Michigan
1-1
Rider
0-2
Garza, Wright Highlight Maloney's First Wolverine Victory
2/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Junior RHP Bobby Garza (Southgate, Mich./Anderson HS) pitched the win and fifth-year senior 1B Nate Wright (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew HS) stroked his first career grand slam homer and knocked in five runs as the University of Michigan baseball team topped Rider University 15-1 Sunday morning (Feb. 23) in Memorial Health Diamond Classic action in Grayson Stadium. The win was the first for Rich Maloney as Michigan's head coach and his 257th career victory.
| | Maloney picked up his first victory as U-M's head coach. |
Garza allowed three hits and the run while pitching a career-best 6.2 innings. He recorded four strikeouts in his fourth career win. Garza had a pair of 1-2-3 innings and got out of a mini-jam in the third inning with a bases-loaded strikeout with a 1-0 lead. He left the game in the seventh inning after giving up a two-out home run to Rider catcher David Sokolowski to break up the shutout bid.
Senior RHP Tim Leveque (Northridge, Calif./Crespi HS) retired four in a row with a pair of strikeouts and freshman RHP Derek Feldkamp (Adrian, Mich./Blissfield HS) closed out the win with a scoreless ninth inning in his career debut.
The Wolverines opened the scoring in the second inning vs. the Broncs when the fifth-year seniors contributed as DH Mike Sokol (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle HS) drew a two-out walk and advanced to second on a balk. He scored on a single by Wright for what turned out to be the game-winning RBI.
Michigan used the long ball in the Rider contest with freshman SS Jeremy Goldschmeding (Martin, Mich./Allegan HS) opening the fourth inning with a homer as his first career hit to push the lead to 5-0 and chase Rider starter and losing pitcher Mike Rakoczy (0-1). Senior 2B Jordan Cantalamessa (Castle Rock, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) added a solo homer later in the fourth inning and the rout was on.
The Wolverines added three more runs in the fifth inning with junior catcher Jake Fox (Greenfield, Ind./Indianapolis Cathedral HS) hitting a long homer over the "Bread" sign in left-center as the ball sailed all the way out of Grayson Stadium.
Michigan's six-run seventh inning closed out the scoring for the Wolverines and featured 12 batters, four doubles and Wright's line shot grand slam to left. Georgia native Chris Burhans (Alpharetta, Ga./The Marist School) and Fox hit back-to-back doubles to open the inning, but Burhans was only able to advance to third base. Sokol drew his third walk of the game and second intentional walk to set the stage for Wright's slam.
Freshman 2B A.J. Scheidt (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lasher HS) followed the grand slam with a pinch single to center in his first career at bat and he moved to third as sophomore OF Matt Butler (Lombard, Ill./Driscoll Catholic HS) collected a pinch double in his first appearance of the season. They both scored on infield grounders for the final margin of victory.
Sophomore LHP Drew Taylor (Toronto, Ontario/Upper Canada College), a transfer from Georgia Tech, is slated to start Sunday's second contest against his former teammates as the Wolverines (1-1) faced Georgia Tech (4-0), ranked No. 3 by Sports Weekly/ESPN and No. 1 by Baseball America.
N O T E S
Junior catcher Jake Fox extended his hitting streak to eight games over the past two years, while senior 1B Nate Wright pushed his streak to seven games and junior RF Brandon Roberts (Arlington, Texas/Martin HS) has hits in five straight.
Wright's grand slam was the eighth for the Wolverines in the past three seasons and the first in a neutral-site game since Derek Besco's blast in a 21-11 comeback win over Maine on March 9, 1997, in a game played in Winter Park, Fla. Michigan's previous slam was by former 3B Brandon Jominy vs. Purdue on May 18, 2002, at Fisher Stadium in the final series of the 2002 season.
Fox collected his second straight and 26th career multiple-hit game in the win over Rider.
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Garza, Bobby (1-0)
L: Mike Rakoczy (0-1)
Batting:
HR: David Sokolowski 1
RBI: David Sokolowski 1
Base Running:
RUNS: David Sokolowski 1
HBP: Erinn Pesaresi 1
Batting:
2B: Koman, Brock 1 ; Burhans, Chris 1 ; Fox, Jake 1 ; Sokol, Mike 1 ; Butler, Matt 1
HR: Cantalamessa, Jordan 1 ; Fox, Jake 1 ; Wright, Nate 1 ; Goldschmeding, Jeremy 1
RBI: Lollio, Gino 2 ; Cantalamessa, Jordan 1 ; Rudden, Nick 1 ; Fox, Jake 3 ; Wright, Nate 5 ; Goldschmeding, Jeremy 2
SF: Goldschmeding, Jeremy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Lollio, Gino 1 ; Cantalamessa, Jordan 2 ; Roberts, Brandon 1 ; Burhans, Chris 1 ; Fox, Jake 2 ; Sokol, Mike 3 ; Wright, Nate 1 ; Goldschmeding, Jeremy 1 ; Scheidt, A.J. 1 ; Schmidt, Mike 1 ; Butler, Matt 1
SB: Schmidt, Mike 1
HBP: Coleman, Alex 1 ; Schmidt, Mike 1
PO: Roberts, Brandon 1
