Central baseball team grabs three wins at Akron Invite
The Chippewa baseball team moved back to the winning side of things this weekend at the Akron Invitational by going 2-2 in the tourney and upping its season mark to 4-13.
CMU 5, Butler 3
CMU defeated Butler, the defending Mid-Continent Conference champions 5-3 Sunday in the final game of the Akron Invitational.
CMU starter Dan Schell pitched 5.1 innings and struck out nine to even his record at 1-1 for the season.
First baseman Matt Keim knocked in three runs for the Chippewas and went 2-for-4 at the plate to pace the offense, including smacking his fourth home run of the year and his third of the tournament.
Leftfielder Brian Issitt drove in the other Central run. Issitt also scored twice for CMU.
CMU 9, Duquesne 6
The Chippewas won their second straight Akron Invitational game by outscoring Duquesne in a rare Central slugfest.
Sage Jackson went the distance and did not give up an earned run while allowing eight hits.
Jackson also struck out five while walking four. The win ran Jackson's record to 1-3.
A Chippewa offense that has been silent for most of the year jumped out to a 7-0 lead aided by the offensive production of both Matt Keim and Jake Sanborn.
Keim had three hits including his second home run of the season, while Sanborn chipped in with three hits and two RBIs.
Central pounded out 14 hits for the game.
Duquesne made the game interesting by scoring five unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh, but it was not enough to overcome the Chippewas' lead.
Xavier 4, CMU 3
Central's comeback came up short as it dropped a 4-3 contest to Xavier.
The Chippewas fell behind 4-1, as Adam Bolthouse allowed four runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. Three of those runs were earned.
However, those were all the runs that Xavier would get as Phil Roberts did not allow a run in 3 2/3 innings of relief. Roberts struck out three and allowed a mere one hit in his relief appearance.
The Chippewas' offense could not break out against Xavier as two of their runs came off of solo home runs.
Mike Steele hit a round tripper in the second, while Matt Keim added one in the fifth.
Central was only able to muster six hits off a total of four Xavier pitchers.
Matt Raih got the victory for Xavier, which brought his record to 1-2.
Toledo 6, CMU 0
The CMU bats were silenced for the second time in a day as it dropped a 6-0 game to fellow Mid-American Conference team Toledo.
The Rockets received an excellent pitching performance from Brad Webb who went the distance for the five hit shutout. Webb struck out six and surrendered two base on balls.
Chad Pleiness had a tough start for the Chippewas as he gave up four earned runs in his two innings of work.
CMU reliever Mike Steele gave up two runs in his first inning of relief before settling down to pitch two shutout innings. Eric Kipling was the third Central pitcher of the day and worked one inning of shutout ball.
The loss dropped Pleiness to 1-1.
