Monday, May18, 2009 v' "i'g l
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com "SON i M
BIG TEN BLUES
By CHANTEL JENNINGS
Daily Sports Editor
Senior pitcher Chris Fetter felt
his season end before it was actu-
ally over.
The Wolverines had just
allowed the Wildcats to score six
uncontested runs during the fifth
and sixth innings. The Wolver-
ines' lead had deteriorated into a
10-6 deficit.
Then, after the sixth inning
as Michigan (9-15 Big Ten, 30-25
overall) was headed back to the
dugout, a voice came over the
loudspeaker announcing that
Purdue was comfortably leading
Illinois 8-1 going into the sixth
inning.
Fetter's heart sank. The dugout
went silent. Michigan baseball
coach Rich Maloney said nothing.
A Boilermaker victory meant there
would be no Big Ten Tournament
run, no four-peat as Big Ten cham-
pions, no trip to Columbus.
And as expected, Purdue went
on to beat the Fighting Illini,12-8.
Still, the Wolverines had to fin-
ish Saturday's doubleheader, end-
ing in 10-6 and 6-5 losses.
"I was pretty hard for all of us
FINALS
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while, even until my last putt."
The Wolverines improved their
score over each of the three days,
performing best when it mattered
most and fired an eight-over 292
in the final round. That was the
lowest final round mark of any
team in the field which featured
nine ranked squads, including No.
5 Stanford and No. 8 Florida.
Michigan heads to Toledo, Ohio
for the NCAA Finals beginning on
May 26 along with Florida, which
won the event, Stanford, No. 17
Texas Tech and No. 24 Texas.
Michigan's mental toughness
and its depth were on display
after the impressive final round
score came despite a two-and-
a-half hour rain delay about 35
minutes after play began. Its
standing ranged from fourth to
eighth throughout the back-nine.
Although no player finished in
the top-15, all five finished in the
top-50.
"We just wanted to make sure
we didn't make any mental errors
and that we executed the shots
we wanted to play," Sapp said.
because we've never really played
a game where it didn't mean any-
thing," Fetter said. "That was hard
to sit there and watch that game
and know that it didn't really
count towards anything."
Fetter had done all he could on
Thursday night during the first
game of the series. After pitch-
ing three scoreless innings, Fetter
allowed six runs during the fourth
inning. But Fetter and freshman
Brandon Sinnery were able to keep
the Wildcats silent after that as the
Wolverines used a nine-run sev-
enth inning to claim the first game
of the series, 16-6.
At the plate, junior Mike Dufek
led the offensive attack, going
2-for-4 with two home runs and
four RBI., despite Northwestern's
best efforts to slow the scoring
surge with three pitchers in the
seventh.
For the past three seasons, the
Wolverines hoisted the Big Ten
Tournament title trophy, but this
year they came two wins short of
a postseason berth.
-To read the whole story of the
team's disappointing end to the
season, go to michigandaily.com.
"We did a good job of doing that,
and that's why we're advancing to
nationals."
Michigan finished each of the
first two rounds in seventh place.
Senior co-captain Bill Rankin shot
an 80 in the first round, but kept
his team in contention by improv-
ing his play by nine strokes in the
second round with a tournament
team-low, even-par 71.
A private team meeting after
the second round paid dividends
for the Wolverines, as they out-
played eight of the nation's top 50
programs, including two top-10
teams. Three of Michigan's final
round scores were the players'
lowest scores of the tournament.
"We pretty much knew that we
had nothing to lose (in the final
round)," Kim said. "All of us felt
like that we had another good
round in us, and we knew that if we
just stayed patient and committed
to every shot that we would take
advantage of the opportunity."
While the Regional course in
Texas was an unfamiliar one,
Michigan will be familiar with
the Inverness Club, the site of the
finals in Toledo, having played a
practice round on the course two
weeks ago.