-SPORT
Q
The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 22, 2006 -15
A Rosey
finish,
'M'-Nine
wins title
1 By H. Jose Bosch
Daily Sports Editor
On Saturday evening, with the shadows
slowly creeping over The Fish, Iowa's L.J.
Mims hit a soft liner toward centerfield.
The Michigan baseball team rushed to the
edge of its dugout and seemed to tug the
crowd of 1,034 fans with them, waiting in
anticipation.
First, the ball fell
snuggly into a mitt.
Then pandemonium.
Junior Eric Rose's
putout to end a 4-1
victory over Iowa in the second game of
Saturday's doubleheader not only marked
the end of the game, but also the beginning
of a new era: one of a Big Ten champion.
In only his fourth season at the helm,
Michigan coach Rich Maloney led the
Wolverines to their first regular-season
championship since 1997.
Entering the day, Michigan was a game
ahead of Northwestern in the Big Ten stand-
ings and needed the Wildcats to split their
doubleheader with Purdue for a chance to
clinch with a sweep on Saturday.
When it was announced Northwestern
fell to the Boilermakers 3-0 in the second
game of that doubleheader, the Wolver-
ines knew it was all on them.
"Coach preaches to us a lot to take care
of our business and we'll determine our
success," junior Eric Rose said. "But when
P we heard that (Northwestern) lost and all
we (needed was) just one win to at least
clinch a tie, it definitely motivated us."
The announcement came just before
Michigan's turn to bat in the eighth inning
of the first game and it put a charge into
the atmosphere at the Fish.
Until then, the fans had witnessed
a good old-fashioned pitcher's duel.
The Wolverines' Chris Fetter and the
Hawkeyes' Jeff Maitland traded zeroes
on the scoreboard for seven innings
before each was pulled for a reliever in
the eighth. Iowa failed to push any runs
across in its half of the eighth and left
the door wide open for the home team
to take its first step toward conference
supremacy.
Rose led the inning off with a sin-
gle and moved to second on a sacrifice
hunt. After an intentional walk and a
strikeout, Michigan pulled off a rare
double steal to put runners on second
and third with two outs for freshman
Adam Abraham. With a full count on
him, Abraham flung the bat out at a
tough pitch and hit a seeing-eye liner
up the middle to score Rose from the
third and put the Wolverines one win
away from a championship.
"We knew we had at least a share (of
the title) right there and it turned into
a little mini celebration," senior Jeff
Kunkel said. "After the second game,
everybody just went nuts (because) we
had it outright. It's just a great feeling
J
Blue now in a
league of its own
-0 .
There is no crying in base-
hall.
This game is about
toughness. Mental toughness,physi-
cal toughness and if you've ever tried
to chew the old gum
they used to put into
baseball-card packs,
even dental toughness.
So it's only natural to
believe there is no cry-
ing allowed.
Baseball is domi-
nated by legends
such as Ruth, Cobb,
Gibson and Koufax.
Think they ever H. J
cried? No way. BOS
But looking into The B
Michigan coach Rich Wat
Maloney's eyes follow-
ing Saturday's doubleheader, there
was something in there besides the
intensity that has helped raise this
program from the dead: tears.
And never was that more appar-
ent than when Maloney emerged
from the celebration to find his wife
along the third-base line to give her
a hug and a kiss. She had tears in
her eyes, too.
"It's so hard to put into words,"
Maloney said of winning his first
Big Ten championship. "Four years
ago I had an opportunity to realize
a dream. To be able to come back
home and coach at Michigan, which
is an honor, and to cast a vision for
the program on what we wanted to
accomplish."
In just one year, he took ateam
that had a 20-32 record the year
before to finish third in the Big Ten.
In three years he won 40-plus games
and went to Michigan's first NCAA
Regional since 1999. And this season
he's won a Big Ten regular season
championship.
The remarkable turnaround for
the Michigan baseball program can
be attributed to Maloney's tireless
efforts to make this program one of
the most respectable in the nation.
When he had no chance to com-
pete with Southern schools for the
most prized recruits in
the nation, he looked
inward and recruited
locally. Maloney has
been able to recruit suc-
cessfully top talent from
the state of Michigan and
other states in the Great
Lakes region to help
build his empire.
If you want proof
OSE just how good players
:CH from the state of Mich-
osch igan can be, take a
ch look at the Wolverines'
starting lineup for their
championship-clinching game.
Seven of the nine starters were
from the state of Michigan.
Right before the game-winning
hit in Saturday's first game, the
batter and both runners on base
were from Michigan.
And in senior Mike Schmidt's
three-run homerun to seal the deal in
game two, all three runs were scored
by Michiganders.
Maloney has proven that you don't
need a multitude of players from
below the Mason-Dixon Line to suc-
ceed at the Division I level. And even
those not from Michigan are from
nearby. Senior Jeff Kunkel and junior
Leif Mahler are fromlIllinois and
Ohiorespectively, and sophomore
Chris Fetter - the team's leader in
ERA - is from Indiana.
But recruiting isn't the only thing
that Maloney has succeeded in. Over
four years, he has been able to raise
$8.5 million to build a new stadium.
That's right, The Fish is getting a
face lift. And the new stadium will
go great with the lights that were
See BOSCH, Page 16
Eric Rose scores the winning run in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.
anytime your team works as hard as we
did and you pull it out and win a champi-
onship. That's the ultimate goal."
Michigan didn't waste any time notch-
ing a run in the second game. Sophomore
Nate Recknegal knocked in Rose with
one out in the first inning for a 1-0 lead
Then, Iowa sealed its fate and the Wol-
verines' championship season in the fol-
lowing inning.
After freshman Derek VanBuskirk hit
a two-out single, Hawkeyes second base-
man Travis Sweet had a chance to end the
inning but bobbled an easy ground ball
off the bat of senior A.J. Scheidt.
This led senior Mike Schmidt to drive
a three-run homerun (his 10th) into left-
field to put Michigan up 4-0. Four runs
were all freshman starter Zach Putnam
needed to secure the win for his team-
mates - he allowed just one run in six
innings pitched.
The Wolverines will now turn their
attention toward the Big Ten conference
tournament, which will be hosted in Ann
Arbor from May 24-27.
Even though an at-large bid for the
NCAA tournament looks very possible,
Michigan wants the guaranteed spot
reserved for the tournament champion.
"If we win the (conference) tourna-
ment, we're a lock for sure," Rose said.
The Intel Foundation Congratulates
Ruba Borb, Ashlesha joshi, Obiefune Ezekoye
and Jorge Pe.nillo
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