Oaks Lifts Wolverines to Capture NCAA Regional Crown

Monday, June 4

Nashville, Tenn.

6:00 PM CT

Michigan

42-17

Vanderbilt

54-13

Michigan

Vanderbilt

Alan Oaks (14) led off the 10th with a home run off Vandy All-American David Price

6/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Jim Schneider

Site: Nashville, Tenn. (Hawkins Field)
Event: NCAA Regional
Score: Michigan 4, #1 Vanderbilt 3 (10 innings)
Records: U-M (42-17), Vanderbilt (53-13)
Next U-M Event: Friday, June 8 -- NCAA Super Regionals (Campus Sites)

• Boxscore

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Freshman OF/RHP Alan Oaks (White Lake, Mich./Divine Child) hit a pinch home run in the 10th inning as the University of Michigan baseball team defeated top-ranked Vanderbilt 4-3 Monday night (June 4) to win the NCAA Nashville Regional at Hawkins Field. The win advances U-M to the Super Regional level of the NCAA Tournament this weekend (June 9-11).

Michigan (42-17) will play in Super Regional action for the first time in school history and will play defending national champ Oregon State. Oregon State remained alive in the Charlottesville Regional with a win over host Virginia on Monday night. The two will decide that regional championship on Tuesday (June 5).

Oaks hit his homer off Vanderbilt LHP David Price -- the player expected to be the first player taken in the upcoming Major League First Year Entry Draft. Price (11-1) had pitched nine innings in the regional opener against Austin Peay and had pitched the ninth inning to keep the game tied at 3-3. When Price came out to pitch in the 10th inning, Oaks connected on a 3-1 pitch -- likely the last collegiate pitch for the All-American Price.

Junior/sophomore Michael Powers (St. Clair Shores, Mich./South Lake) closed the win for his fourth save of the season, while sophomore 3B/RHP Adam Abraham (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./South HS) recorded the win. Abraham (5-1) pitched the eighth and the ninth innings.

Junior 1B Nate Recknagel (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) was 3-for-5 with a homer. He was named Most Valuable Player of the Nashville Regional.

Recknagel singled up the middle with two outs in the first inning for the first hit of the game off Vanderbilt RHP Tyler Rhoden.

Michigan junior/sophomore Chris Fetter (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) got the starting nod for the Wolverines, and he allowed a bunt single by RF Dominic de la Osa for the only hit of the first inning. The stanza was was highlighted by a sliding catch by senior RF Brad Roblin (Wayland, Mass./Rivers School).

The Wolverines reached the scoreboard in the second inning, loading the bases on singles by Abraham, junior LF Derek VanBuskirk (St. Clair, Mich./St. Clair) and sophomore 2B Kevin Cislo (Novi, Mich./Novi), while senior co-captain Eric Rose (Blissfield, Mich./Blissfield) drove in the run with a sac fly to left.

Fetter, who pitched seven innings in the no-decision, allowed seven hits and two runs against Vanderbilt. He had three 1-2-3 innings before walking the leadoff batter in the eighth inning.

Recknagel launched a long homer -- which landed on top of the batting cage building down the left-field line -- to give Michigan a 2-0 lead in the third inning. It was Recknagel's team-leading 12th homer of the year.

Vanderbilt put a pair of runners on in the third as 1B Brad French walked and 2B Alex Feinberg singled to left with two outs. However, Fetter retired RF de la Osa on a foul pop to catcher Doug Pickens (West Bloomfield, Mich./Brother Rice) to end the inning.

Vanderbilt All-America Pedro Alvarez homered to left-center on the fourth to put the Commodores on the scoreboard. The homer was the 18th of the season for Alvarez.

SS Ryan Flaherty singled to left-center for his 12th hit of the regional, and LF Matt Meingasner dropped a single that hit the line and stuck behind first base. However, Flaherty could only reach second on the play.

With two on and no outs, DH Parker Hanks grounded to third and Abraham got the force at second to leave runners on the corners with catcher Shea Robin coming to the plate. Fetter picked Flaherty off third -- the third Vanderbilt runner picked off by the Wolverines in the regional -- and Robin bounced out to sophomore SS Jason Christian (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland) to end the inning that had started with three straight hits.

Christian singled up the middle to start the fifth inning and scored from first as Roblin bounced a double just inside the line in left. Recknagel singled to left, moving Roblin to third and chasing Vandy starter Rhoden. LHP Cody Crowell entered to face Putnam with runners on the corners. He struck out Putnam and Abraham and retired Pickens on a fly to left to get out of further trouble.

Vanderbilt 1B French singled to start the bottom of the fifth but -- after faking a bunt -- CF David Macias lined to Abraham, who fired to Recknagel for a quick double play. Vandy 2B Alex Feinberg followed with a double, but Fetter fanned de la Osa to get out of the inning.

Freshman LHP Mike Minor, the starter in Michigan's 4-3 win on Friday (June 2), entered and worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning, and Fetter matched it.

