Baseball avoids sweep at Eastern Michigan, in MAC Tournament contention with 12 games to play
After scoring a combined one run in the first two games of its series against Eastern Michigan, the Central Michigan baseball team's bats finally came around Sunday.
The Chippewas scored all their runs in the fourth inning in a 3-2 win over Eastern Michigan on Sunday in Ypsilanti. CMU improves to 12-32 (6-9 in the Mid-American Conference) after avoiding a three-game sweep to the Eagles.
CMU entered the game in fifth place in the MAC West Division. The victory can elevate the Chippewas to a fourth-place tie with Western Michigan, pending the Broncos results against Toledo.
The Chippewas have the seventh-best percentage in the MAC (0.400) with 12 games to play before the MAC Tournament. The top eight teams in the MAC play in the postseason tournament in Avon, Ohio, May 25-29.
"It was a battle today," said Head Coach Steve Jaksa. "We scrapped hard for our runs and at the end of the day we were able to squeeze it out. Today was probably our best (all series) in terms of quality at-bats top to bottom of the lineup."
Trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning, redshirt freshman center fielder Dazon Cole singled to center field to score sophomore left fielder Daniel Jipping and knot the game at 1-1. After a walk by senior third baseman Joe Houlihan loaded the bases, EMU converted a fielder's choice at home to get the second out of the inning.
Junior first baseman Alex Borglin followed with a single up the middle to give CMU its first lead of the series. Senior right fielder Ryan Heeke laid down a bunt to score Houlihan and push the lead to 3-1.
Redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher pitcher Pat Leatherman surrendered two runs on eight hits with two walks and a strikeout in four innings of work. He allowed a single in the fifth inning before being pulled. Jaksa said Leatherman left the game due to arm tightness, adding Leatherman only has so many pitches in his arm right now.
Junior right-handed reliever Jordan Grosjean pitched five scoreless innings, allowing two hits on three strikeouts to pick up his second win of the season in his 20th appearance.
Jaksa said Grosjean was efficient and did what he needed to do to close the game out.
"(Grosjean) was back to how he pitched earlier this season a little bit," Jaksa said. "He's pitched well the whole season, but he was really crisp today and probably part of that is because he got a little bit more rest."
CMU was outhit by the Eagles 10-8. The Chippewas committed more errors, 2-1, and left more men on base, 8-7.
Borglin and Cole led CMU with two hits and a RBI each.
EMU (17-23, 8-7 MAC) remains in third place in the MAC West Division. Three Eagles had two hits each. Freshman left-handed pitcher Tyler Butzin allowed three runs (zero earned) on seven hits and three strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings of work.
The Chippewas will not have a mid-week game this week. They continue their MAC road swing next weekend at Ohio. Game times are slated for 6 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. The three games in Athens, Ohio, will mark CMU's final road contests this season.
Ohio is the reigning MAC Tournament champions. Jaksa said the goal for his team is getting all the batters in the lineup to give quality at-bats.
"We're looking at we're on the road and we've got to play well," Jaksa said. "If we pitch and play defense, we are going to be in every game. We've got to do a better job of making sure we can scrap out a few more runs here-and-there so we can win the series instead of grabbing one like we did this weekend."
