Baseball struggles to find well-timed hits
An offensive spark was missing for the baseball team when it faced Northern Illinois this weekend.
Although CMU won the first game, 6-3, it lost the last two in the three-game series, unable to scrape together enough hits or runs to get the wins.
In Sunday’s game, the Chippewas had 10 hits compared to the Huskies' nine but left 14 runners on base. In the Saturday loss, CMU had seven hits to NIU’s 10, and five of the hits for the Chippewas came after the first inning, spread throughout the entire game.
“We have to regroup but at the same time move forward,” said head coach Steve Jaksa. “The difference between out and safe, balls and strikes, fair and foul — it’s a pretty small differential, and we just have to win those battles here and there.”
The team’s RBI leader, sophomore Nick Regnier, had just one RBI this weekend and went 0-for-4 at the plate on Saturday.
His younger brother, Logan, who sits in the No. 1 spot with the highest batting average, went 4-for-4 on Saturday but was 0-for-3 on Sunday.
The Huskies had five less at-bats than CMU in the Sunday game, but made the most of them in the win with well-timed offensive bursts.
Jaksa said he doesn’t believe that the pressure of having guys on base and in scoring position is causing his players to choke.
When it came to the Sunday game Jaksa said he was proud of his team for putting up a fight.
“Their best kid was the kid that threw today. They pitched backwards and that kid also plays in the infield for them the other two days,” Jaksa said. “… I thought our guys competed. He only struck out six guys, which means our guys competed pretty good out there at the plate, but sure I’d like to have a few more hits in those situations.”
Only a hit apiece from sophomores Pat MacKenzie and Cody Leichman on Sunday were able to drive in runs, and senior Jordan Adams was the sole player to do so on Saturday.
In the win on Friday, five RBIs were spread amongst three players.
Jaksa said he will continue to tweak the batting order to best figure out what works for his team.
“Nothing’s ever set," Jaksa said. "We even had a different lineup today"
