Baseball rallies to beat Oakland in makeup game, move to 4-1 in last five games
Three pass balls, a bases loaded walk, a sacrifice fly and a single.
That's how Central Michigan baseball drove in its six runs in its 6-3 victory over Oakland in Monday's makeup game.
"They just made some mistakes there," said Head Coach Steve Jaksa. "We did a good job getting people on base and (Oakland) kind of helped us a little bit."
After falling behind 3-1 to the Golden Grizzlies, the Chippewas scored two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh. CMU outhit Oakland 7-5.
"We definitely have more energy (when we're producing on offense), especially when we have guys in scoring position," said freshman right-handed pitcher Michael Brettell. "Guys are cheering, being loud, trying to get in the pitcher's head to get those pass balls to score some runs."
Brettell earned his second career collegiate win, pitching the final 4 1/3 innings. He allowed one hit, one walk and one unearned run.
Jaksa cited Brettell's slider as a key to closing out the Golden Grizzlies, as the freshman struck out five batters.
Freshman left-handed pitcher Grant Wolfram started on the mound for CMU. He entered Monday 0-2 with a 7.78 ERA in his seven appearances. He pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing four hits, two runs and one earned run.
In the previous two days, eight CMU pitchers had thrown 26 1/3 innings — with 15 1/3 innings coming from the bullpen.
The Chippewas lost 5-4 in 14 innings on Saturday and won 13-11 in 13 innings on Sunday. CMU took two of three on the road against Ohio (21-25, 6-12 Mid-American Conference) in the weekend series.
Monday marked the fourth game in four days for CMU. Brettell said the road trips and long games in a short span take a toll, but added the winning makes it much easier.
The game was originally scheduled for April 6, but was postponed to Monday due to weather.
"We played four ballgames, basically, in three games," Jaksa said. "Yeah, it was a long trip back after some emotional games. A lot of innings in a short period of time."
Sophomore shortstop Zach McKinstry led the Chippewas with two hits and two runs. His RBI single in the bottom of the third put CMU up 1-0.
The Chippewas beat Oakland 7-4 April 27 in Rochester, the only other meeting between the two teams this season.
CMU has a day off before hosting Michigan at 4:05 p.m. Wednesday. Miami (Ohio) comes to Theunissen Stadium on Friday for a three-game series.
