Baseball heads to Texas for weekend series
The Central Michigan University baseball team will travel to San Marcos, Texas this weekend for a matchup with Sun-Belt Conference foe Texas State University.
The Bobcats are riding a two-game win streak, including a 7-6 win over No. 3 Houston on Wednesday. Texas State is 2-5-1 this season.
CMU enters weekend with a 5-3 record on the season.
Starters this weekend for the Chippewas will remain the same. Sophomore pitcher Nick Deeg will get the start in game one followed by junior Adam Aldred, sophomore Jason Grosjean and freshman Pat Leatherman.
Last season, Texas State finished second in the Sun Belt Conference losing to No. 1 Louisiana-Lafayette 4-3 in the conference championship game.
“(Texas State is) going to have some good arms and we know they will be good defensively,” said Head Coach Steve Jaksa. “For us we have to go out there and execute what I think we need to do better.”
TSU comes into the matchup with a lot of experience having played some of the nation’s best teams finishing 30-28 in 2014.
CMU senior Nick Regnier has the third best batting average of all Chippewas with .289 and is second in hits with 11.
He said having success this weekend will result from focusing on what his team needs to do and not worrying about Texas State.
“The goals stay the same from week to week,” said Regnier. “Going in we are expecting to play our way and not really worried about the competition. It’s about getting on the board early and jumping on them while playing defense like we have and we should have a good chance.”
The Bobcats played six ranked teams last season including Rice, Texas, Houston, UL-Lafayette, Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Monroe.
Deeg said playing teams like Texas State presents unique challenges.
“It’s always a challenge to go down and compete with these southern schools,” he said. “But we’ve been playing really well lately and I have no doubt we can at least pull three (wins) out.”
Pitching has been an issue early on this season for Texas State having been outscored 65-32 while posting a combined 7.52 starters ERA while allowing their opponents to hit an average of .335.
With four starters hitting over .300 the Texas State lineup has been compensating for a pitching staff that has not been consistent this season.
Seniors Cody Lovejoy and David Paiz lead Texas State with 10 hits each while hitting .385 and .303 respectively.
CMU is led by four starters on offense including Senior Pat Mackenzie who is leading the Chippewas in both average (.375) and hits with 12.
Jaksa said last weekend against Stetson some players may have been discouraged towards the end of the weekend. Staying fresh mentally is key he said to be successful offensively.
“By game four I want you to be just as fresh as game one,” he said. “ I know how hard it is on a weekend where maybe you get beat down as a hitter a little bit but that next at-bat has to be the most important."
