Baseball falls at Michigan State as defense, pitching stumble
After winning three of four games in the weekend series at Northwestern, the Central Michigan baseball team came back to Michigan to take on its closest Big Ten foe — Michigan State.
With momentum on its side, CMU looked to continue the strong play of its pitching staff, but was knocked on its heels by the explosive MSU offense.
After the first inning, the Spartans lead the Chippewas 3-0 and would not need another run as they won the contest 11-2 in East Lansing.
Central Michigan dropped to 8-12 on the season and 6-9 in road games. CMU hosts its home opener Friday against Missouri State at 3:05 p.m. at Theunnisen Stadium.
On a day where it didn’t get its best effort from its pitching staff, the defense didn’t do it many favors. The CMU defense allowed four errors on the day and missed “several” chances to get runners out but missed.
Head coach Steve Jaksa said the lack of defensive execution was a big factor in the defeat.
“We didn’t play nearly as good defensively as we have been and that’s something we take great pride in,” Jaksa said. “You give somebody extra opportunities and they can score, that’s a big thing.”
Freshman right-handed pitcher Zach Kohn took the mound for the Chippewas, but got into trouble in the first inning. The Woodhaven, Michigan native threw a wild pitch to score the first run of the game and gave up a single and sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
CMU got on the board in the second inning with a bases loaded walk to freshman Grant Frazer and had only one out, but couldn’t get any more runs. Jaksa said the failed opportunity cost them the chance to get back into the game.
“We’ve been getting it done and need to get it done in that situation to cut the game down to a run or more and didn’t do it,” Jaksa said. “We weren’t able to answer early enough.”
The Spartans then began to pull away with an RBI-single from Zach McGuire in the fourth inning and three runs in the fifth to make it 5-1.
Kohn was replaced in the fifth inning by fellow freshman Jake Raether, who lasted 2 2/3 innings and gave up only one run on three hits. Kohn finished with seven strikeouts and three walks while surrendering eight hits and four earned runs.
Junior Austin Smith freshman Cameron Brown came on in relief as the Spartans continued to push their lead. An RBI-single by MSU’s Marty Bechnia in the eighth inning made it 8-2 before Robbie Jones brought in two more with one swing of the bat to end it.
Dazon Cole and Daniel Robinson combined to go 5-for-8 at the plate, while Alex Borglin, Evan Kratt and Jason Sullivan all went 1-for-5. The Chippewas were out-hit 16-10 as a team.
Michigan State head coach Jakes Boss earned his 300th career victory with the win.
