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SPORTS
Page 20 Thursday, May 12, 1983 The Michigan Daily
Batsmen blast EMU swJD
44
By JIM DWORMAN
YPSILANTI - It's no wonder that Michigan
baseball coach Bud Middaugh stresses pitching
and defense - he doesn't have to worry about his
team's hitting.
The Wolverines continued their offensive
assault yesterday, pounding out a dozen hits in
both 10-6 and 14-2 victories over the Eastern
Michigan Hurons.
ON TUESDAY, Michigan swept a double header
from Wayne State, taking 7-2 and 13-4 decisions. In
their last 16 games, the Wolverines have scored a
total of 167 runs, an average of 10.4 per outing.
Despite the score, yesterday's opener was a
close game from start to finish. The lead changed
hands three times before Michigan put the game
away with a four-run seventh inning. Tied 6-6
going into the stanza, Michigan began its rally
when Ken Hayward drew a one-out walk off
Eastern's Jeff Ozuch. Jeff Jacobson followed with
a single and Fred Erdmann walked to fill the
bases.
Middaugh then inserted freshman Casey Close
to pinch hit for Dan Sygar and the Ohioan
delivered. Close ripped a double into the left field
corner, scoring two runs and sending Erdmann to
third. Both players scored when Rich Bair boun-
ced Huron reliever Jason Hansen's second pitch
past a drawn-in infield for a single.
PITCHER GARY Wayne, who gave up the tying
run to Eastern in the sixth, shut out the Hurons in
the seventh to earn the victory, his seventh in
eight decisions. Wayne had entered the
game in relief of starter Dave Kopf and
Tim Karazim, who were both ineffective.
In the second game, Wolverine starter Scott
Kamieniecki walked Eastern's first three batters
before finally settling down to throw a four-hitter.
The freshman missed the plate with his first 10
pitches and 12 of 13 overall, as Tom Hauck, Ron
Goble and Tony DeMarti walked. A double-play
grounder by Rob Sepanek, though, allowed
Kamieniecki to escape with only one run scored.
The hard-throwing righthander then went to the,
bullpen with Middaugh and the veteran coach
quickly corrected the rookie's wildness.
"I WAS RUSHING everything to the plate," said
Kamienicki of his rough start. "Coach noticed my
arm was ahead of my body. I was pushing the ball
instead of throwing it."
Kamieniecki went on to walk only two more
Hurons the rest of the way - against seven
strikeouts - to raise his record to 3-0. Only
Sepanek's fourth-inning home run marred the
remainder of his performance.
"He started to let his arm do the work," said
Middaugh of the Detroit Tigers' second-round
draft pick. "I was really proud of the adjustment
he made."
MICHIGAN, meanwhile, did little against
Eastern starter Vic Worker. Chris Sabo's first-in-
ning triple was the only hit the Wolverines could
muster until Barry Larkin drilled a liner into the
Huron hurler's face.
Worker crumbled to the ground and lay
motionless for nearly 30 minutes while trainers
and paramedics tended to the righthander.
Worker left the stadium in an ambulance but
returned after the completion of the contest. Ap-
parently, his injury was not serious. His team's
hurts, however, were serious. Michigan batters
pounded three Eastern relievers for 14 runs the
rest of the way.
Rich Bair led the Wolverine attack with seven
RBIs in the doubleheader.
More Baseball, Page 17
R H E
MICHIGAN........ 300 102 4-10 12 2
Eastern Michigan. 101 301 0 -6 9 2
MKopf, Karazim (3), Wayne (5) and Bair.
EMU: Spratke, Ozuch (0), Hansen (7) And Siefert.
WP-Wayne (7-1) LP-Ozuch (3-3)
R 10 E
MICHIGAN ....... 000 524 3-14 12 0
Eastern Michigan . 100 100 0-2 4 4
M: Kamieniecki and Bair, Froning (7).
EMU Worker, Edik (3), Hansen (5, Ozuch (0) and Keller.
.WP-Kamieniecki (3-0) LP-Edick (2-5)
HR: EMU-Sepanek (8).
Larkin spurns Reds...
... spurs Bud's Blue
Most of us face difficult decisions when we graduate
from high school. Should we go to college? Where should
we go to college? Should we get a job, instead?
The choices seem endless.
But compared to the alternatives that confronted
Barry Larkin during his senior year at Cincinnati's
Moeller High School, our decisions look simple. You see,
opportunity didn't just knock on the Wolverine shor-
tstop's door - it knocked his door down.
First to come calling were the football coaches, Notre
Dame's Gerry Faust and Michigan's Bo Schembechler.
Faust, who used to coach Larkin at Moeller and still
coaches a Larkin, older brother Michael, for the
Fighting Irish, armed himself with some predictable
tactics for the recruitment.
"When I went to Notre Dame to visit, Coach Faust had
my brother take me out and tell me how great it is at
Notre Dame and how it's all one big happy family, just
like at Moeller," said the former defensive back.
"Michael himself told me to play what I wanted to play
and go where I wanted to go."
From one Larkin to another, that's not bad advice,
especially since Barry was thinking baseball and not at
Notre Dame.
"I wanted to go to a bigger school with a better
baseball program," said Larkin.
Sorry, Bo
Next was Bo, but Larkin likewise said no.
Apparently, he realized that there's not much room for
5-11, 175 pounders on the gridiron.
"I don't think I have enough size to play football," he
said. "Maybe I do. But my heart's in baseball."
To the delight of the baseball world, Larkin followed
his heart and not his brother, who one year earlier chose
football over baseball. ("If Michael didn't play football
he would have got drafted in baseball," said Barry. "He
was a great center fielder and he hit the ball asmile.")
As football took a back seat in Barry's life, the front
seat became an airplane seat. Larkin visited Texas,
USC, Arizona State and Miami (Fla.), four of the most
prestigious baseball colleges in the country, before
finally deciding to play for coach Bud Middaugh's
Michigan Wolverines. Turning his back on the Rolls
Royces of college baseball was no easy decision but
Larkin had his reasons - an education and Middaugh.
"Texas may be number one in the nation but I've got
an education, a good coach and good friends," the .356
hitter said.
Education first, $$$ later
Of course, the BIG decision remained: whether or not
to attend Michigan at all. Larkin surely would be an
early-round selection in the professional baseball draft,
and a little money usually goes a long way towards
making one forget about text books. Complicating mat-
ters was the fact that the Cincinnati Reds, his hometown
team, went for Larkin with the first pick of the draft's
second round, the 27th pick overall.To put things in per-
spective, Jim Paciorek, holder of almost every
Michigan batting record and 1982's Big Ten Player-of-
the-Year, wasn't chosen until the eighth round of the .
same draft. In fact, last year's Wolverine shortstop,
Tony Evans, was picked by the Reds four rounds after
Larkin.
Furthermore, the Cincinnati team tempted the 18-year
old with a fat contract, including a signing bonus that
could pay for several Michigan educations.
He turned it down.
"It was tough, but I knew and my parents knew that I
wasn't ready mentally," Larkin said. "I wasn't ready to
live on my own or with a 23- or 24-year old and go out to
the bars every night, or whatever they do. All in all, I
was set on college."
Michigan baseball fans can be thankful for that.
Second baseman Jeff Jacobson watches the ball skip into center field in action from yesterday's
Wolverine sweep over EMU.