University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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fr- he team celebrates after a win against Big Ten rival Iowa. The JL win earned the Wolverines the conference tournament champi- onship. Mark Wollv Overall: 56-16-1 Big Ten: 18-4 2 21 Northridge T 3-3 2 21 Sacramento St. L 0-1 2 21 San Diego St. L 3-4 2 22 Long Beach W 10-2 2 22 Hawaii W 7-6 2 22 Sranford W 6-1 2 23 Arkansas W 6-0 2 28 Utah State W 3-0 3 1 Nebraska W 2-0 3 1 Princeton W 7-2 3 1 Nicholls State W 3-1 3 2 Missouri L 5-11 3 2 Nebraska W 4-0 3 4 Alabama W 4-3 3 4 Alabama W 5-2 3 7 Marshall W 6-2 3 7 Temple W 10-0 3 7 Georgia W 4-3 3 8 So. Florida W 11-0 3 8 Okla. State L 0-2 3 8 Florida W 1-0 3 9 Ball State W 4-0 3 9 Michigan St. W 5-0 3 9 So. Carolina L 0-2 3 14 Miami (Ohio) L 1-4 3 14 So. Illinois L 0-1 3 14 Florida Atlantic W 5-1 3 15 Iowa State W 4-0 3 15 Geogria State W 11-3 3 22 No. Illinois W 6-0 3 22 Ohio L 1-3 3 23 Purdue W 3-2 3 23 Wright State W 8-0 3 23 Purdue W 12-2 3 29 Wisconsin W 7-1 3 29 Wisconsin W 10-1 3 30 Wisconsin W 7-3 4 2 W. Michigan W 5-2 4 2 W. Michigan W 4-0 4 5 Iowa L 2-8 4 6 Iowa L 4-15 4 8 Purdue W 7-3 4 8 Purdue L 1-3 4 10 Notre Dame W 2-1 4 10 Notre Dame W 5-4 4 13 Northwestern W 1-0 4 13 Northwestern L 1-4 4 15 Penn State W 5-1 4 15 Penn State W 9-3 4 16 Cent. Michigan W 1-0 4 16 Cent. Michigan L 3-5 4 19 Minnesota W 2-1 4 19 Minnesota W 10-2 4 20 Minnesota W 1-0 4 22 Michigan St. W 1-0 4 22 Michigan St. W 4-1 4 26 Indiana W 4-1 4 26 Indiana W 12-0 4 27 Indiana W 4-3 5 3 Ohio State W 5-4 5 4 Ohio State W 5-0 5 4 Ohio State W 11-3 5 6 Toledo W 9-0 5 9 Michigan St. W 4-0 5 9 Iowa W 3-2 5 10 Iowa W 4-2 5 16 Cleveland St. W 1-0 5 17 Cent. Michigan W 3-0 5 18 Cent. Michigan L 1-3 5 18 Cent. Michigan W 4-0 5 22 Iowa L 2-3 5 24 So. Carolina W 1-0 5 24 UCLA L 3-7 Senior Kelly Holmes discusses strat egy with her catcher. Communi- cation was key to the battery mates ' success. Mark Vfolly Women ' s Softball 133

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by Michelle McCombs The Wolverines closed the 1997 season with a team record high placing fifth at the NCAA ' s Women ' s College World Series (WCWS) . Pre-season play com- posed of five weeks of tourna- ments as Michigan prepared itself for the Big Ten and were ranked ninth in the USA TMzy NFCA Coaches Poll. The Wolverines were off to a powerful start in the Big Ten sweeping Wisconsin in three games. Then an unfortu- nate running collision between top pitcher Sara Griffin and first base Traci Conrad occurred dur- ing a road week at Iowa. The team had to overcome the confidence shaking injuries that benched Conrad until the Purdue double header and kept Griffin in the dug out for the season. Senior Kelly Holmes stepped up to the mound and helped lead the Wolverines to their outstanding 56-16-1 record. Griffin had to face a difficult season on the side- lines, unable to join her teammates on the field. She stated, My personal feelings about last season are mixed ones. On one hand, I am so proud of my teammates for what we accomplished. I love playing with these girls and it definitely showed on the field. But getting hurt was the hardest thing I had to deal with. I so wanted to be out on the field contributing, Front Row: SaraGriffin. Kellyn Tate. Captain Jessica Langjen Smith, Tracy Taylor, Jen McKittrick, Lisa Kelley. Row 2: Cathy Davie, Traci Conrad, Stacey Judd, Jamie Gillies, Melissa Gentile, Karmen Lappo, Pam Kosanke, Tammy Mika, Lisa Beard. plish- was loss of instead of on the bench with a cast! It was tough on everyone, but they really helped me through it by being there as teammates and as my friends. Many others on the team also felt the stress of losing their starting