Tuesday, May 29, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 15 As NCAA Tournament begins, Michigan struggles with runners on base By ANDY REID ever, Michigan's offense had a good Daily Sports Writer weekend at the plate. Just two teams (Ohio State and Minnesota) tallied Nearly 1,700 excited people more hits in their first two tourna- jammed into The Fish Friday night ment games than the Wolverines. as Michigan baseball fever swept "It wasn't like we played bad across Ann Arbor. baseball," Michigan coach Rich After winning the Big Ten regu- Maloney said. "We got 25 hits, but lar-season championship by two- we didn't get timely hits. That was and-a-half games, the Wolverines the difference. It wasn't like we strolled into the conference tourna- didn't hit at all. We just didn't get ment as the top-seeded team, play- the big ones to get some momentum ing an Ohio State team they swept on our side, so I guess it's frustrat- in a four-game series earlier in the ing because we shouldn't even have year. to be talking about this." The maize-and-blue clad fans in All year, Michigan has consis- the stands came with high expecta- tently driven in hits when it has tions. They wanted to see the Wol- runners on base. The Wolverines' verines win their second-straight hit-to-run ratio was just 1.4 in the conference crown. Big Ten regular season. The Michigan players even had But evident by its 3.6 hit-to-run higher expectations for themselves. ratio in the Big Ten Tournament, In their minds, their team was Michigan missed a lot of opportu- surely a lock for the NCAA Tourna- nities this weekend. In fact, 20 Wol- ment. And once they got there, the verine runners were left on base in Wolverines wanted to make their just two games. first trip to the College World Series With Michigan squandering in Omaha, Neb., since 1984. so many chances throughout the But it was a weekend of disap- weekend, it was only a matter of pointment and missed opportuni- time before an opponent capital- ties for Michigan, which bowed out ized on one of its mistakes. of the double-elimination tourna- After clawing their way back ment after losses to Ohio State and from down 5-2 to tie Friday's game Penn State. against Penn State in the ninth The usually explosive Wolver- inning, sophomore Adam Abraham ine offense tallied just seven total stepped up to the plate with run- runs and never held a lead during ners on first and second. But with the Tournament. Statistically, how- the possibility of stealing the vic- tory from the Nittany Lions, Abra- ham flied out to centerfield, sending the game to extra innings. That's when Penn State's Cory Wine took matters into his own hands. Michigan reliever Michael Reds Powers retired the first two batters a sho of the 10th inning. With the count full, Wine sent a solo shot over the T rightfieldwallthatwouldultimately be the winning run of the ballgame. "We made a lot of really good pitches," Maloney said. "But we made about three pitches that were really bad at really bad times, and to their credit they answered, when we made a mistake they took advan- tage of it, and that was part of never getting momentum." Even after a weekend of disap- pointment, the Wolverines still earned themselves a spot in the NCAA Tournament. But Michigan had to play the waiting game until the selection committee released the field of 64 Monday to see if it received an at-large bid. And waiting was not something Maloney enjoyed. "I've been through this a few different times and I would have much rather felt like we just took the bull by the horns and got (an T automatic bid) ourselves," Maloney said. "Now, I don't know, I can't tell you, it's disheartening for the sea- son we've had because it has been a special season." Putnam, who was Michigan's start- ing pitcher against Ohio State, about the Buckeyes' early surge. "I mean, I take that personally when they come out and put up three runs in the first inning. ... But it's nine innings of baseball and you can't lie down. It's hard to win a college baseball game when (we) only scored two runs." Michigan had a combined 25 hits in bothgames, but its failure to con- vert those hits into runs prevented the "big inning" that was the team's trademark during its successful regular season. The Wolverines will try to regain to their early-sea- son form Friday against Memphis. hirt sophomore Michael Powers and the Wolverines' inconsistent play made for rt-lived Big Ten Tournament appearance this weekend. Total and Untlmlted Access -ALL 8AAMC EXAMS Most Materials - Over 4,300 Pages and Online Center Best Score Improvement - 10 Pts.* Superior Instructors - 5 Experts ,nThe Most Hours - Over 102 i ceo Inependently verified by ICR Review 800-2Review I PrincetonReview.com BASEBALL From page 13 offensive spurt came while trailing 5-2 in the ninth inning against Penn State. Michigan tallied two runs early in the inning, assisted by an error and a wild pitch that helped to move leftfielder Derek VanBuskirk and second baseman Kevin Cislo into scoring position. Both runners scored on groundouts, leaving the bases empty with two outs. Hits by senior centerfielder Eric Rose and junior first baseman Nate Reckna- gel put runners on first and third. With two outs, down by one run and with Michigan's Big Ten Tour- nament hopes on the line, cleanup hitter Zach Putnamsingled to right- center, scoring Rose and sending the game into extra innings. But a 10th-inning solo homer proved to be the difference for the Nittany Lions, ending the Wolver- ines' hopes for a repeat. Both of Michigan's losses were marked by first-inning deficits and missed opportunities. The Wolver- ines allowed three runs in the first inning against Ohio State and two against Penn State to find them- selves in an unfamiliar situation - down early. "It's definitely a buzzkill," said 0 r, 1 i MORE ONLINE ARTICLES LOG M a ccMen's tennis, men's and Spurts news and opinion at rr b ito call cnrr, women s track and fid (ricianodiy.com/ibcgnmo)