Baseball plays Valparaiso after weekend series win
The CMU baseball team gets back to non-conference play at 3 p.m. Tuesday, when it travels to Indiana to play Valparaiso.
Junior Bryce Morrow (9.45 ERA, one save) will get his first start of the season. Morrow has appeared in six games this season, including CMU’s 12-7 win against Bowling Green on Wednesday, where he allowed four runs on seven hits in 2 1/3 innings of relief work.
He redshirted last season and has not started a game since the 2008 season.
Valparaiso, 5-15 on the season, was swept by Southeast Missouri State in its last series. The Crusaders, however, will go into the game having not played in 10 days, as their three-game series against Wright State was rained out over the weekend.
CMU enters the game coming off its first Mid-American Conference series win against Miami (OH) last weekend.
CMU (10-9, 2-1 MAC) bounced back in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader after losing Game 1. It beat Miami 5-1 behind pitching by sophomore left-hander Rick Dodridge, freshman left-hander Dietrich Enns and sophomore left-hander Trent Howard.
“We weren’t worried about momentum too much,” Jaksa said. “We just had to put it behind us, bounce back and play well. You have to be mature enough to a certain extent and test yourself a little bit and say, ‘Hey, let’s get this last game and win this series.’”
Dodridge, pitching on three days rest, allowed one unearned run on three hits in 4 1/3 innings. He was slated to start Sunday’s game, but rain in the forecast forced both teams to play a doubleheader on Saturday.
“Our lefties did a great job,” Jaksa said. “Those guys kept (them) at bay, which allowed us offensively to keep a little pressure on them.”
CMU added three runs in the ninth inning to extend its lead and secure the win.
“We really had a lot of confidence in everyone and each other,” Theunissen said. “Rick came out and pitched a really good game, and we put some runs up for him.”
GAME 2
A four-run second inning during the first game of the doubleheader cost CMU a sweep.
Junior right-hander Jake Sabol allowed the RedHawks to score four runs on four hits and win the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader in Oxford, Ohio. CMU took two of three, however.
Sabol (2-3, 5.35 ERA) settled down and pitched four scoreless innings, but CMU could not get itself any closer than three, losing 6-3.
“Jake competes really well,” said coach Steve Jaksa. “He didn’t have a good breaking ball early in the game. The first guy got a ground-ball single to left, the second guy hit a changeup that we thought was a really good pitch and gulfed it out to right field (and) then a guy did hit a ball up the gap.”
