the sixth by Kollen sealed the game and the Big Ten title for the Wolverines.

Wisconsin starter Jennifer Cummings (11-8), chased by the Wolverine hitters in the second inning, took the loss. Ashley Fauser threw the final four and two-thirds innings.

Maize 'n Blue Diamond Gems

• For the second consecutive year and sixth time in the past eight seasons, Michigan softball claimed the Big Ten Conference season championship. All of the Wolverines' conference titles have come in the 1990s and give them the lead in softball titles won by a conference school. . . . The softball conference championship is the sixth league crown won by a Wolverine team in 1998-99 (men's cross country, football, men's gymnastics, women's gymnastics, women's indoor track and field).

• Kelsey Kollen finished the Wisconsin series with back-to-back three-hit games after opening the series hitless in her first four plate appearances. Kollen was 6-for-12 with four runs, one RBI and a stolen base. The two 3-for-4 games were the fourth and fifth three-hit games the freshman has posted against conference opponents.

• Catherine Davie had two hits in each of the three games vs. the Badgers, finishing the series 6-for-12. With her two doubles in the series opener (May 1), Davie moved into a tie with Sara Griffin (1995-98) for the Michigan career doubles record with 58. Classmate Traci Conrad (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way HS), who doubled in her first at-bat in Sunday's title-clinching win, is right behind with 57 career doubles.

Big Ten Softball Standings (through 5/2/99)

 1. MICHIGAN+        18-3    .857
 2. Minnesota        12-7    .632
    Michigan State   12-7    .632
 4. Penn State       13-8    .619
 5. Iowa             11-8    .579
 6. Wisconsin        10-8    .556
 7. Purdue            8-12   .400
 8. Northwestern      7-13   .350
 9. Ohio State        5-16   .238
10. Indiana           3-18   .143
 
+ clinched Big Ten season championship