Alan Oaks
Oaks with the game-winning swing

Vanderbilt All-America closer Casey Weathers came in to pitch in the seventh inning and walked Christian to start the inning. Roblin moved him to second base with a sac bunt, but Weathers struck out Recknagel and retired Putnam on a grounder to first.

Vanderbilt DH Parke Hanks led off the seventh with a foul pop behind the plate that Pickens did not see. The ball fell just inside the screen as 3B Abraham was tracking it but did not have a chance to make the play. The next pitch was popped to Abraham for the out, and the next two batters hit grounders to Christian at short for another 1-2-3 inning.

Pickens singled up the middle with one out in the eighth but was doubled off as VanBuskirk lined out to Feinberg at second base.

Fetter walked CF Macias to start the eighth inning and, after he fell behind 1-0 to Feinberg, Abraham came in from 3B to pitch. Christian moved from short to third and freshman Anthony Toth (Lorain, Ohio/St. Ignatius) moved to shortstop.

Abraham retired Feinberg, but de la Osa doubled to right to put the tying runs on second and third. Abraham walked Alvarez intentionally to load the bases for SS Flaherty.

Flaherty hit a sac fly to make the score 3-2, and Meingasner dropped a single to center to tie the game at 3-3. Abraham retired DH Hanks to end the inning.

Weathers walked Cislo to start the ninth, and Vanderbilt went to All-American David Price, who pitched nine innings in a start on Friday. Rose bunted Cislo to second base, but Price fanned Christian and Roblin to send the game to the bottom of the ninth tied at 3.

Vandy catcher Shea Robin reached on a throwing error to open the bottom of the ninth, and after the sac bunt put the winning run on second, Wolverine 2B Cislo made a game-saving grab on a bloop by Macias. Abraham then retired Feinberg on a fly to Rose in center.

Price came back out to pitch in the 10th inning, and with one out freshman Oaks lined a 3-1 pitch over the fence in left-center for a homer. For Oaks, who pitched 1.2 innings against Vanderbilt in the 10-7 loss on Sunday (June 3), it was his first game-winning RBI as a Wolverine -- and it came against the top pitcher in the nation on the top-ranked team in the nation on the road.

Powers came in to replace Abraham with the lead in the 10th inning. Abraham moved back to third and Christian back to shortstop.

Powers faced the 3-4-5 batters in the Vanderbilt lineup and got de la Osa to ground out to short, Alvarez was robbed of a potential game-tying homer by the 6-foot-6 VanBuskirk in left, and after SS Flaherty singled, Powers got Meingasner on an excuse-me come-backer to the mound and the Wolverines had won a regional for the first time since 1984 in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

Powers recorded a win and a save in the two Michigan wins over top-ranked Vanderbilt.

Recknagel had three hits while Pickens and VanBuskirk each had had two to pace the 12-hit U-M attack. Christian hit .429 (6-14) in the regional, while Recknagel had six hits (6-for-17, .353) with a double, a triple, two homers and seven RBI for a slugging percentage of .882.

The Wolverines will continue NCAA action next weekend in Super Regional play against defending national champ Oregon State at a site to be determined. Sophomore RHP/DH Zach Putnam (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) with his 8-4 record and 4.13 ERA will start the best of three series for U-M.

N O T E S

• The national anthem for Monday's Nashville Regional championship game was played on saxophone by the famed "Boots" Randolph.

• The pinch-hit game-winning homer by Alan Oaks was his second pinch homer of the season as he had one at Northwestern in the Big Ten season-opening series.

• Recknagel's multi-hit game was the 72nd of his career and his 13th three-hit game. Recknagel, the MVP of the regional, hit his team-leading 12th homer of the season, and he has a team-leading total of 61 RBI. The homer was his 25th career round-tripper.

• Former Michigan catcher Matt Rademacher, who lettered in 2004 and 2005, and who would have been a fifth-year player for the Wolverines this season, was playing in NCAA Regional action for Coastal Carolina. He transferred from Michigan following the 2005 season.

• Michigan all-tournament selections at the NCAA Nashville Regional included MVP honors to Nate Recknagel, who was selected at the DH/utility player position, and 2B Kevin Cislo.

• The game-saving catches by 2B Cislo in the ninth inning and by LF VanBuskirk in the 10th inning were shown on ESPN's Sportscenter as Top Ten Plays of the Day.

• Michigan's leading hitters after 59 games are: LF Derek VanBuskirk (54-for-140, .386), 2B Kevin Cislo (58-for-156, .372), 1B Nate Recknagel (79-for-220, .359), C/OF Doug Pickens (78-for-225, .347), P/DH Zach Putnam (74-for-217, .341), SS Jason Christian (79-for-236, .335), 3B/P Adam Abraham (74-for-224, .330), OF Brad Roblin (55-for-168, .327) and CF Eric Rose (61-for-198, .308).