SPORTS
Page 16 Tuesday, May 24, 1983 The Michigan Daily
'M' nine moves on to regionals
4
By PAUL HELGREN
Moments after the Michigan baseball team defeated Iowa,
12-3, on Sunday to clinch the Big Ten Championship, a group
of happy Wolverine fans behind the first base dugout at
Fisher Stadium sang, a chorus of "The Victors." A minute
later, team members gathered on the field and sang a chorus
of their own, drowning out Wolverine coach Bud Middaugh
who was trying to tell reporters how his team had managed
to win the title in three straight games.
It was a joyful celebration.
"Oh, it's great," said Michigan pitcher Rich Stoll, whose
appearance in the series coming off a hand injury was a story
in itself. "The Big Ten Championship - that's what we key
for all year. We never looked past it, that's what we want.
This is it."
FRESHMAN shortstop Barry Larkin, who was named the
tournament's Most Valuable Player, was equally pleased
with his team's efforts, but immediately put his thought to
the challenge ahead - the NCAA Mideast regional, which
Michigan will host next weekend.
"When we came out at the beginning of the year (the Big
Ten championship) was out goal,"
Larkin said. "I fell really relieved. But
we have a tournament next weekend so
we can't get up toohigh."
Michigan enters next weekend's
tournament by virtue of victories over
Iowa on Friday, Minnesota on Satur- B
day, and Iowa again on Sunday. The
first two games were tight contests, 1-0 -A A
and 10-9, while Sunday's was a decisive C k h n
12-3 clincher.F C
If Larkin was the tournament's MVP OF
(he went 5-12 and played brilliantly in FT wb
the field) there were certainly many F E
worthy candidates.
* Rich Stoll: The cast on his hand was -C T5
removed only on Thursday, but that
didn't stop the junior righthander from
picking up the win in Friday's 1-0 win,
and a save in Saturday's 10-9 thriller.
" Jeff Jacobson: The senior co-captain only went 2-11, but he
knocked in four runs and scored five himself. "I thought
Jake would get (the MVP)," Larkin graciously said.
" Fred Erdmann: The quiet man in the Wolverine lineup
went 5-12 (4-5 on Sunday with four RBIs) and made a super
catch in the eighth inning of the first game, saving a sure
double when the score was still knotted, 0-0.
"I thought we had a lot of MVP's" said Middaugh. "I'd
have hated to be the one to pick it."
Choosing the MVP was a relatively easy task compared to
NCAA Mideast Regional pairings
Friday
MICHIGAN (45-7) vs. MoreheadSt. (26-15-1)
1:00 p.m.
Indiana St. (37-12-1) vs. Miami, Ohio (35-13)
4:00 p.m..
winning the tough games Michigan did. After Friday's
win in which Chuck Froning's two-out base hit scored the
game's only run, the Wolverines faced Minnesota on Satur-
day which had clobbered Michigan State the day before 14-1.
IT STARTED OUT easy enough, with Michigan building a
6-0 lead through three innings with the help of a Jacobson
two-run homer. But a four-run fourth off starter Scott
Kamieniecki and a solo tally in the seventh off reliever Tim
Karazim pulled Minnesota to within one, 6-5. A four-run
Wolverine seventh made it 10-5 going into the last two innings
and the victory appeared safe.
But Karazim tired, and the Gophers pulled to 10-7. Mid-
daugh then brought in Stoll with two men on and nobody out.
Stoll responded, getting the final three outs, sandwiched bet-
ween a Jacobson error that let Minnesota's ninth run of the
game across.
Minnesota's loss forced it to play Saturday's third
game, against Iowa, which advanced in the losers bracker after
downing Michigan State, 6-2. The usually active Gopher bats
were put to sleep by Iowa hurler Paul Rieks, who allowed just
four hits in the 2-0 Hawkeye victory.-
IOWA'S VICTORY advanced it to
Sunday's finale against Michigan, but
the Hawkeye's better days were behind
te' them. After a 52-minute rain delay in
meat Teamn the bottom of the first inning Michigan
A., MICHIGAN jumped on three Iowa pitchers for 17
hits. A six-run fifth inning by Michigan
made the score 10-0. Four innings later
I MICHIGA the scoreboard read Michigan 12, Iowa
} MICHIGsAN 3 and the Wolverines had captured their
Minoa third Big Ten title in four years.
BLUE BANTER: Second Baseman
i'er, Iowa Jeff Jacobson's home run Saturday, his
10th of the year, was also the team's
44th, a new Michigan record ...
ICHIGA :": Michigan is now 45-7, the most wins
ever by a Wolverine baseball team.
Last year's team held the old record of
44...
Michigan fans sure know how to support their baseball
team. Both Sunday's and Saturday's crowds were near the
3,000 mark, an impressive figure for college baseball. Among
the notables at this weekend's games: football coach Bo
Schembechler, basketball coach Bill Friender, athletic
director Don Canham, and University president Harold
Shapiro.
Michigan outfielder Fred Erdmann is the Big Ten batting
champion with a league mark of .500. He is only the third con-
ference player ever to hit .500 or better.
Track team
nabs 30th
Big Ten
outdoor title
By JEFF FAYE
It was a case of nickel and dime -
a nickel here and a dime there. The
results were much more impressive,
another Big Ten track championship
for the Michigan men. It was the
fourth consecutive outdoor crown
for the Wolverines, and the 30th in
Michigan trackrhistory. That total
sets a record for Big Ten titlea for
conference-sponsored sports.
To win the title, coach Jack Har-
vey knew he had to geta lot of points
from the strong part of his team -
the distance men.
"OUR KEY was our distance run-
ners. (Brian) Diemer, (Gerard)
Donakowski and (Bill) O'Reilly had
44 points among them. That was
almost half of our team title," said
Harvey. Michigan had 95 points,
followed by In-
diana with 88,
Illinois with 85
and Wisconsin
had 83.
The Wolverine
distance crew
dominated the
3,000-, 5,000- and
10,000-meter runs.
In the 3,000-meter Eriksson
steeplechase, Diemer finished
second, Doug Heikkinen took fourth
and Bill Bradywas eleventh.
The 5,000 meters featured a finish
where O'Reilly nosed out
Donakowski by four hundreths of a
second (14:25.99 to 14:26.03) to take
top honors. Chris Brewster finished
twelfth to round out Michigan's top
three. Finally, there was the 10,000,
undoubtedly the finest race of the
meet for Michigan. Donakowski and
Deimer ended the race 1-2 with a
time difference of five hundredths of
a second. They had times of 30:11.92
and 30:11.97 and were followed in
sixth place by Jim Schmidt, who
finished a mere 40 seconds later at
30:51.40.
The field events also were a major
factor in Michigan's performance.
Johnny Nielson was favored to win
the shot put and when he threw the
shot 59'10%" the title was his. Derek
Harper finished third in the long
jump, reaching 24'7", and Dave
Lugin leaped 6'11 " in the high
jump. Finally, Scott Eriksson won
the discus crown for the second time
in three years with a toss of 187'11".
That throw was a new record for the
Big Ten meet.
"We did just about what I thought
in the field events - nothing spec-
tacular, no one had any super out-
standing performances," said Har-
vey. "We just got points where we
had to."
I
-4
Jeff Jacobson and C.J. Beshke celebrate Sunday after the Wolverines captured the Big Ten Tournament.