What happened?

The front cover of the 1998 Michigan baseball media guide presented this year's Wolverines with a daunting task from the very beginning.

It shows a group of celebrating, upstart victors who had just clinched Michigan's first regular-season Big Ten championship in eight year.

ADRIANA YUGOVICH/Daily Brian Alexander and the Michigan pitching staff were rocked often this season, contributing to a disappointing season.

It was supposed to serve as a benchmark for Zahn's '98 club - viewed as one of the most talented of this decade. This year's Wolverines were the defending champs, and they were expected to celebrate even further into May this season. A postseason Big Ten Tournament championship and a berth in the College World Series were realistic goals. Michigan even cracked the preseason national top 10 rankings.

But as sports fans know, high rankings and championship expectations can ruin good teams.

What set the Wolverines reeling all season long was the rain and snow in mid-March that postponed seven consecutive games, including a four game series against conference foe Iowa.

The results were devastating. Michigan got to play only one non-conference tune-up game before opening the Big Ten season. When Zahn's pitchers began the conference season at Illinois, the Wolverines were rocked for 45 runs in just four games.

Michigan never really recovered from the three losses to the Illini. The Wolverines spiraling toward a 9-15 conference record by season's end. They narrowly avoided last place a week ago with three victories at Indiana.

Of course, there are other reasons for Michigan's worst Big Ten season since 1951. Injuries - which last year's championship team avoided almost completely - played their toll, most notably sitting down team captain and returning MVP Brian Kalczynski for the season's second half.

Zahn also lost his liveliest pitching arm for part of the season in fireballer J.J. Putz, leaving Michigan without a dominant fourth starter.

But the biggest characteristic these underachieving Wolverines missed from last year's team was muscle power from the Besco brothers. The same identical twins who combined for 26 home runs and 124 RBI last season didn't look the same in this go-round, collecting just 10 homers and 56 runs combined.

05-18-98