Bats come alive as baseball sweeps Miami (Oh.) in doubleheader
Two up, two down in Mid-American Conference play for the Central Michigan baseball team.
The Chippewas faced-off against Miami (Oh.) in a doubleheader Saturday after Friday’s game was cancelled due to possible rain.
CMU jumped all over the RedHawks in game one, winning 13-7 before having to work its way back to a 6-4 victory in game two. The Chippewas improve to 12-14 on the season and 2-0 in MAC play.
"The quality of the at-bats were as good as we've had in a doubleheader for a while and you mix that in with some good defense and pitching," said head coach Steve Jaksa. "I thought our guys played really well. We battled hard at the plate and really bought into the approach we've been talking about."
Central Michigan combined for 25 hits in the doubleheader at Theunissen Stadium, while starting pitchers Dazon Cole and Tyler Hankins were both solid on the mound.
Hankins, the 6-foot-9 freshman, pitched seven innings in game two and allowed four runs on five hits while striking out nine. The Bartlett, Illinois native (2-0) got into trouble in the third inning after giving up a bases-loaded single to give Miami a 3-0 lead, but responded with three-straight scoreless innings.
"Hank did his deal. He got hit with some really tough calls behind the plate and I thought he threw some really nice pitches," Jaksa said. "They got the three-spot off of him but that was really it. He pitched six really gritty innings for us."
Once Hankins settled in, the CMU offense got going.
Junior Daniel Jipping got the rally going with an RBI-double in the fourth inning. Sophomore Nick Stokowski brought home Jipping and Evan Kratt later in the inning to tie it at 3-3. In the fifth inning, the Chippewas took their first lead when Jipping singled to right-center field and scored senior Alex Borglin.
An inside the park home run by the RedHawks in the top of the seventh inning made it a one-run game before Cole pinch-hit in the eighth inning and brought home the insurance run on a sacrifice fly.
Junior Colton Bradley came on for Hankins in the eighth inning and got the two-inning save for his third of the season.
"He's gotten better and better in those situations for us," Jaksa said. "He will only learn from that. Smart kid and he will only get better. He's going to get better at handling the adrenaline and excitement."
Game One
The Chippewas opened MAC play with its third-highest scoring game of the season. CMU scored four runs in the fourth and fifth innings and pulled away from Miami (Oh.) in the first game of the doubleheader.
Jipping and Kratt got the Chippewas started with a couple of RBI singles in the first inning to make it 2-0. After a pair of RBI single by the RedHawks in the fourth inning, freshman Zach Heeke scored off an error before Borglin drove in two more with a double. Sophomore Jason Sullivan singled to left the next at-bat to make it a 6-2 game.
In the fifth inning, Senior Robert Greenman delivered a two-run home run which was followed by two more runs to push the lead to 10-4.
With a 12-4 lead in the eighth, Sullivan once again came up big with an RBI double to bring home sophomore Ty Rollin. Sullivan finished the day 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
Cole got
the start for CMU and went five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits, while
recording five strikeouts and zero walks. The sophomore-right hander from Pontiac improved his record to 3-4 on the season.
Sophomore Michael Brettell came in to relieve Cole going into the sixth inning and was perfect through two innings.
Brettell was replaced by sophomore Jack Collins in the eighth inning. Collins allowed three runs in final inning before getting out of the jam to end it.
Central Michigan has now taken at least two of three games in three-straight weekend series.
What’s Next
The Chippewas and RedHawks play the third and final game of the weekend series Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. at Theunissen Stadium.
