SPORTSBEAT BY PETER JAKEY: Two former Hurons earn GLIAC honors

After practice Tuesday, the Ferris State University softball team bus rolled out of Big Rapids for a trip to northern Kentucky for the Bulldogs? first NCAA Division II regional tournament game since 1999. FSU is led by a junior outfielder, who captured the schools? first-ever GLIAC Player of the Year award. The winner of that award, which was announced Friday, is Rogers City?s Emily McLean. Ferris received an at-large bid to the 2005 NCAA-II Great Lakes Region Tournament, with the announcement coming Monday by the NCAA-II softball committee. Ferris State (30-18 overall), the 2005 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) co-champions and GLIAC tourney champs, was one of six teams to qualify for the double-elimination tournament.

McLean batted .385 this season with 60 base hits in 156 at bats, and ripped nine homers. She knocked in 36 and had a slugging percentage of .641. What has made her a better ball player? ?I think it was getting more time out there,? she said, talking on a cell phone early Tuesday afternoon on the trip down. ?The more at bats I had, the better I got. Coach really helped me work on my batting a lot, and my stance. She didn?t change my swing a whole lot, she just made my hands a little quicker. That made a big difference.?

McLean said her swing has changed a lot since her high school days. ?I had that big ole home run swing all of the time in high school and now it?s more compact,? she said. She still is swinging for the fences, but her hands are quicker, and she is playing with a lot more confidence.

AWARDS ASIDE, McLean is focusing on the post-season. She practiced early Tuesday and was on the bus with her team, with a stack of videos, for the eight-hour trip to Kentucky. The first movie was ?Meet the Fockers.? FSU is matched up in the regional game against a school with another Rogers City connection, as the Bulldogs opponent, Northwood University, (31-12) is coached by former Huron Heather Bruder, who was named GLIAC Coach of the Year.

?Heather is a real go-getter, she really works her team hard,? said McLean, ?She has a pretty good team, but I just think we have the better team right now.? Still feisty?

?Yes, she is,? McLean laughed. The game between Northwood and Ferris is at 10 a.m. with the winner advancing to take on number one ranked Northern Kentucky (50-0). Mclean said the Bulldogs played Northern Kentucky at a tournament in Florida and lost by one run. She said both teams have improved, so it should be a good battle. FSU is undefeated against Northwood this season, so they have the edge going into the tournament contest. The Bulld

ogs are making their fourth regional appearance in the program?s history.

WHERE IS this game, exactly. ?It?s, um, oh shoot!? she said, looking for a teammate on the bus for help. ?Hey, Allison, what town are we going to in Kentucky. Highland Heights. It?s about 20 miles from Cincinnati.? The winner of the regional tournament advances to play in the national tournament in Salem, Virginia. FSU won back-to-back regional titles in 1998 and 1999. The highest they palced was in third in 1998. So when does ESPN start carrying the games? ?I?m not sure if they do Division II. It might be televised.? Well, they should.

McLean heads into the tournament in the midts of a team-leading eight-game hitting streak and is batting .533 (16-30) during that stretch. She has six multiple-hit game efforts in those eight contests, highlighted by three-hit games at Hillsdale (April 30) and versus Wayne State (May 6) at the GLIAC tournament.

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