Baseball earns three-game series sweep against Bowling Green


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Senior second-baseman Jason Sullivan and Junior pitcher Cameron Brown of the Central Michigan Men's Baseball Team high-five after an inning against Ball State April 7 at Theunissen Stadium.

Fresh off a three-game series sweep against Western Michigan at Theunissen Stadium, the Central Michigan baseball team looked to do the same May 4-5 against Bowling Green on the road.

It was like déjà vu, as the Chippewas swept the Falcons to improve to 34-12 overall and 16-5 in Mid-American Conference play.

The Chippewas were able to get the May 4 victory, 7-3, before winning both games of the May 5 doubleheader – the first game was 4-0 and second was 6-3.

CMU coach Jordan Bischel was pleased with the execution over the entirety of the weekend. He made mention of all three phases of the game.

"Our pitchers attacked hitters all weekend and our defense really played well behind them," Bischel said. "We also really did a good job stringing good at-bats together to help us generate some big innings."

Bischel's crew is up to the top spot in the MAC standings, sitting two wins ahead of Ball State's 14-5 conference record. The Chippewas have nine regular season games and six league battles left before the postseason begins.

"We are only as good as our preparation for the next game, but sweeping a series is always difficult," Bischel said. "It's a big credit to our guys to have prepared very consistently the last two weeks."

Game one

Fifth-year senior Pat Leatherman, the career strikeout leader for CMU, took the mound for the Chippewas in game one.

In the second inning, the Chippewas got five runs, two of which came from a Griffin Lockwood-Powell two-run home run. 

From there, CMU never looked back.

The Chippewas scored one run in the fifth and seventh innings to help secure the win, but the game was never in Bowling Green's reach.

Leatherman was given his seventh win of the season after pitching 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run and striking out nine.

Game two

Junior Cameron Brown was on the mound for CMU for game two of the series. 

Brown controlled the game right from the start, and he went on to earn the win. He threw seven innings without allowing a run while striking out eight and issuing just two hits.

On the offensive side of things, the Chippewas were able to get one run in the third before getting three more in the sixth inning to take a 4-0 lead. 

Four runs were all that was needed thanks to great pitching.

Grant Frazier came in to relieve Brown and pitched two shutout innings to finish the game.

Game three

The Chippewas entered the finale looking to sweep Bowling Green.

CMU got out to an early start, stringing together a plethora of hits in the second inning to get four runs. After five innings, CMU led the game, 5-0.

Bowling Green scored two runs in the sixth to close the gap, but CMU still held the lead, 5-2.

The Chippewas plated another in the ninth to finish in the victory column, 6-2.

Jordan Patty started the game for the Chippewas and earned the victory. He pitched five innings, striking out five and allowing two runs.

Ryan Palmblad came in to relieve Patty and threw three scoreless innings and got five strikeouts. Zach Kohn pitched the ninth inning, striking out two.

Next up

CMU has two nonconference games against Oakland at 4 p.m. May 7 and Concordia at 4:30 p.m. May 8. Both contests are at Theunissen Stadium.

Following those contests, the Chippewas will have a three-game series against Eastern Michigan from May 10-12 in Ypsilanti.

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