Koman, Sokol Back Penn's Pitching Against Northwestern

Friday, May 9

Ann Arbor, Mich.

3:00 PM

Michigan

26-20, 13-10

Northwestern

23-18, 13-10

Northwestern

Michigan

Koman, Sokol Back Penn's Pitching Against Northwestern

5/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Senior third baseman Brock Koman (Pueblo, Colo./South HS) knocked in the game-winner, fifth-year senior 1B Mike Sokol (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle HS) collected four hits and sophomore RHP Michael Penn (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Christian HS) pitched his first nine-inning complete game as Michigan topped Northwestern 9-3 in Big Ten baseball action Friday (May 9) at Ray Fisher Stadium.

The win for Michigan (26-20, 13-10 Big Ten) was the first series-opening win for the Wolverines this season and pulled them into a tie for third place in the standings with Northwestern (23-18, 13-10 Big Ten). The Wolverines are 1-4 on Fridays in conference play and 1-6 in the first games of weekend series.

Penn (2-7) started slowly, allowing all three runs and half of Northwestern's game total of six hits in the top of the first inning . NU 3B Mark Ori singled with one out and moved to third on a double by CF David Gresky. Sophomore SS Jon Mikrut gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly and 1B Travis Tharp blasted a homer, his fourth of the season, to right to make the score 3-0 after just five batters.

Penn recovered, however, allowing just three more singles in the next 8.1 innings to record his second win and his second complete game. He had four 1-2-3 innings and two other innings in which he faced the minimum three batters with the defense turning doubles plays behind him. Penn allowed just four baserunners -- three singles and a walk -- in the last 27 batters he faced.

The Wolverine defense sparkled behind Penn, led by senior LF Jordan Cantalamessa (Castle Rock, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) with two top-notch catches in the third inning with the tying run on second base, and Koman started a double play and made a backhand play by the bag at third. Sokol had 14 putouts at first base to go with his four hits.

Senior CF Gino Lollio (Cape Coral, Fla./Mariner HS) hammered a double to left-center to open the bottom of the first as NU CF Gresky made a great fielding attempt to get his glove on the ball. Lollio, who has reached base leading off seven consecutive Big Ten games, moved to third on a grounder by sophomore SS Nick Rudden (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) and scored as Koman lined a single to center. Rudden had seven assists at shortstop.

The Wolverines scored three times to take the lead for good in the second inning as freshman 2B A.J. Scheidt (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lahser HS) singled and moved to third on a double off the wall in right by sophomore RF Matt Butler (Lombard, Ill./Driscoll Catholic HS). Lollio knocked in the second run of the game for the Wolverines with his grounder to first that was misplayed for an error, and Rudden's slow roller to third scored Butler with the tying run as Lollio advanced to second. Koman sent a liner to left-center to score Lollio with the eventual game-winning run. Koman leads the team with 52 RBI, and the gamer was his third of the season.

The Wolverines scored solo runs in the fourth on a Lollio RBI single and again in the fifth as junior catcher Jake Fox (Greenfield, Ind./Indianapolis Cathedral HS) doubled and scored on a Sokol single. Michigan added two runs in the sixth inning as Rudden reached on an error, scored on a single by Fox and Sokol followed with a run-scoring double.

Sokol led the offense with four of Michigan's 14 hits, while Lollio, Koman, Fox and Scheidt each had two hits and Scheidt scored three times.

The Wolverines continue the weekend series with a Big Ten doubleheader with Northwestern Saturday (May 10, 1 p.m.) with sophomore LHP Drew Taylor (Toronto, Ontario/Upper Canada) at 6-1 with a 4.86 ERA and junior RHP Bobby Garza (Southgate, Mich./Anderson HS) at 5-1 with a 4.85 ERA listed as the probable U-M starters.

N O T E S

In other Big Ten action Friday, Penn State topped Illinois 4-1, Ohio State beat Michigan State 3-2, and Minnesota collected an 8-7 win at Iowa. Purdue is playing at Indiana in a series that runs Saturday through Monday.

Big Ten Standings (after Friday's games)

 1. Minnesota 20-3 .870 2. Ohio State 16-9 .640 3. MICHIGAN 13-10 .565 Northwestern 13-10 .565 5. Penn State 13-12 .520 6. Indiana 12-12 .500 7. Illinois 9-15 .375 8. Michigan State 8-14 .364 9. Purdue 8-15 .348 10. Iowa 6-18 .250

Captain Bill Mogk (1951-53) and teammates Dick Leach (1952-54) and Paul Fancher (1952-53) from Michgan's 1953 national championship baseball team were on hand at Friday's game as they make plans for the 50th reunion of the national championship team next fall.

Tim Lata (1987-89), who tossed a no-hitter vs. Ithaca on the spring trip in 1989, was on hand at the game Friday.

Brock Koman's first- and second-inning RBI singles pushed his career hit total to 264, three shy of Ken Hayward (267, 1982-85) for third on the U-M career hit list, and the two total bases give him 425 to tie Jim Paciorek (425, 1979-82) for fourth, just two total bases behind Hayward (427) in third.

Koman's two RBI pull him within two of Paciorek (183) for fourth place, while Casey Close (185, 1983-86) is third and Mike Cervenak (187, 1996-99) is second. Ken Hayward is first with 207 RBI.

Koman played in his 203rd game as a Wolverine on Friday to tie Rodney Goble (203 games, 1992-95) for ninth on Michigan's all-time games played list. Former teammate Scott Tousa (204, 1998-2001) is eighth on the U-M games played list.

Fifth-year senior 1B Mike Sokol's 4-for-5 game with two doubles marked his 44th career multiple-hit game as a Wolverine and his second four-hit game. He was 4-for-6 with two doubles earlier this season in the second game of a doubleheader at Bethune-Cookman (March 1).

Sokol's two doubles on Friday pull him into a tie with Brock Koman for the team lead at 17, and Jake Fox is second with 16. Koman is the Michigan career leader in doubles with 68 and Sokol has broken into the career top 10 and ranks ninth with 43.

Michigan's hitting leaders after 46 games include (80 plate appearances minimum): senior 3B Brock Koman at .385 (69-for-179), junior C Jake Fox (.364, 60-for-165), sophomore SS Nick Rudden (.363, 41-for-113), senior 1B Mike Sokol (.356, 58-for-163) and senior OF Gino Lollio (.346, 62-for-179).

Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423