Baseball prepares for Wayne State, looks for pitching rebound
The CMU baseball team looks to get back on the winning track this week when it plays its first of two non-conference in-state opponents.
CMU (22-15, 11-4 Mid-American Conference) plays Division II Wayne State at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday at Theunissen Stadium.
A starting pitcher for CMU was not named as of press time.
Wayne State (27-14 overall, 21-5 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) has won five consecutive games, including back-to-back doubleheaders against Findlay and Hillsdale on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. The third game of the Warriors’ series against Hillsdale was canceled Sunday due to rain.
The Chippewas are 10-2 at home this season, having lost their last two games at Theunissen Stadium.
CMU is 42-8 all-time against Wayne State. The team has beat the Warriors six consecutive times dating back to 2004.
SATURDAY STARTING PITCHING WOES
CMU’s starting pitching proved to be the difference in Saturday’s doubleheader losses against Ball State.
While senior Jesse Hernandez pitched a complete game Friday, sophomore Rick Dodridge only made it one inning in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader before coach Steve Jaksa pulled him in favor of freshman left-hander Dietrich Enns.
Dodridge allowed three runs on three hits, while walking two, raising his earned run average from 4.82 to its current 5.40 mark.
“We thought somebody else could do a better job in that situation,” Jaksa said. “The match up didn’t seem to be going the way we were hoping it would go. Ultimately, you just have to make a decision based on how you feel on the match up you saw, and we thought Enns would be a little bit better match up.”
Enns pitched 6 and 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, despite the team’s 3-2 loss. Junior Jake Sabol allowed five runs, three earned, on six hits in 3 and 1/3 innings in the second game of the doubleheader. Ball State won 5-2.
While he got through the first inning without a problem, fielding errors and two wild pitches by Sabol proved to be costly. A wild pitch in the second allowed a runner to score and extend the Cardinals’ lead to 2-0.
BSU’s third run was aided by a failed pickoff attempt at first by Sabol in the third inning. After giving up a leadoff single, he threw it by first baseman Dale Cornstubble, allowing the runner to scamper over to third and score on an ensuing single.
“It was a big game coming in, we wanted to take the series, of course,” Sabol said. “It was just one of those days (where) sometimes you don’t have your best stuff. Even though things don’t go your way early, you have to battle through, and today we couldn’t really put it together when we needed to.”
