An aggressive approach

Less than one month ago, new Terrapin baseball pitching coach Sean Kenny was living in Malibu, Calif., a city known for its beaches and oceanfront scenery.

But recently, the former Pepperdine coach traded all that in for the chance to sleep on an air mattress in College Park.

It’s not every day that an 11-year coaching veteran with Kenny’s credentials leaves an established program for the chance to rebuild. But once new Terp baseball head coach Erik Bakich approached Kenny with his vision for the program, Kenny couldn’t refuse.

“Both on a personal and a baseball level it was a no-brainer,” said Kenny, who, up until Labor Day, had been sharing floor space with fellow coaches Dan Burton and Nolan Neiman in Bakich’s two-bedroom apartment. “The idea is that we are going to blaze our own trail and be unique. The foundation of this program is going to be recruiting and development, and building it starts at the first team meeting.”

Since he was hired at the end of June, Bakich, the former Vanderbilt assistant, has stressed a long-term strategy revolving around recruiting hard and developing both talent and facilities with an enthusiastic and hard-working approach.

Bakich said he hired a staff with similar goals, and said it now appears the coaches are all running on the same wave length.

Bakich came to this university with a reputation as a top-notch recruiter, having signed players such as current Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price and Pirates top prospect Pedro Alvarez while with the Commodores.

But Maryland is not Vanderbilt. The Terps lag behind the Commodores in both tradition and facilities. The Terps haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 1971.

Yet as of last week, Bakich said he had commitments from 11 prospects in the class of 2010, and one from the class of 2011.

And while it’s not easy to recruit against the likes of traditional ACC powerhouses, Bakich has a recruiting secret: selling the future.

“Being part of the turnaround teams and the comeback teams is exciting and fun,” Bakich said. “We tell kids how they get to be builders and how they will be part of the rise of a new ACC power. Any time you get to add the “first-ever” label to a record, it’s special.”

Priority number one for Bakich and his staff is putting a “recruiting wall” around the state of Maryland. Kenny joked the staff will be “having fistfights to see who gets to go out on the road and recruit during the season.”

Now the Terps are entering their third week of a rigorous workout plan, but behind the scenes the coaching staff is working around the clock to lay the foundation for the future.

To some, Bakich’s goal of making the NCAA Tournament regularly might seem far-fetched, but others in the ACC have shown it’s possible.

Last season, Boston College and coach Mik Aoki ended an even longer NCAA Tournament drought by earning a berth for the first time in 42 years. The Eagles’ success gives Bakich a reason for optimism, as Boston College is also considered a cold-weather program with traditionally fewer resources from its Athletics Department.

“It’s going to be tough; you don’t go from worst to first in this league overnight,” Aoki said. “You know you are going to lose some of those recruiting battles because some kids want to play for one of the big-name schools. But nobody said life had to be fair; we are going in the right direction, but we need to have patience on a grander scale.”

Patience is where the two coaches differ. Bakich, who has at his disposal the full 11.7 scholarship allotment, doesn’t have any interest in waiting and doesn’t hold back when making that clear.

“Patience is not a virtue of mine,” Bakich declared. “We don’t have any time for that shit.”

He firmly believes the Terps are one of those “big-name” schools Aoki was referring to. He knows winning the ACC in his first year is going to be difficult, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to try.

A big jump in the ACC standings will be difficult in 2010. The Terps lost much of their offensive production from last season, and although the pitching staff will be experienced, it will need significant improvement from its starters if the Terps expect to compete in what should be a deep conference.

If the Terps are going to make any inroads against programs such as North Carolina and Florida State in the short term, it will be because they play fundamentally soundly, and Bakich knows it. Starting with the fall workouts, Bakich is confident the Terps will “outwork, out-train and out-hustle every single team.”

Many of college baseball’s pundits have doubts about the talent of the Terps’ current roster, but Bakich thinks that could be a motivating factor.

“These kids are gonna play with a chip on their shoulder because no one thinks they can do it,” Bakich said. “I won’t make any predictions, but we are gonna sneak up on some people this year. We are going to make people understand when they play Maryland, they are playing a hard-working, blue-collar team that’s gonna fight for nine innings.”

Aaron Fitt, national college baseball writer for Baseball America, said Bakich’s vision might not be that far off.

“I suspect Maryland fans will notice a difference in the team’s energy level immediately,” Fitt said. “And by year two, I think they’ll see a strong base of young talent on the roster. I think the Terrapins will be back in the Regionals by 2012.”

Bakich said he intends to have a new indoor hitting and pitching facility ready for the spring. But he has even bolder ideas for the long term.

In addition to new locker rooms and upgrades to the outfield fence, Bakich said he has even talked to football coach Ralph Friedgen, who said “the taller the better” when it came to installing a 50-foot batter’s eye fence in center field to share with football coaches taping practice on the adjacent football practice fields.

But building these facilities will depend on the team’s performance on the field. Last year it was routine to see opposing fans filling more seats at Shipley Field than the home crowd. Bakich said he understands there won’t be a demand for improvements until the team starts winning.

“We have to get people to come out to the games. And if I have to go dorm to dorm and frat house to frat house, I will,” Bakich said emphatically. “When students come out to the games, they need to understand they are seeing an exciting product. They will be our tenth man. I want opposing teams to know when they are going to play Maryland that it will be loud and hostile.”

Bakich’s meticulous planning is just another example of his intense desire to resurrect the program.

He wants to change the logo and “re-brand” the program. The team will be ditching its red and yellow jerseys in favor of pinstripes, because Bakich wants to be able to sell future recruits on the opportunity to “play in the Terrapin pinstripes.”

For now, Bakich’s aspirations seem like a pipe dream. Just don’t tell him that.

lemaire@umdbk.com