Michigan Falls to Huskies in Winthrop Tournament Opener

Friday, March 14

Rock Hill, S.C.

2:00 PM

Michigan

4-7

Northern Illinois

5-7

Northern Illinois

Michigan

Michigan Falls to Huskies in Winthrop Tournament Opener

3/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Northern Illinois took advantage of early unearned opportunities to get into the game and pounded the ball late to take a 12-8 win over Michigan in college baseball action Friday afternoon (March 14) in the Winthrop Tournament. Northern Illinois scored unearned runs in the first (one) and the fourth (three) and had four "tainted" but officially earned in the sixth inning to stay in the game early.

Fox hit a pair of homers for the third time in his career.

NIU (5-7) is now 1-1 in the tournament after losing the Friday opener to Birmingham-Southern 6-3 in a game the Huskies held a 3-2 lead with two outs in the ninth inning. A routine fly fell for a two-run single and BSC topped NIU 6-3. Michigan (4-7) is 0-1 in tournament action with two games on tap for Saturday (March 15).

Junior catcher Jake Fox (Greenfield, Ind./Indianapolis Cathedral HS) and fifth-year senior 1B Nate Wright (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew HS) provided most of the scoring for the Wolverines as each slugged a pair of homers, accounting for six of the eight Wolverine runs. For Fox it marked the third two-homer game of his career and the second in two weeks. It also marked the second time in his career that Fox and a teammate homered twice in game.

Fox led off the second inning with a solo shot to tie the game at 1-1, and he tied the game at 4-4 with another solo homer in the fifth inning, his team-leading sixth and the 19th round-tripper of his career.

Wright gave the Wolverines a 5-4 lead later in the fifth inning, but NIU scored four times in the sixth inning to chase Michigan starting pitcher Michael Penn (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Christian HS) and added one in the seventh and three in the ninth for a 12-5 lead. Penn, who allowed just three earned runs in the game, is 0-2 on the season.

The Wolverines kicked up their heels in the ninth inning as senior 2B Jordan Cantalamessa (Castle Rock, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) walked, reaching base for the third time in the game, and senior 3B Brock Koman (Pueblo, Colo./South HS) singled to set up Wright's second homer of the game. Wright's four RBI in the game give him 12 on the season, trailing just Fox (19) and Cantalamessa (18).

LHP Joe Piekarz (1-1), the first of five Huskies to take the mound, collected the win as he took advantage of the four-run sixth inning that gave NIU an 8-5 lead.

Big hits for NIU included a two-out, two run double by catcher Anthony Venetucci off Penn in the three-run (all unearned) fourth inning and a three-run double by SS Joe Mazzuca, who had four RBI, off freshman RHP Derek Feldkamp (Adrian, Mich./Blissfield HS) in the sixth inning that closed the book on Penn.

NIU scored three times with power off Feldkamp in the ninth with RF Mike Santoro launching a homer, followed by a single and a homer by DH Scott Simons, who drove in three runs for the Huskies.

Feldkamp, who entered the game with a team-leading 0.75 ERA, was touched for eight hits and five runs (all earned) in 3.1 innings and he now shares the team ERA lead with senior RHP Tim Leveque (Northridge, Calif./Crespi HS) at 3.52.

Michigan took a 2-1 lead in the second inning following the first Fox homer when fifth-year senior DH Mike Sokol (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle HS) walked, moved to third on a double by junior RF Brandon Roberts (Arlington, Texas/Martin HS) and he scored on a groundout by freshman LF Mike Schmidt (Saginaw, Mich./Heritage HS).

The Wolverines pushed the lead to 3-1 in the third inning when Cantalamessa singled, stole second base and scored on a double by Koman.

The Wolverines continue Winthrop Tournament action with two games Saturday (March 15), facing Birmingham-Southern at 11 a.m. and host Winthrop at 5 p.m. Sophomore LHP Drew Taylor (Toronto, Ontario/Upper Canada College) is the probable starter for the Wolverines vs. Birmingham-Southern. Taylor is 1-0 with a 6.61 ERA.

Opponent's audio broadcasts for each game Saturday will be available on the Internet, via Birmingham-Southern's site and Winthrop's site.

N O T E S

Junior catcher/DH Jake Fox continued his power swing for the Wolverines, hitting two homers on Friday for the second week in a row. He hit a pair last Friday (March 7) at Oklahoma. Fox leads the Wolverines with six homers, 18 RBI and a .909 slugging percentage.

Fox has hit two homers in a game three times as a Wolverine, with the other two-homer game at Illinois in 2002. He needs one homer to become the 18th Wolverine with 20 or more career homers.

Fifth-year senior 1B Nate Wright collected his first two-homer game as a Wolverine. He has nine career homers. Meanwhile, Fox has hit two homers in a game with a teammate twice, with Jordan Cantalamessa vs. Illinois (April 14, 2002) and with Wright vs. NIU (March 14, 2003).

Senior 3B Brock Koman extended his team-leading hitting streak to a career-best 11 games with a third-inning double. The double was his 57th career two-bagger and leaves him in second place on the Michigan career doubles list, just 10 shy of the career mark held by Mike Cervenak (67 doubles, 1996-99).

Koman, who leads the team with 20 hits on the season, pushed his career hit total to 215 to tie Phil Price (215, 1987-90) for eighth place on Michigan's all-time hit list. Koman trails former teammate Scott Tousa (217, 1998-2001) for seventh place heading into Saturday's games.

RF Brandon Roberts collected his third straight two-hit game in the tournament opener vs. Northern Illinois.

Michigan's hitting leaders after 11 games include: senior 3B Brock Koman at .426 (20-for-47), junior RF Brandon Roberts (.421, 16-for-38), junior C Jake Fox (.386, 17-for-44), senior 2B Jordan Cantalamessa (.347, 17-for-49), senior OF Gino Lollio (.333, 16-for-48) and senior LF-DH Mike Sokol (.333, 14-for-42).

Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423