Noah Lankford has been using a new focus exercise before entering the batters box and Sunday it paid off. The senior third baseman’s two singles, double and triple helped the Central Michigan baseball team beat Toledo 3-1 and avoid a sweep Sunday at Fifth-Third field.

“I take a deep breath and look at the centerfield fence,” Lankford said. “If they have a footage number out there, I stare at that until it’s clear in my mind and my eyes.”

Lankford was seeing the centerfield wall clearly Sunday and kicked off the scoring when a second inning Brendan Emmett single drove him in from second base and gave the Chippewas a 1-0 lead.

Central Michigan increased its lead to 2-0 when Lankford again started a rally by reaching base on a two-out single. Emmett singled through the right side of the infield to move him to third, and he would eventually score on a fielding error by Toledo shortstop Jared Hoying.

“Noah’s been playing really well for us,” said coach Steve Jaksa. “He played really well for us again today and gave us a lot of energy, which we needed.”

Two runs was all the support starting pitcher Steve Teno would need. The Rockets came into the game fifth in the Mid-American Conference with 570 total bases, but were unable to get to Teno. He fanned a season-high eight batters, surrendered just five hits and one run en route to his sixth win of the year.

“I was able to mix it up pretty good today,” Teno said. “It’s great to have a lead. Anytime you score first and keep scoring it helps to calm you down.”

Junior Chris Kupillas took over for Teno in the ninth inning and recorded his fifth save of the season in dramatic fashion. Kupillas gave up a lead-off walk before retiring the next two batters. He then struck out Dan Sherwood for the final out of the game, but the pitch got away from catcher Dale Cornstubble, allowing Sherwood to reach base. Sherwood advanced to second on a wild pitch, but Kupillas ended the inning when he forced Chris Dudics to line out to right field with runners on second and third base.

The win ends what was otherwise a forgettable weekend for Jaksa’s team. The Chippewa pitching staff gave up a combined 21 runs Friday and Saturday, losing 1-11 and 7-10.

The win keeps CMU over .500 at 22-20 and helps it improve to 9-8 in the MAC.

“We had a team meeting (Saturday) and the seniors reminded everybody that if we finish 18-8, we should be able to win it all,” Lankford said.

The Rockets are the first team to take a series from CMU since Buffalo swept a doubleheader on March 30th. Since that time, the Chippewas have won 14 of 17.

CMU will look to get back on track May 2 when they travel to Northern Illinois.

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