Baseball hopes to snap Eastern Michigan's winning streak in weekend series
Baseball head coach Steve Jaksa said games against Eastern Michigan have always been competitive, and he expects this weekend to be no different.
At 3:05 p.m. Friday, CMU will start a three-game series against EMU at Theunissen Stadium.
“Eastern is a natural in-state and conference rival,” Jaksa said. “We played them five times last year, and they were all great games. They’re in place now we want to be at, winning four in a row but, we feel good about our preparation.”
The Eagles extended the streak after shutting out Western Michigan last weekend and defeating Michigan 15-10 in Tuesday’s mid-week game.
Earlier this season, the Chippewas fell 7-0 to the Wolverines.
Last weekend at Toledo, CMU dropped two of the three games and struggled to put runs on the board, scoring just five all weekend.
Jaksa said his guys just need to take care of business.
“Yeah, EMU’s done a nice job so far, and I’m sure they’re feeling good and confident right now,” Jaksa said. “Their starting pitching has been good, and they had that slugfest there the other night against Michigan. But, now is our opportunity to go out and do what we need to capture these games.”
While the Regnier brothers continue to lead the team at the plate, sophomore Cody Leichman and redshirt freshman Neal Jacobs also are contributing significantly to the Chippewas offense.
Leichman, who often serves at the team’s designated hitter, posts a .273 batting average with 27 hits.
Jacobs has the most home runs on the team, with five, and has the second most RBI on the team at 24, right behind sophomore Nick Regnier’s 26.
Sam Ott leads EMU offensively with a .362 batting average. Ott has 54 hits in 149 at-bats, including 17 doubles, three triples and two home runs with 35 RBI
Adam Sonabend also has piled on hits for the Eagles this season with 43 in 136 at-bats, nine doubles, a home run and 28 RBI.
Sophomore Jordan Foley will be the starting pitcher in game one.
Foley is 6-2 on the season with a 1.78 ERA. He’s pitched 65.2 innings, allowed 50 hits, 13 earned runs, 26 walks and has 72 strikeouts.
Freshman Taylor Lehnert will start Saturday’s game and senior Rick Dodridge will be on the mound to start on Sunday.
