Home / Sports / Baseball /

CMU baseball falls to Kent State in MAC tournament championship

By on May 27, 2012 2:56 am / 5 comments

 

The Central Michigan baseball team made a strong run; but, in the end, it wasn’t enough to win the Mid-American Conference tournament championship in Avon, Ohio.

After losing the first game of the tournament against Eastern Michigan, the Chippewas rallied to win four straight games and advance to the championship Saturday, where they lost to Kent State 3-1.

CMU took an early 1-0 lead behind an RBI from senior William Arnold in the third inning, but that’s all the offense it would get in the title game.

The Golden Flashes plated two runs in the fourth inning off starter Pat Kaminska, enough for them when MAC Pitcher of the Year David Starn entered the game in the fifth inning.

Starn gave up four walks and just one hit in his three innings of work, keeping the Chippewas off the scoreboard and earning the win for himself and his team.

Kaminska threw 88 pitches in his first start of the tournament on Thursday against Toledo, but allowed two runs in four innings to take the loss against KSU.

CMU turned it over to a fresh bullpen after junior Rick Dodridge threw a complete game in the semi-final game against Miami University, and it did its best to keep the Golden Flashes within reach.

Senior Ryan Longstreth threw one and 1/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits and three strikeouts before handing the ball to freshman Sean Renzi who threw two and 2/3 innings, striking out four.

The Chippewas will be losing seven seniors, including ace Zach Cooper, all-time hit leader Nate Theunissen and other everyday starters like Arnold, Sam Russell and Tyler Hall.

They could also lose junior shortstop Jordan Dean and pitcher Dietrich Enns to the MLB Draft next month.

 

 
 
 

5 Comments

  1. CE says:
    May 30, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    Watching Jaksa, is like watching Leyland—never gonna get there!

    Reply
  2. charles says:
    May 31, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    Were we told back in 2003 the glory days of CMU baseball will return with the removal of Judd Folske as head coach? 4 years under Judd’s watch was 4 years too long of a drought from the NCAA tourney, thus the justification to remove the head coach. Now you have Jaksa for ten seasons with similar results. Well, where’s the proof this was a superior hire in comparision to the last guy? First it was “we got a new stadium, just watch us roll in the championships now”, followed by ”Jaksa couldn’t win with Folske’s slug recruits”, then followed by getting rid of the assistant coaches would remedy the “problems”, then it was “wait until Mike Villano gets his recruits here”, then it was “the team’s too young, give them time”, then it’s the building of new facilities in Ann Arbor and East Lansing which are turning prospects off to playing at CMU. Today it’s “the MAC’s more competitive than ever before.” You mean when Keilitz and Kreiner were winning MAC titles and making NCAA tourneys by the boatload, the MAC was an inferior league? 4 years of constant criticism in comparison to 10 years of persistant rationalization. Imagine if Alabama didn’t make the Sugar Bowl in 17 seasons? How about North Carolina not making a Final Four in 17 seasons?
    The previous longest dry spell at CMU missing the the NCAA tourney was 5 years. When did 17 seasons became the acceptable standard? Baseball is the marquee sport on campus next to football and basketball. Dry spells less than half the time from the post-season in these sports would render a coach to the unemployment line. Mike DeBord, Jay Smith, Ernie Ziegler, Judd Folske all were ran off campus with Dan Enos facing a similar fate. Not demanding perfection or even less than that. We were told ten years ago that the head coach was the problem with the program. In ten years, the program has gone from mediocre to mediocre without any complaint. Why?
     
    Baseball people around the state of Michigan know why and the facts are this: Next time when your assistant coach/director of recruiting needs to put players up to task in getting rid of their boss with false and malicious statements so that he can get the job even with a joke of a national job search, make sure you procure a “genie in a bottle” to help secure better results in the future which hastened a “cou de tat” in the first place. By the way, I’m playing in the Bay City Blooperball league this summer. Make sure you make your phone calls to get me black-listed from this activity as well. People are well aware what the penalities are when a certain head coach on campus gets criticized publically. Quid Pro Quo hirings on the baseball staff speaks for itself.

    Exiled Chippewa Baseball fan since 2002. Real CMU baseball fan since 1972.

    Reply
  3. Florenceschneider says:
    June 1, 2012 at 4:10 pm

    Does any kids play baseball in Michigan anymore?

    Seems like lacrosse and soccer have killed it.

    Reply
    • charles says:
      June 4, 2012 at 10:11 am

      Plenty of kids playing baseball in Michigan. 

      CMU seems to be the last pick for Division 1 colleges unless the player is a legacy recruit, a child of a university employee who goes to CMU for nothing, or no other D-I college in Michigan wants the player.

      Scott Sticklin is getting it done at Kent State with Dave Keilitz/Dean Kreiner era results AND has to compete with twice as many Division 1 colleges to compete against for players.

      4 years under Judd and the job doesn’t get done, blame the head coach ad nauseum. 10 years under Jaksa and his cronies, they blame the current baseball environment.

      Hilarious.

      Reply
 
 

Leave a Comment

 





 
 

 
 
 


Advertise with Us! | Contact Us | About Us | Join CM-Life's Staff