Interview with Michigan Baseball Head Coach Rich Maloney Part 1:ErocWolverine: What ended up being the problem with the lights on Friday night?
Rich Maloney: “Well the breakers did pop out on the lights, but what we believe happened was when the wall was being built that the wiring might have been hit during the process and when the lights were on for a period of time they overloaded. They have been working on that right now, so I am not sure what they found out the problem was.”
ErocWolverine: The ballpark is getting all the final touches done so how do you like it after all the hard work you and a lot of other people put in to your program to get this done?
Rich Maloney: “We are ecstatic about the hitting facility, about the locker room. I believe the locker room is one of the best in college baseball and we wanted it that way WOW factor and when recruits walk in and for our players to enjoy and hang out. We wanted a place for our players to build commemorate and I think we captured that I believe. The field itself is beautiful what we wanted, the video room we have, and the office area is very nice. We will not be done for another year in the planning of the area of the entrance and that will be the final piece to the puzzle. That is what we still need to capture and we did not do anything with the entrance because we were not sure how much space we really have and that is going to show the history of Michigan baseball. That will be one of the final pieces and one of the most important pieces. Once the season is over, we will start attacking that area.”
ErocWolverine: Is there anything else you would like to see be done regarding facilities for your program?
Rich Maloney: “We would have liked to have a complete weight room in the facility and hopefully someday we will because that is miy ultimate dream just like what hockey has for them, but we wasn’t able to pull that out in this first phase. We are probably going to have to extend some permanent seating at some point on down the line, but we wasn’t able to make that work with the budget that we had so there is just a couple things more that we will have to adjust to on down the road. Overall, the facility has been perceived very well and blends in very well with the building around it and capturing the old and the new.”
ErocWolverine: Had a great crowd for the MSU series at home any regrets on not adding more seats especially the fans bringing the brooms to the game on Sunday?
Rich Maloney: “There were many people there for sure and wish we had more seating. The plan was for more seating, but we were working within the budget and we had to prioritize what is most important. The first thing that was most important was getting hitting facility just right so our kids could continue to develop. The other main one was the locker room because that is where these kids spend a lot of their time. The two most important features that would benefit our kids and the other one were preparing ourselves for television in case we want to hold a regional.”
“Therefore, we prioritized and start going down the list and do to the list we had to put them down for another time. We are very thankful for what we have because this is a special place and we will try to address those other things on down the road. I hope that we can make our stadium full all the time and then try and make some tweaks along with creating a buzz to make these hot tickets. We can try to address how to make it better with adding non-permanent seating, but those are being used for preparation for graduation since the Big House cannot be used. After graduation, we will be able to have probably another thousand different seats down the first base and third base lines.”
“Quite honestly, we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of the crowd with the Michigan state series. We knew it was going to be a big crowd, but we never experience anything like that at Michigan. That is what we have been building for and hoping for. Until the fans, actually come out it is hard to spend money in that area hoping they come out. We can address that soon and will be able to accommodate those problems on down the line. I always thought we could have huge crowds here at Michigan depending on the weather and if we would have tried to hold the super regional last year here, we would not have been able to have enough seats for everybody. We are adjusting from what we had at the Michigan State series because we are expecting giant crowds for the Ohio State series coming up as long as the weather holds out so we are preparing as well to hopefully hosting a regional and pack that place.”
ErocWolverine: You had 27 runs against MSU in one game. Have you ever had that many runs in a game before at the college level?
Rich Maloney: “Well actually, I have when I was at Ball State we beat Valparaiso 27-10, beat Akron 31-5 and my favorite one was we beat Purdue 27-10 and that was special. We have a potent offense and when they get hot and Michigan State got deep into their pitching that can happen. I even went deep into the bench by the fourth inning. It was one of those days that it is fun when you are winning and terrible when you are losing.”
ErocWolverine: Your bats sure have been warming up just like the weather along with many homeruns lately?
Rich Maloney: “I knew from a power standpoint and we have always felt we had as much power as anybody in college baseball. Our park has not been conducive to hitting many homeruns. We have shortened the fences a little bit and that has helped, but our guys have been hitting them in the right spot as well. Unfortunately, you can hit the ball very well, but you hit it in the wrong spot and the other team makes a play. We had a lot of wind blowing out against Illinois and our guys started to launch them. Against Michigan State, the win was blowing in one direction and we were getting hot. I could see our guys hitting 75-85 this year of course depending on weather.”
written by ErocWolverine
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