Coach Erik Bakich recruited Tampa Bay pitcher David Price and Pittsburgh third baseman Pedro Alvarez to Vamderbilt.

More than a decade ago, a young Matt Bosse sat in his Baltimore home, watching former Terrapins basketball star Juan Dixon captivate the university during a Final Four appearance and national championship run.

Three hundred and twenty-five miles away in Greenville, N.C., Erik Bakich was wrapping up a short stint in professional baseball, returning to his alma mater East Carolina University as a volunteer assistant.

Both were years away from reaching their goals, but both knew exactly where they wanted to be. Bosse wanted to follow in Dixon’s footsteps and become a Terp. Bakich wanted to climb from his low-level job all the way to the top of a major college program in a high-profile conference.

A decade later, both have realized those dreams. Bosse is a key reserve outfielder for the Terrapins baseball team, stepping onto the field each day with “Maryland” scrawled across his chest just as Dixon did all those years ago.

And Bakich? He’s the coach who recruited him to College Park.

Bosse, along with third baseman K.J. Hockaday, formed the cornerstone of Bakich’s 2011 recruiting class. That group, along with the nationally recognized 22-player class that came in the previous year, is credited with the continued overhaul of the Terps program and has them on the verge of making their first postseason appearance of any kind since 2005.

The recruiting philosophy that drove Bakich to target those players is steeped through his own experiences playing and assisting at a number of programs, all the while forming relationships with players, parents and other coaches. Those interactions provide the incentive for players to play for him, as well as give him the incentive to coach them.

“Recruiting is the lifeblood of any good college sports program,” Bakich said. “Good players make good coaches, and that’s just the way it is. That is and will always be the single most important facet of our program 100 percent of the time.”

CLOSE TO HOME

When Bakich took over the Terps in June 2009, there was one logical place for him to start recruiting: Maryland. But after spending the previous seven years as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt, he knew little about the area.

Yet even in unfamiliar territory, Bakich hit the ground running. He wanted to make sure the best players in the state stayed close to home in college. So as soon as NCAA rules would allow it, the newly minted Terps coach was on the phone with some of the state’s most talented players.

At 12:01 a.m. on July 1, 2009 – the first permissible time for coaches to contact prospective recruits – second baseman Kyle Convissar’s home phone rang. No one was awake to answer the call, but when the Severna Park native woke up the next morning, his parents had a message from Bakich waiting.

“I wasn’t expecting anything,” Convissar said. “It was [after] my junior year. I got these little letters from a bunch of teams all over the place. I didn’t really know how the process really worked, and then the next thing I know, first day comes and I’ve got a message.”

Convissar’s teammate at Severna Park High School, catcher Alex Ramsay, received a similar phone call from Bakich. Eventually, Bakich had secured commitments from two of the top players in Maryland.

“The enthusiasm for what he wanted the program to be and how he wanted me to be a part of it and big part of it, I thought it was a great thing,” Convissar said. “It’s close to home. It’s a great school. Everything seemed to work out well, so I went along with it.”

Bakich said he’s always looking for athletes who can play multiple positions – Convissar was a high school shortstop who converted to second base – but he’s also targeting more than just skills on the field. He wants to see a commitment in academics, too, and Convissar is on the ballot for the 2012 Academic All-America Team.

“You have to have guys that take pride in the classroom,” Bakich said. “You have to have guys that are strong workers. You have to have guys that are great character kids, guys of great character and great makeup.”

PLUGGING HOLES

A large portion of Bakich’s vaunted 2010 recruiting class came from junior college transfers, including second baseman Ryan Holland and first baseman Tomo Delp. Mixed in with young players such as Convissar and Ramsay, the transfers provided both new blood and experience simultaneously.

“I went to junior college,” Bakich said. “It was the best thing I could have done. To me, a junior college player is a hole filler. You don’t recruit junior college players to provide depth, you recruit junior college players because you have a need.”

Holland and Delp have both made impacts as transfer players – Holland batted .282 last season and had a team-high 30 RBI, and Delp’s ability to play multiple positions has been valuable to this season’s oft-injured team.

But even though junior college transfers enter into the program already experienced in the college game, they don’t provide longevity. With only two years of eligibility remaining by the time they step on the campus, Bakich doesn’t want to lean on that pipeline too much.

Instead, he plans on continuing down the path he started on.

“We’ll always probably have to get a few, but it’ll be majority high school players,” Bakich said. “I don’t personally … want to have a revolving door program where every two years you’re rotating out players.”

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Before he took over the moribund Terps program, Bakich was known as one of the top young recruiters in the country. Seven times in seven seasons at Vanderbilt, Bakich’s recruiting classes were nationally ranked. He even recruited the No. 1 pick in the 2007 MLB Draft, left-hander David Price.

For the coach who hired him, it was easy to see why.

“He’s got a very infectious personality,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. “He’s kind. He’s always got a smile on his face. He’s happy to be around. He’s got positive energy. He’s humble. … It’s easy for him to relate to kids. He makes people feel good around him.”

As an assistant, Bakich worked with hitters, outfielders and helped institute a strength and conditioning program for the Commodores. Though he said his pitching career ended in Little League, Bakich even tried to pick up any bit of information he could from the pitching staff.

“He was very involved in a lot of facets of our program, and then he took on the recruiting responsibilities,” Corbin said. “It was like his baby. He was very immersed in that, from letters to relationships to traveling.”

When he came to College Park, Bakich entered a situation similar to that of the one Corbin entered at Vanderbilt. At the time of Corbin’s hiring, the Commodores hadn’t advanced to the SEC Tournament in eight years. And while the success with the Terps hasn’t come as quickly as it did in Nashville – the Commodores made the SEC Tournament in Corbin’s first season – Corbin knows that it’s in the cards for Bakich.

“He’s young. He’s passionate. He loves it. He’s soaked up in it,” Corbin said. “We all love baseball and we all know what we know about baseball, but the most important thing is his genuine passion for kids and that comes out all the time. That’s why he’s going to be successful.”

THE FUTURE

The Terps have seen flashes of success in Bakich’s third season, but despite their 11-1 start and their 8-5 come-from-behind victory over No. 1 Florida State on Monday night, it hasn’t all gone smoothly.

But for a team that has totaled the best record of Bakich’s tenure this season (31-22), the future looks bright.

“Maryland has improved its facilities three-fold the last few years, so with Bakich’s acumen for relating to players and recruits, don’t be shocked if the Terrapins are at the top of the ACC in a year or two,” ESPN.com contributor and College Baseball Today blogger Eric Sorenson wrote in an email.

With a three-game series with No. 21 Virginia next week as the only games left on the schedule, the Terps have an opportunity to make a push into the ACC and NCAA postseasons, ending droughts that have lasted since 2005 and 1971, respectively.

Players like Bosse are helping to pave the way for future Terps success on the diamond. Last weekend’s trip to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on the Seminoles in a hostile environment showed Bosse and other young Terps what the next few years could hold if the Terps stay on the same path they’re on now.

“That’s what coach Bakich had pitched to me when he came to my house,” Bosse said. “We hadn’t really been in an environment like that up until now.”

Bakich climbed up the ladder from a young volunteer assistant to a hotshot recruiting coordinator to a coach determined to turn around a stagnant program. Now that he’s in College Park, the Terps feel like they have the capability to do the same thing.

“[The coaching staff] seemed to know what they were doing and had the right mindset for making this program good,” Convissar said. “I think we’re getting there and I want to be a part of that.”

dgallen@umdbk.com