9 Thursday, May 28, 2015 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS wrote their own page when no one expected them to, and that’s awesome.” Before the celebration, it was about doing enough to win. Although he didn’t look like his usual overpowering self, Adcock (10-4) earned his third win in eight days, pitching 5.2 innings and allowing just two hits. At the plate, Michigan — enter- ing the game as the conference’s top offense — struggled to get things going, only accumulating six hits in the game. After falling behind, 1-0, in the third inning, however, the bats seized every opportunity from a Terrapin error to extend the inning. Seeing-eye RBI singles by junior designat- ed hitter Cody Bruder and senior outfielder Kevin White opened the scoring, and from there the Wolverines rolled, batting around in the inning and providing enough offense to win. “We always go out there and try to make the pitcher throw as many pitches as we can and see a lot of pitches, and when he makes a mis- take, that’s when we strike,” said senior outfielder Jackson Glines, who led the Tournament with nine hits. “We’re an opportunistic offense, (Bakich) doesn’t always like that, but we try to take what we can when we can.” With the eight teams combining for a .238 batting average through- out the tournament, hits were at a premium on both sides. In addition to Adcock, the Wolverines’ defense ensured that the four-run fourth inning was more than enough, rob- bing base hits and killing rallies. Sophomore first baseman Carmen Benedetti made the most notable of the plays, leaving his feet to snag a foul ball that had drifted into the sec- ond row of the stands. With plenty of errors from high-seeded teams, the Wolverines’ ability to stay composed and avoid mistakes stood out. “We didn’t necessarily avoid those mistakes in the season,” Bakich said. “We dug ourselves a hole, and we had moments early in the year — starting 2-5 or 0-3 in the Big Ten — where those were learn- ing moments for us.” “We’ve had our struggles, and those struggles have made us stron- ger. That’s what you saw this week- end.” Tensions mounted in the top of the seventh, when Maryland grew upset with home plate umpire Jim Schaly’s strike zone. After multiple delays, Maryland coach John Szefc was ejected from the game. The Terrapins responded by tal- lying a second run in the eighth inning, but third baseman Jose Cuas was thrown out stretching a double into a triple, ending the rally with just one run. But Maryland wasn’t done yet. *** Brandon Lowe lived for moments like this. Maryland’s second baseman — seen as one of the best players in the conference — strolled to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning. The Terrapins already scored one run to make it 4-3 in the ninth inning, and were one swing of the bat away from a lead. They were a swing away from erasing the four-run Michigan fourth inning made possible by an error, a swing away from complet- ing a three-run comeback effort and a swing away from punching their own NCAA Tournament ticket. Lowe had gone 0-for-3 in the game, but his team-leading .342 bat- ting average suggested he wouldn’t be hitless for long. In the other dugout, Bakich took a walk. Usually perched on the top step, the coach felt compelled to calm his team down. As he told everyone they were fine, then turned to give his fielders adjustments without blink- ing, it became clear that the same coach who mentioned ‘Champion- ship’ 19 times in his opening press conference three years ago wasn’t going to miss his first chance at one — not if he could help it. Cronenworth, who would later be named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, tried every- thing to stay loose. He clicked his heels to get the mud off, did a couple arm circles and took a deep breath. Turning himself into a high-profile prospect in his time in Ann Arbor, Cronenworth was one Lowe swing away from ending his career at Michigan. But he wasn’t ready for that, not yet. Strike one. The next pitch was even better than a strike. Lowe popped up, the dugout exploded, but restrained itself because in a rain-soaked game and a tournament that had seen even the nation’s best teams self destruct from errors, you just don’t know. It was a high floater to left and senior outfielder Kevin White, who drove in the winning run with a seeing-eye single to left in the fourth inning, camped out under it. White captured the ball, and Michigan captured its 36th Big Ten Champi- onship. For the 22nd time, but just the first since 2008, the Michi- gan baseball team is postseason- bound. In Monday’s NCAA Tournament selection show, it was announced that the Wolver- ines (14-10 Big Ten, 37-23 over- all) will travel to Louisville to play in a regional hosted by No. 3 Louisville. Michigan will be the third seed in the tourna- ment. In addition to the Cardinals, No. 19 Bradley and Morehead State will partici- pate as the second and fourth seeds, respectively. The Wolverines will play Bradley on Friday at 2 p.m. at Jim Patter- son Stadium. The Braves (9-11 Mis- souri Valley, 35-19) hold a 3-6 record against ranked teams and beat their one Big Ten opponent, Iowa, 5-4 on April 14. The tournament is double-elim- ination format, so Michigan will need to win at least three games to advance to a Super Regional. It last did so in 2007, when it upset No. 1 Vanderbilt in Nashville. Likely its largest obstacle will be the Car- dinals (25-5 Atlantic Coast, 45-18 overall). Louisville is 10-5 against ranked teams, and went 1-2 in three games against Big Ten teams, beating Purdue but falling to Indi- ana and Ohio State. The Cardinals are no stranger to regional action, hosting a regional for the third- straight year and having made the College World Series each of the last two seasons. To make it into the Tourna- ment, Michigan got hot at the right time, winning the Big Ten Tournament to secure an auto- matic bid. All five of its victories in the past week were over teams that made the Tournament — No. 14 Oklahoma State, Indiana, No. 19 Iowa, No. 4 Illinois and Mary- land. “It’s still settling in for some of the guys,” said junior right-hand- er Jacob Cronenworth after the announcement. “It’s a whirlwind of emotions these past 24 hours. It’s been awesome. I don’t think a lot of people expected us to win it, and when we got that final out, it was awesome.” CHAMPIONSHIP From Page 1A Bradley vs Michigan Matchup: No. 19 Bradley 35-19; Michi- gan 37-23 When: Fri- day 2 P.M. Where: Jim Patterson Stadium, Louisville TV/Radio: ESPN3, WCBN-FM Bradley awaits Regional game ALEXANDRIA BODFISH/Daily Senior outfielder Kevin White looks to help carry Michigan’s success to Louisville. “We’ve had our struggles.”