Hernandez pitches complete game shutout, CMU part of three-way tie for first
You couldn't erase the smile from Jesse Hernandez's face.
In his final collegiate start at Theunissen Stadium, the senior right-hander pitched a complete-game shutout as the Central Michigan baseball team won 6-0 against Eastern Michigan before a crowd of 223.
Hernandez (8-2), who had a no-hitter going through 4 1/3 innings, yielded six hits and a walk while striking out five. He threw 99 pitches.
"Right from the get-go, I just wanted to get ahead of the batters and get early outs," Hernandez said. "They’re a pretty aggressive team, so I knew I could get them to ground out with a fastball in."
Hernandez got the Eagles to go 1-2-3 in three of the first four innings. When he did run into some trouble, surrendering a pair of back-to-back singles in the fifth, he got EMU's Kyle Klein to ground into a double play.
"Leading up (to the game), the things we had talked about were the importance of getting good starting pitching and allowing ourselves to be in a position to play good defense," said coach Steve Jaksa. "We were going up against another team’s (ace) so it’s not going to be easy to score runs right away."
After a walk to start the game, CMU (31-20, 18-7 Mid-American Conference) looked as though it was going to come up scoreless in the first inning. A ground ball by junior Matt Faiman (3-for-5) ricochet right to EMU shortstop Aaron Crooks, who turned a double play.
But a walk and consecutive singles, including senior Dale Cornstubble's RBI hit, gave Hernandez an early 1-0 lead to work with.
The Chippewas wore down EMU starter Kendall Lewis (6-4), who entered the game with the seventh-best ERA in the MAC, in the third inning. They drew three walks and got RBI singles from sophomore Nate Theunissen, Cornstubble (4-for-5, run scored) and sophomore Scott Phillion to extend their lead to four runs.
Phillion, who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, also had an RBI single in a two-run seventh that pushed CMU's lead to 6-0.
"There might be an at-bat or two that I thought a guy might have gotten out of his zone a little bit and didn’t help himself but, overall, I thought our guys had quality at-bats and got some key walks to get some guys on base," Jaksa said. "We were pretty calm and had a real good approach at the plate."
The win creates a three-way tie atop the MAC West Division as Toledo hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth Thursday to beat Ball State 8-7. Several players emerged from the CMU clubhouse in excitement after learning of the news.
All three teams are tied at 18-7 with two games to go.
Factoring in tiebreakers – the Cardinals hold a 2-1 series edge – the Chippewas can now claim at least a share of a championship by winning the last two games against EMU (25-28, 13-12 MAC).
"However it works out over there, it works out," Jaksa said. "They can’t control us anymore, but we can’t change our approach either. We need to take advantage of that Ball State defeat by playing the same way tomorrow that we did today, otherwise we’ll end up being a game behind again."
CMU will send junior Bryce Morrow (3-2, 5.10 ERA) to the mound for Game 2 of the series, set for 3:05 p.m. Friday.
