Hammond, Kunkel, Scheidt and Taylor Named Captains
11/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan head baseball coach Rich Maloney announced that four seniors have been named co-captains for the 2006 season.
The co-captains named by Maloney include fifth-year lefthanded pitchers Paul Hammond (Mason, Ohio/ Mason HS) and Drew Taylor (Toronto, Ontario/Upper Canada College), fifth-year senior catcher Jeff Kunkel (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest HS) and senior 3B A.J. Scheidt (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lahser HS).
This is the earliest that Maloney, in his fourth season as head coach, has named his captains and the second straight year that the Wolverines have had four co-captains. It is only the third time there have been four co-captains for Michigan baseball (2002, 2005 and 2006).
Kunkel, an All-America candidate, is the top returning hitter from a year ago, when he batted .384 and earned second team All-Big Ten Conference honors. Kunkel was one of the 10 semifinalists -- and the only one from the Big Ten -- for the 2005 Johnny Bench Catcher of the Year Award. Kunkel won the Ray Fisher Award in 2005 as Michigan's Most Valuable Player, and he earned the Ted Sizemore Award as Michigan's top defensive player.
Scheidt returns as a three-year regular at third base for the Wolverines. He hit .297 in 2005 and had the most starts on the team at two positions with 40 at third base and 15 at designated hitter when he opened the season as the extra hitter due to injury. Scheidt is the active career leader for the Wolverines with 10 homers and 90 RBI in 147 games.
Hammond, who battled back from Tommy John surgery in his freshman season (2002), was a second team All-Big Ten performer in 2004 and has a 9-4 career record for the Wolverines including the NCAA Regional win against Furman in Atlanta last spring. Hammond has a 3.99 career earned run average as a Wolverine in 124.2 innings over 40 games (15 starts).
Taylor, a transfer from Georgia Tech after his freshman season in 2002, was a first team All-Big Ten pitcher in 2003 when he was 9-1 and earned the Geoff Zahn Award as Michigan's Most Valuable Pitcher. Taylor enters the 2006 season as the active career leader in wins at Michigan with 13. He is 13-6 with a 4.53 career ERA in 175.2 innings in 35 games (24 starts). Taylor was the winning pitcher at Penn State in the final regular-season game of the 2005 season, collecting Michigan's 40th win, the first 40-plus win season for the Wolverines since 1989.
The Wolverines open the 2006 season in the Wiregrass Classic (Feb. 24-26) in Dothan, Ala., facing Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) in the season opener (Feb. 24), host Troy University (Feb. 25) and South Alabama (Feb. 26). The Wolverines open the home schedule with a four-game weekend series vs. Oakland University (March 24-26) and open Big Ten action with a four-game home series against Northwestern (March 31-April 2).
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
