from MGoBlue.comhttp://www.mgoblue.com/softball/article.aspx?id=136896
Wolverines Drop Exhibition Contest to USA National Team
May 6, 2008
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Wilpon Softball Complex)
Score: USA 5, #6 Michigan 1 (exhibition)
Next U-M Game: Thursday, May 8 vs. Michigan State
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The USA Women's National team continued to roll through its "Bound for Beijing" tour with a 5-1 victory over the No. 6-ranked University of Michigan softball team in exhibition action Tuesday evening (May 6) at the Wilpon Softball Complex, home of Alumni Field.
A sellout crowd of 2,507 fans saw Team USA (29-1) earn its 12th consecutive win on a combined three-hitter from lefthander Cat Osterman, who struck out 11 Wolverines in six innings to improve to 6-0, and Jennie Finch, who threw a scoreless seventh inning.
Team USA scored three runs in the second inning off freshman righthander Jordan Taylor (Valencia, Calif./Valencia HS) and added single tallies in the fourth and sixth to take a 5-0 lead. Michigan's lone run came in the bottom of the sixth, with sophomore third baseman Maggie Viefhaus (Pacific, Mo./Eureka HS) collecting an RBI single.
Taylor retired Team USA in order in the first frame and played a hand in all three outs, snagging a liner back to the circle before freezing Natasha Watley on a called third strike and successfully fielding a bunt.
In the top of the second Team USA put two runners on via a leadoff walk and infield single off Taylor's glove, and after a forceout at second, Stacey Nuveman drove in the game's first run with a sacrifice-fly popup to the shortstop in shallow leftfield. Lovie Jung followed with a two-out home run to left-centerfield and it was 3-0.
Sophomore lefty Nikki Nemitz (St. Clair Shores, Mich./Regina HS) relieved Taylor in the third and threw four solid innings, allowing four hits and striking out four without a walk. After a leadoff infield single in the third, Nemitz retired the next three batters in order, with junior shortstop Teddi Ewing (Olathe, Kan./Olathe East HS) sticking with a hot shot to short and throwing out Andrea Duran to end the inning.
Michigan threatened in the third without the benefit of a hit. Sophomore catcher Roya St. Clair (Livonia, Mich./Stevenson HS) led off the inning with a four-pitch walk, and when Osterman tried unsuccessfully to get the lead runner on Ewing's bunt, the Wolverines had runners on first and second with nobody out. However, Osterman fanned the next two hitters swinging, and sophomore rightfielder Angela Findlay (Lockport, Ill./Lockport East HS) suffered the same fate after an intense 11-pitch battle with the former Texas All-American.
Team USA nicked Nemitz for a single run in the fourth inning. Rightfielder Kelly Kretschman, who went 2-for-3 and scored three times, started the rally with a rope to centerfield for a leadoff double, moved to third on a flyout, and scored on Jung's single up the middle. Jung had two hits and three of Team USA's five RBI.
Osterman held Michigan without a hit through 4.2 innings before Ewing broke up the no-hit bid with a two-out bunt single in the bottom of the fifth. Osterman got the next hitter on a groundout to second to end the inning.
Kretschman completed Team USA's scoring with one out in the sixth, hammering a long drive over the bleachers in centerfielder for her seventh home run of the tour.
Michigan's sixth-inning rally began with another bunt single, this time by sophomore centerfielder Molly Bausher (Las Vegas, Nev./Spring Valley HS). After a nice play by first baseman Tairia Flowers to get the lead runner at second on another bunt attempt, senior second baseman Samatha Findlay (Lockport, Ill./Lockport East HS) battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk.
With runners on first and second, Viefhaus came through with a looping liner into rightfield. Second baseman Jung tried to make an over-the-shoulder catch, but the ball glanced off her glove, allowing Angela Findlay to score and make U-M one of six teams to score against Team USA in the first 30 games of its tour. Osterman struck out the next two batters to quell the threat.
After Taylor returned to the circle in the seventh inning and retired the side in order on just seven pitches, Team USA ace Jennie Finch entered to a warm ovation in the bottom of the inning and set down the Wolverines in order to end the game.
Michigan (48-5), which shared the Big Ten Conference regular-season co-championship with Northwestern, opens postseason play Thursday (May 8) at the Big Ten Tournament in Evanston, Ill. The No. 2-seeded Wolverines will face No. 7 seed Michigan State at 2 p.m. CDT at Northwestern's Sharon Drysdale Field.
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