Michigan reliever Jacob Cronenworth's fourth save in this year's Big Ten tournament was his most meaningful, and also most challenging.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, he allowed a run on three singles, and had base runners on second and third with the winning run represented at second base, and the Big Ten championship on the line.

Cronenworth forced Brandon Lowe to fly out to left field to lock up the Wolverines NCAA postseason with a 4-3 win.

It was the culmination of a terrific five-day stretch of baseball for the No. 3 seed Michigan (37-23) at Target Field in Minneapolis. Sunday's win gave the program its ninth Big 10 tournament championship, and clinched its 22nd NCAA tournament bid.

"I'm so proud," Michigan coach Erik Bakich said. "Proud of our kids. Proud of this program. We're standing on 148 years of baseball tradition and a lot of great men, a lot of great teams have come for us, and our guys just wrote a page of their own history, when nobody expected them to do so. That's just awesome."

The Wolverines broke the game open with a four-run fourth inning. They put runners on the corners with no outs thanks to a walk, and throwing error.

Designated hitter Cody Bruder continued his hot-hitting streak with a RBI single to tie it 1-1. Left fielder Kevin White followed it up with a RBI single of his own then Michigan scored two more runs without the benefit of a hit to make it 4-1.

Bruder scored on a wild pitch from Robert Galligan, and Jake Bivens walked with the bases loaded to drive in White.

Maryland (39-21) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead thanks Kevin Smith's sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the third inning. Johnny Slater made a nice catch in right field to limit the damage to one run.

It was the lone run the Terps scored off Michigan starting pitcher Brett Adcock.

Adcock bookended the tournament with wins for the Wolverines, giving up a run in five and two-thirds innings on two hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

"I didn't know until last night that I was starting, so I kind of prepared throughout the week like I was," Adcock said. "I stayed with that confidence that I had in the first game."

Michigan turned to Matt Ogden with two outs in the fifth, and a runner on first base. He immediately got out of the inning by forcing Jose Cuas into a fielders choice. Ogden stayed in the game for the seventh, and struck out the side.

The Wolverines benefited again from strong defense behind its pitching staff.

First baseman Carmen Benedetti made a catch leaning over into the stands, having to avoid a fan in the first row, to end the fifth inning.

It was another in a string of impressive defensive plays in the Big Ten tournament that included a Sportscenter Top 10 highlight on Thursday from Jackson Glines.

"Couldn't have been here without the defense," Adcock said. "Everybody preaches about the good defense every game. I think me preparing the way I did, the defense definitely helped me out and just really helped us out for the rest of the tournament."

Michigan now waits to find out where it will play in the double-elimination regionals round next weekend. A selection show will air at noon Monday on ESPNU.

Michael Niziolek covers local sports for MLive Ann Arbor News. Email him at mniziole@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+