Baseball salvages a 2-1 win in three-game series at Toledo
Toledo soared against the Central Michigan baseball team in this weekend’s three-game series.
CMU lost the first two games in the series but pulled out the win in the last game, 2-1.After an 11-0 defeat on Saturday, head coach Steve Jaksa said he was much happier with the team’s performance on Sunday.
“In the doubleheader, we played much, much better,” Jaksa said. “(Pitcher Cameron Palmer) was tough on us, but we were able to break through. And Rick (Dodridge) threw great for us. We just didn’t have a lot of opportunities until the ninth, and we were in a position to win that game, but we couldn’t walk all the way through the door.”
Going into the series finale, the Chippewas had struggled all weekend at the plate.
But, by the third game, Toledo seemed offensively worn down, and CMU had stepped up its game to avoid a sweep.
The offense came alive in the sixth, stringing together three singles to load the bases.
Sophomore Pat MacKenzie started the momentum by hitting a single through the left side. Junior Noel Santos followed suit, and sophomore Nick Regnier laid down bunt for a base hit.
Senior Jordan Adams knocked MacKenzie in and reached on a fielder’s choice, while Regnier was out at second.
A sacrifice bunt from redshirt freshman Neal Jacobs scored a second run as the team went into the seventh with a 2-0 lead.
A walk, an error and a hit loaded the bases for the Rockets in the seventh, and freshman pitcher Taylor Lehnert walked another to score before being relieved by sophomore Matt Trowbridge.
Lehnert pitched 6.1 innings, giving up four hits, two walks and striking out four.
“I was happy with our pitching today,” Jaksa said. “Dodridge had a quality start, so did Lenhert, and then Trowbridge got the save, and we were able to salvage a split in the doubleheader after a not really strong start to the series.”
In the 4-3 loss in the first game of the doubleheader, Toledo grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third.
However, the Rockets extended their lead in the sixth, tacking on two more runs after back-to-back errors by Adams at third base allowed the two runners who would eventually score to get on base.
Toledo led 4-0, but CMU tried its best to get a rally in the ninth.
Logan Regnier struck out but reached on a wild pitch and stole second on another wild pitch.
Adams was walked, and redshirt freshman Ryan Heeke came in to pinch run for him.
The Chippewas continued to capitalize on the mistakes.
Jacobs reached on an error and safely made it to second, putting Heeke on third and scoring Regnier.
CMU added another run in its mounting comeback when a fly-out from Santos brought in Heeke.
A single up the middle scored Jacobs with the Chippewas closing in, trailing by just one with one out.
But the rally came to a screeching halt as freshman Zack Fields grounded into a double play to end the game.
CMU started the series with a crushing 11-0 defeat on Saturday.
Sophomore pitcher Jordan Foley came into the game with a 6-1 record and had given up just seven earned runs all season.
In Saturday’s game, Foley gave up six earned runs over four innings and dropped to 6-2.
Toledo’s Kyle Shaw struck out nine batters in the outing, pitching a complete game to help the Rockets shut-out CMU.
