Baseball with season-high 25 hits in 18-7 win over Ball State
Central Michigan University baseball first baseman Alex Borglin had a birthday Thursday.
A day later, he celebrated with a belated birthday gift.
The sophomore hit his first home run of the season Friday to leadoff the game in the Chippewas’ 18-4 win over Ball State University at Ball Diamond in Muncie, Ind.
“It was a really good performance for us,” said Head Coach Steve Jaksa. “I was really happy with how we played and what we did. We just kept playing. It was a heck of a ball game through six innings.”
CMU and Ball State were tied 4-4 after six innings before the Chippewas exploded for three runs in the seventh, five in the eighth and six in the ninth.
The Chippewas notched a season-high 25 hits in the victory, which is tied for the fourth-most in program history and tied for the most CMU has had in a Mid-American Conference game. CMU also scored 18 runs on April 11 in an 18-3 victory over Eastern Michigan University.
CMU (31-18, 16-6 Mid-American Conference) committed zero errors in the ball game.
“I think there’s a certain level of pride that you want to play with,” Jaksa said. “We’ve been on the other side of that. When they made a couple of their errors it kind of opened the floodgates a little bit. You don’t want that to happen to you.”
Freshman pitcher Sean Martens (6-1, 2.47 ERA) earned the win Friday, pitching 2 2/3 innings without allowing a run. Junior Sean Renzi (4-1, 2.52 ERA) started for CMU on the mound, giving up one run in his first five innings and three runs in 1/3 of an inning in the bottom of the sixth.
The game started with a Borglin lead-off home run to right field. Borglin later scored a run in the third inning off the bat of junior right fielder Logan Regnier to give CMU a 2-0 lead.
In the seventh inning, the Chippewas added three runs on a RBI single from freshman shortstop Zach McKinstry, an RBI single from junior third baseman Joe Houlihan and RBI double from sophomore left fielder Ryan Heeke.
In the eighth, CMU padded on its lead to a 12-4 advantage with a five-run inning. With two on, senior center fielder Nick Regnier tripled to clear the bases. The Chippewas added four more runs on a pair of Cardinal mistakes later in the inning.
In the ninth inning, the Chippewas put on an offensive onslaught for six runs, the most they scored in an inning in the game.
Houlihan cranked out a two-run homer to extend the lead to 16-4.
Junior southpaw Jimmy McNamara, sophomore right-handed pitcher Blake Hibbitts, and junior lefty Josh Pierce combined to close out the game in the ninth inning.
CMU will return to the diamond at 1 p.m. Saturday for the second game in the series.
“It’s one game,” Jaska said of Friday's win. “The slate will be clean tomorrow and it is my job to make sure they understand it.”
