Fine Baseball Season Fails To Produce Title

Fine Baseball Season Fails To Produce Title

By Wayne DeNeff

Another fine baseball season has ended for Michigan although for the third straight year the Wolverines have fallen just short of a Big Ten championship.

They were second in 1964, second in 1965 and now third 1966 with a .769 percentage (10-3) which in some years would be good enough for the title.

But this was the year Ohio State got rained out of nine games and made a successful defense of its championship by winning the only six it played. Minnesota pulled up second on an .821 (11-2-1) percentage.

This was a Michigan team that won 22 of its 32 games (.688) throughout the season, hit the ball well, hit for distance often (such as in Saturday’s two victories over Michigan State, 2-1 and 5-3) and at times played brilliantly on defense.

While Coach Moby Benedict fretted most about his pitching after he had used the hard-throwing Bob Reed, lefthanders Geoff Zahn and Jim Lyijynen often did well like they did in picking up Saturday’s victories in the season’s windup.

Reed, Zahn and Lyijynen will be the men Benedict will be counting on particularly next spring. The pitching may have to be a little stronger to make up for the losses of two fine infielders, in addition to the leading hitter, rightfielder Al Bara, and the sturdy three-year catching veteran, Ted Sizemore.

Graduating with Bara and Sizemore will be one of the best fielding first basemen in Michigan history, Chan Simonds, a top-notch all - around performer in shortstop Bob Gilhooley, the captain.

And the Wolverines are bound to miss Mel Wakabayashi, the little second baseman who traded his hockey stick for a baseball bat and delivered one of the most memorable hits at Ferry Field — a ninth-inning, game-winning home run in dead centerfield in Saturday’s first game.

Returning will be regular second baseman Rick Sygar, third baseman Keith Spicer, leftfielder Les Tanona and centerfielder Dick Schryer has been a trusty hitter for two straight seasons.

Schryer, Plymouth junior, rapped a long, three-run homer to provide the winning margin in the second game after Simonds had pounded a two-run blast to pull the Wolverines into a tie.

Winning the Saturday twin-bill was a source of considerable satisfaction to the Wolverines who, for the first time in the conference, did not play too well in losing a Friday game to the Spartans, 6-5.

The twin victories won the series and lifted Michigan above MSU in the standings after the Spartans had drawn even on Friday’s triumph. For the sea-Michigan State finished 23-13-1 (.635).

The 1966 season only serves to prove again how difficult it is to win a Big Ten championship. What is needed it a lot of good baseball plus a sizeable amount of good fortune.

Even if the Wolverines had reversed those one-run losses to MSU and Minnesota (5-4 12 innings), there still was that 4-1 setback at the hands of Iowa standing in the way of catching Ohio State. With an exceptional pitching staff, the Buckeyes are expected to be good representatives of the Big Ten in the coming NCAA Tournament.

In beating Michigan State in the first game, Zahn pitched a three-hitter against a squad which had been on a hitting spree in winning six straight conference games.

MSU scored in the sixth when Zahn walked Dennis Maedo and John Frye doubled but that was all the scoring for the visitors.

Michigan tied it in the seventh. Wakabayashi legged out a single on a ball hit in front of the plate and rightfielder Steve Juday, whose fielding had preserved Friday’s victory for MSU, lost Sizemore’s flyball. It went for a triple, scoring Wakabayashi.

That set the stage for the 5-5, 147-pound Wakabayashi who last winter was voted the most valuable player in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

His four-base smash was almost on a line and it cleared the fence at the farthest point from home plate, handing right-hander Dick Kenney, MSU’s barefooted place-kicking specialist, his first loss of the season.

In the second game, the Spartans went ahead against Lyijynen with single runs in the first and second innings.

There was no doubt about the subsequent home runs by Simonds and Schryer when the balls left the bat. Simonds’ came after Schryer had walked in the third inning and Schryer’s came in the fifth after Gilhooley and Sizemore had singled with two men out.

Spartan starter Jim Blight had been keeping Schryer from getting good wood on the ball with high pitches but he fired across the belt and Schryer’s shot to leftfield plunked a good 30 feet beyond the fence.

The Spartans threatened in the last inning when Steve Polisar singled and Frye doubled him home for the ninth and 10th hits off Lyijynen. But Reed, a nine-game winner for the season and a six-game winner in Big Ten competition, came to the rescue. He struck out Speer. After John Walters’ single, Reed got Tom Binkowski on a fly to left.

