Baseball Team Still 'Alive' Despite Loss

Baseball Team Still 'Alive’ Despite Loss

By Wayne DeNeff

Michigan remains "alive” in the run for the Big Ten baseball championship but needs a double victory over Michigan State today plus plenty of outside help to win it.

The Wolverines squared off in a doubleheader with the Spartans at Ferry Field this afternoon after MSU squeezed out a 6-5 triumph yesterday in the first game of a three-game series.

It left the teams tied for third place with 8-3 records, trailing Ohio State (6-0) and Minnesota (9-2-1).

The Buckeyes, rained out of seven games this season, need only to win one of their two games with Iowa to clinch the championship.

The only hope for Michigan, and for Michigan State, too, is to sweep today’s twinbill while OSU loses a pair. They need help from Indiana, too, which must win at least one of its two games with Minnesota.

Today’s round of doubleheaders winds up the Big Ten schedule.

Michigan Coach Moby Benedict sent lefthanders Geoff Zahn (2-1) and Jim Lyijynen (1-2) against the Spartans today while Coach Danny Litwhiler was expected to counter with Dick Kenney (5-0) and Jim Blight (2-2).

Both teams banged the ball yesterday for 20 hits, 11 by the Spartans and nine by the Wolverines.

Lefthander John Krasnan, a senior who has had arm trouble this season, was the winning pitcher after coming to the rescue of starter Jim Goodrich in the third inning.

Bob Reed was the losing hurler, frustrated once again in his bid to become the winningest pitcher in Michigan and Big Ten history. His overall record now is 9-4 and no Michigan pitcher ever has won more than nine games in a season. His Big Ten record is 6-3 and no Western

Conference hurler ever has won seven games in one year.
Michigan State's three-run outburst in the fifth inning proved to be enough for victory after the Spartans had taken advantage of three errors to score a trio of runs in the first inning.

In the fifth, the Spartans broke a 4-3 Michigan lead as Bob Speer started with a fly-ball double down the left-field line. A single by John Walters, a single by Tom Binkowski, a passed ball and a triple by Krasnan figured in the rally with Krasnan’s liner to center driving in Binkowski with what proved to be the winning run.

Michigan’s first inning frustrations started on Steve Polisar’s topped ball which bounced too high in the air for Reed to throw him out at first. After John Biedenbach walked, third baseman Keith Spicer threw high to second baseman Rick Sygar on Speer’s double-play ball and Sygar threw wild to first. On the two errors, Polisar scored and Biedenbach and Speer moved around to third and second. When Sygar bobbled Walters’ grounder, Biedenbach scored. Walks to Binkowski and John Frye forced in a third run.

Michigan had opened the scoring in its half of the first inning when Bob Gilhooley walked, Sizemore was hit by a pitch and Dick Schryer singled.

Goodrich was lifted when he failed to retire the first four batters in the third. The righthander walked Reed and Gilhooley and after second baseman Jerry Walker fumbled Sizemore's double-play ball, he yielded a two-run single to Schryer.

Krasnan got Les Tanona on a fly out and then struck out Chan Simonds and Al Bara.

Gilhooley’s double and Sizemore’s single produced Michigan’s go-ahead run in the fifth and the Wolverines got their fifth run in the seventh when Tanona doubled a run home after Gilhooley singled.

The Spartans were in trouble in the ninth after Doug Nelson, pinch-batting for Reed, sent Speer back near the fence to snare his drive. Gilhooley slammed his third straight hit, a single to center, and Sizemore followed with a curving hit near the right-field line. But Steve Juday, quarterback for MSU's Big Ten championship football team who was inserted into the lineup in the eighth inning for defensive purposes, cut off the ball and threw to second. Sizemore got caught in a run-down, leaving Gilhooley on third with two outs.

Krasnan then fired three straight strikes past Schryer.