pitcher. I feel that the greatest accomplishment of this team was recovering from the loss of one of our starting pitchers due to a season ending injury. We all came together as a team, stated outfielder Tammy Mika. The Wolverines finished second in the Big Ten under the undefeated the Iowa Hawkeyes but turned around and won the conference ' s tournament and en- tered the NCAA Tournament with a pair of wins over Iowa. Michigan closed out the season by beating Central Michigan 4-1 to advance to the WCWS for its third straight season where they placed fifth. Traci Conrad said, Last season was tremendous. The way our team pulled together and overcame so many obstacles. I think our greatest accomplishment last year was winning the big ten tournament at Iowa. Iowa won Big Tens and went undefeated into Iowa City with everyone but our team thinking Iowa would easily win the tournament so to beat them was twice as thrilling. 132 Sports to courtesy of Sports Information

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B asefeall Ik ma r by Dan Hennes The 1997 Michigan Baseball season proved to be one of note - their best overall performace in ten years. The team garnered their first regular season conference cham- pionship since 1987. Their first place finish in the Big Ten conference marked a complete turn- around after they finished in last place only two years ago. The Wol- verines hosted the conference tour- nament at Ray Fisher Stadium where they received runner-up honors to Ohio State. Michigan started off the season with eight returning, but somewhat inexperienced position players. This inexperience allowed other players on the team to step up and earn starting roles. One of the leaders for the Wolverines was sophomore Dan Sanborn who started the season as the part-time designated hitter and took overthe starting job as the season progressed. Sanborn went on to be named to the GTE CoSIDA Academic All- American second team. He is only the second player to be recognized for this award under the coaching tenure of Front Row: Tyler Steketee, Mike Cervenak, Brian Kalczynski, Marlon Wright, Brian Steinbach, Assis- tant Coach Chris Harrison, Head Coach Geoff Zahn, Assistant Coach Matt Hyde, Kirk Beermann, Mike Haskell, Mick Kalahar, Derek Besco, Bryan Besco. Row 2: Jason Alcaraz, Luke Bonner, Pete Martay, Brian Bush, Matt Herr, Mike Hribernik, J.J. Putz, Bryan Cranson, Brian Berryman, Ryan Kelley, John Papp, MikeSeestedt, Bobby Scales, Marion Garza.Jr. Row K: Groundskeeper Erich Keil, Manager Jeff Singer, Kevin Quinn, Dan Murphy, Dan Sanborn, Jeff Van Sickle, Andrew Miller, Brad Scheiner, Rob Bobeda, Bryce Ralston, Alex Wozniak, Stephen Lenick, Quinn DeMarrais, Andy Hood, Trainer Rex Thompson, Student Trainer Karyn Dunn. shin r erence mplete turnaroBid al Jey Onishetintet place i Geoff Zahn. I couldn ' t be prouder than I am of Dan Sanborn, commented Zahn. Michigan ' sfirst place conference finished marked the end to their worst to first campaign over the past two years and earned Zahn the honor of being named Big Ten coach of the year. This marks the first time that any Wolverine baseball coach has ever won this award. Winning the award is a reflection of my assistants, remarked Zahn. The program has been completely revamped during Zahn ' s two years at the helm, which in- cluded a ranking of 30th twice dur- ing the season by Collegiate Baseball. Brian Kalczynski was voted the win- ner of the Ray L. Fisher Award as the team ' s most valuable player. He con- cluded the season ranking third on the team with a .353 batting average and second on the team with 71 hits. Kalczynski, a junior shortstop, started 53 of the team ' s 54 games during the 1997 season. 134 Sports photo courtesy of Sports Information