Baseball has rematch with Illinois-Chicago
The CMU baseball team goes for its fourth consecutive win at 5 p.m. today against Illinois-Chicago.
Last Tuesday, the Chippewas (18-11, 8-1 Mid-American Conference) defeated the Flames 4-1 at Theunissen Stadium but, this time, the team is on the road playing at Les Miller Field in Chicago.
Both teams are coming off weekend sweeps. The Chippewas swept Akron with three consecutive come-from-behind wins and UIC beat Butler.
“You saw a lot of energy this weekend, and that was fun energy at the end of the day,” said coach Steve Jaksa. “Once you start feeling that way, to not want to feel that way again, you say, ‘Hey, this is fun. Lets keep this thing going.’ You keep it going by doing the things that got you there. Why take it easy now? We have something going and it could be something good.”
Junior right-hander Bryce Morrow gets the start. He has a 1-1 record and an 8.40 earned-run average. Morrow lost in his last start against Michigan, allowing 14 hits and nine runs (eight earned) in 3 and 1/3 innings.
But senior catcher Dale Cornstubble said the only things carried over will be the positives the team got out of the sweep against Akron.
“We are just trying to carry that energy from the weekend into Wednesday — just do the little things right and we will have the same outcome,” he said. “When you have three games like that in a row, there’s no doubt we’re going to take that energy to UIC with us. I’m just going to do whatever I can to help the team win.”
The Flames (10-17) are led by junior Matt Serna, who has a .385 batting average and 26 runs scored.
Sophomore Nate Theunissen continues to pace the CMU offense with a .400 batting average. Cornstubble and senior James Teas are hitting .349 each.
Jaksa said although this weekend was good for the team, it still has a long way to go to get to where it wants to be at the end.
“We’re not at the end of the road,” Jaksa said. “... We’ve got to keep going — we have to make a few stops on the way before we get to the end of the road.”
