Baseball beats Rockets to win series, move into tie for second in MAC West
UPDATED: 10 p.m. Tuesday
TOLEDO, Ohio – Before the start of the weekend series, coach Steve Jaksa had a goal for his Central Michigan baseball team: take two out of three against a first-place Toledo team.
Mission accomplished.
CMU (26-19, 14-7 Mid-American Conference) scored a run in each of the final three innings Sunday to beat Toledo 8-5 in front of 146 at Scott Park and move into a tie with Toledo for second place in the MAC West.
"We didn’t say that internally – you always want to win all three – but our guys bounced back and grabbed the next two against a real fine Toledo team," said Jaksa. "It was a huge win to keep us in the hunt for a conference title."
Ball State, who sits a game ahead of the Chippewas and Rockets in the standings, won twice on Sunday against Western Michigan in Kalamazoo.
"The game today was huge for us," said senior James Teas. "Taking two out of three this weekend was a big deal. This time of season, with just two more weekends left and Toledo ahead of us, we needed to win these games."
Freshman right-hander Dietrich Enns, who allowed zero earned runs on three hits in five innings pitched, earned the win and improved his record to 5-0 on the season. Cooper, starting his first game of the season, gave up three runs (two earned) on eight hits in four innings.
"We got two great pitching performances from Cooper and Enns and really kept them down," Jaksa said. "Dietrich was up to the task and they didn’t have much of an answer for him down the stretch."
Hot hitting
Like the previous games in the series, CMU got itself on the scoreboard first. A two-run home run in the first inning from sophomore Nate Theunissen gave the Chippewas an early 2-0 lead.
Theunissen (4-for-5, four RBIs) was also responsible for the team’s third run with an RBI single in the third. He converted a sacrifice fly in the fourth to give CMU a 5-2 lead.
"We came out good," Jaksa said. "We have some guys at the top of the lineup really seeing the ball well."
James Teas also built on the impressive offensive performance he put together in the first two games, going 3-for-3 with an RBI and a pair of walks. He finishes the series 10-for-14 with nine RBIs and four runs scored.
His double down the left field line drove in a run in the fourth.
"All I can really say is when I hit it hard it fell in and when I didn’t hit it hard it fell in," Teas said. "I feel comfortable at the plate and I feel like I’m seeing the ball well. It’s not automatic, I know that, so I have to keep working and hopefully I can keep this going through the next two weekends."
Junior Brendan Emmett scored three runs and connected on his first home run of the season in the ninth inning
Shortstop Chris Dudics went 4-for-5 for Toledo (28-19, 14-7 MAC).
CMU returns to Theunissen Stadium for the first time in two weeks at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday for its second meeting against Oakland University.
