Baseball blows five-run lead, falls in extra innings to Incarnate Word
The Central Michigan baseball team blew a five-run lead Sunday to drop the final game of the series with Incarnate Word 11-10 in San Antonio, Texas.
After a strong first two innings, CMU (3-4) led 7-2 in the sixth and looked likely to take three out of four from the Cardinals. However, UIW answered with seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings to take a 9-8 lead.
A fielding error and a wild pitch in the top of the eighth allowed CMU third baseman Reed Adams and right fielder Daniel Robinson to score and take the lead back for the Chippewas.
Incarnate Word had five errors on the day.
Right-handed pitcher Colton Bradley came on in relief and got the Chippewas out of the seventh inning and pitched a scoreless eighth. Bradley, however, allowed the first runner on in the ninth and a double down the right-field line brought in the tying run to force extra innings.
CMU went down in order in the top of the tenth and right-handed pitcher Cameron Brown came in for Bradley in the bottom of the inning. Brown got the first two batter out, but walked the next two and allowed a walk-off single to Lee Thomas to end the game and the series.
"It's an extra inning game. Do you know how many different scenarios can play out in a one-possession game?," Jaksa said. "We battled really hard and so did they. It's just one of those things where at the end of the day we didn't get rewarded for the effort we put in."
Freshman left-handed pitcher Tyler Hankins made his career debut for the Chippewas and pitched five innings, surrendering three runs on seven hits. Hankins struck out two and walked one batter.
"For going out there for the first time he did really well," Jaksa said. "I'm really pleased with how he pitched and he did a really nice job for us."
Right-handed pitcher Jordan Grosjean took the mound in the sixth inning and allowed the Cardinal rally. Grosjean lasted only 1 and 1/3 innings.
Second baseman Jason Sullivan went 3-for-6 at the plate and drove in three runs. Sullivan delivered a triple in the second inning scoring Robinson and short stop Alex Borglin.
Borglin hit 2-for-4 on the day and scored twice. Adams batted 3-for-4 with an RBI and also scored twice.
UIW out-hit CMU 19-16. The Chippewas left 10 runners on base.
CMU won the first two games of the series, including an impressive 25-5 victory on Saturday, but dropped the final two.
What’s Next
The Chippewas will head to Port Charlotte, Florida Friday to play Boston College for the first of an eight-game stretch. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Jaksa said the trip to the sunshine state will only help his team going forward, but some players will need to step up their play.
"It's a big opportunity for us to get better and grow as a team. We feel like we've grown the last two weekends," Jaksa said. "Two of our losses have been in extra innings so we are right there. Just got to have a couple guys figure things out for us.
"We go to Florida every year knowing we are going to have to use a lot of guys and those guys are going to be battle tested."
