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.