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Big Ten Baseball

FINAL STANDING

Ohio State – W: 6 L: 0 T: 0 Pct.: 1.000
Minnesota – W: 11 L: 2 T: 1 Pct.: .821
MICHIGAN – W: 10 L: 3 T: 0 Pct.: .769
MICHIGAN STATE – W: 8 L: 5 T: 0 Pct.: .615
Indiana – W: 6 L: 5 T: 0 Pct.: .545
Illinois – W: 5 L: 7 T: 0 Pct.: .417
Wisconsin – W: 6 L: 9 T: 0 Pct.: .400
Iowa – W: 4 L: 7 T: 0 Pct.: .364
Purdue – W: 2 L: 9 T: 1 Pct.: .208
Northwestern – W: 2 L: 13 T: 0 Pct.: .133

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

Iowa at Ohio State – rain
MICHIGAN 2-5, MICHIGAN STATE 1-3
Wisconsin 11-2, Purdue 4-6
Illinois 7-6, Northwestern 3-4
Minnesota 11-2, Indiana 4-1

FIRST GAME

MSU
Maedo 2b – AB: 3 R: 1 H: 0
Polisar ss – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 0
Frye cf – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 2
Speer cf – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 0
Binko’ski 1b – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 0
Biednb’ch 3b – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 0
Juday rf – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 0
Kilbourn c – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 0
Kenney p – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 1
Totals – AB: 31 R: 1 H: 3

MICHIGAN
Gilhooley ss – AB: 3 R: 0  H: 1
Sizemore c – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 2
Schryer 3b – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 1
Tanona lf – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 0
Bara rf – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 0
Simonds 1b – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 0
Spicer 3b – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 0
Wak’b’shi 2b – AB: 3 R: 2 H: 2
Zahn p – AB: 1 R: 2 H: 0
Totals – AB: 28 R: 2 H: 6

MSU: 000 001 000 – 1
MICHIGAN: 000 000 101 – 2

E – Polisar, Speer, Kilbourn, Wakabayashi, Zahn. RBI – Frye, Sizemore, Wakabayashi. LOB – MSU 6, Michigan 8. DP – MSU. 2B – Frye. 3B – Sizemore. HR – Wakabayashi. SB – Maedo. SH – Juday, Zahn 2.

PITCHING SUMMARY

Kenney (L, 5-1) – IP: 9 H: 6 R-R: 2-2 BB: 5 SO: 4
Zahn – IP: 9 H: 3 R-R: 1-1 BB: 1 SO: 5
HBP – Speer (by Zahn). U – Bob Moyer and Doug Cossey. T – 2:17. A – 700

SECOND GAME

MSU
Walker 2b – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 1
Polisar ss – AB: 4 R: 1 H: 1
Frye cf – AB: 4 R: 1 H: 3
Speer cf – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 2
Walters rf AB: 4 R: 0 H: 1
Binkowski 1b – AB: 4 R: 0 H: 2
Steckley c – AB: 2 R: 1 H: 1
Biedenbach 3b – AB: 2 R: 0 H: 0
Blight p – AB: 2 R: 0 H: 0
Holmes ph – AB: 1 R: 0 H: 0
Totals – AB: 30 R: 3 H: 11

MICHIGAN
Gilhooley ss – AB: 3 R: 1  H: 1
Sizemore c – AB: 3 R: 1 H: 1
Schryer cf – AB: 2 R: 1 H: 1
Tanona lf – AB: 3 R: 1 H: 1
Bara rf – AB: 2 R: 0 H: 0
Simonds 1b – AB: 2 R: 1 H: 1
Spicer 3b – AB: 1 R: 0 H: 0
Wakabayashi 2b – AB: 3 R: 0 H: 0
Zahn p – AB: 2 R: 0 H: 0
Totals – AB: 21 R: 5 H: 5

MSU: 110 000 1 – 3
MICHIGAN: 000 230 x – 5

E – Walters, Schryer, Wakabayashi 2. RBI – Walker, Frye, Schryer 3, Simonds 2. LOB – MSU 9, Michigan 3. DP – MSU, Michigan 2. 2B – Frye 2. HR – Schryer, Simonds. SH – Spicer.

PITCHING SUMMARY

Blight (L, 2-3) – IP: 5 H: 5 R-R: 5-5 BB: 3 SO: 4
Goodrich – IP: 1 H: 0 R-R: 0-0 BB: 1 SO: 0
Lyijynen (W, 2-2) – IP: 6 1/3 H: 10 R-R: 3-1 BB: 2 SO: 2
Reed – IP: 2/3 H: 1 R-R: 0-0 BB: 0 SO: 0
HBP – Biedenbach (by Lyijynen). U –Doug Cossey and Bob Moyer. T – 2:04. A – 600