OMAHA, Neb. — They came expecting to win, not caring that nobody with any knowledge of their sport gave them much of a chance. In fact, Vanderbilt remained a heavy favorite to win the three-game College World Championship series with Michigan even after the Wolverines captured Game One Monday.
The Wolverines’ 7-4 win in the opener wasn’t a mirage, but most knew getting the second win over an elite Commodores team was the hardest part. It proved too tough — Vanderbilt won the last two games by a combined 12-3, including 8-2 in Wednesday’s Game Three, and its pitchers were nearly unhittable — but to head coach Erik Bakich, it was only the first step of what he’s envisioned for his program.
“Omaha isn’t a city to me,” he said of the College World Series hometown. “It’s a way of life.”
It’s also the promised land, and not just for him or any one of his teams. He made a vow to his former coach at East Carolina, Keith LeClair (who died in 2006 after battling ALS), that he would continue his legacy and take a team to the World Series.
"I got into coaching because I made a promise to Coach LeClair that myself and my teammates, we would continue his inspiration and continue his legacy and get to Omaha for him, because he never got to go," Bakich said.
But he never meant only once.
In fact, the bar has now been set for future generations of Wolverines. Getting there was great, Bakich said, but he made it clear that’s what he came to Ann Arbor to do … repeatedly.
“Team 153 has inspired a future generation of Michigan baseball players to realize what the new standard of college baseball (at Michigan) is all about,” he said. “It’s inspired a believability that being a National Champion is a reality. We were one game away from it.
“The ripple effect of that, how it will impact recruiting, the growth of our program, the consistency that could take place from here on, being a perennial Omaha contender, a National Championship contender ... that’s what’s really exciting about this.”
It was tough to feel as he watched his kids suffer through the aftermath of a national title game loss, he admitted. At the same time, it’s his job to think about what’s next. College baseball’s youngest coach is constantly in building mode, and he’s one of the country’s special leaders. Michigan fans flocked to Omaha, and thousands of others became invested over the last month.
The Michigan program has inherent disadvantages when it comes to competing at a national level, not the least of which is the weather, but Bakich is following softball coach Carol Hutchins’ lead in proving that you don’t have to play in the south to be able to play.
“We needed something magical to happen to be the tipping point,” he said. There could also be some ignition with some kids, some high school kid watching, that they can get everything they want in their college baseball experience at Michigan. It could inspire some youngster that there’s really good baseball played at the University of Michigan.
“We can be one of the great programs in the country.”
It will take work, of course. Karl Kauffmann, the losing pitcher in Game Three, admitted those disadvantages would always be there. The Vanderbilt team featured 13 Major League draft picks, and it literally looked like men against boys when the two teams matched up. Nearly all of the Commodores looked like linebackers or tight ends, while the Wolverines sported a group that looked like … well, college kids.
The irony is that Bakich, a seven-year assistant to Vanderbilt head coach and his good friend Tim Corbin, helped build the foundation of the team that beat him.
“He's a special guy. I say that besides the sport,” Corbin said. “I've always said Vanderbilt is not Vanderbilt if Erik Bakich isn't there. He created a lot of this, these foundations that Vanderbilt has allowed people to come and have what we had today, and I just … in a big way, I wish he was part of something like this with the same uniform. I would have loved to celebrate with him because he's a very deserving guy.
“But in saying that, he will enjoy this at some point. He will have that opportunity.”
It takes some luck, too. U-M was an at-bat away from not even making the NCAA Tournament this year before Jordan Nwogu beat Illinois with a two-run, walk-off double in the Big Ten Tournament.
More than anything, though, it takes a culture. Bakich is well on his way to establishing his.
“This was not some fluke. The way we recruit, the way we develop, the way we're supported, what Michigan is all about, this is how it should be,” he said.
“Sometimes it takes time. It's taken us seven years to reach this point. But I feel really good about what lies ahead.”
So should Michigan fans and alums around the country.
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