Baseball opens MAC tournament today against Ohio
Toward the end of practice Monday, coach Steve Jaksa sat in the dugout and made jokes to those around him about his pitchers as they took batting practice.
It was quite evident that confidence is definitely high on the Central Michigan baseball team, who begins play today as the top seed in the Mid-American Conference tournament after winning the regular season title on Saturday.
The Chippewas open the double-elimination tournament against No. 8 seed Ohio at 7:30 p.m. at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.
“Everybody in this tournament we’ve played,” Jaksa said. “They’re going to know us and we’re going to know them.”
Staying true to the rotation, senior Jesse Hernandez (8-2, 4.07 ERA) will get the start after throwing a six-hit shutout in CMU’s 6-0 win against Eastern Michigan on Thursday.
“I’m going to go out there and throw strikes and maybe get that first win,” Hernandez said. “We’re just trying to take it one game at a time – that’s the only way you can look at a two-game elimination tournament.”
CMU clinched the MAC championship on Saturday with a 10-2 win and series sweep against Eastern Michigan. Before the series began, the Chippewas found themselves one game back of Ball State in the MAC West standings. A sweep and some help from Toledo in its series against the Cardinals was needed. They got it.
On the final day of the regular season, CMU completed a sweep of EMU and Toledo scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to come from behind and beat Ball State 8-7 and win the series, giving the Chippewas sole possession of a MAC title.
“We’ve just got to not think about the championship,” Hernandez said. “We know we have it, but we have to play the same baseball we’ve been playing all year and not try and do things we’re not capable of doing.”
Ohio finished the season 20-33 overall and 13-14 in the conference, tied for second in the MAC East with Miami (OH), after getting swept by the RedHawks in Oxford, Ohio, last weekend.
Ohio turnaround
CMU played Ohio back in April at Theunissen Stadium, sweeping the series and outscoring the Bobcats 26-12.
Since then, OU has played above .500 in the conference, including pulling off sweeps against Western Michigan, Buffalo and Akron.
Part of the reason for the Bobcats’ improvement has been changes made to the pitching rotation. Junior Jason Moulton has settled in to the No. 1 role while Seth Streich, who started the season as the ace of the staff, has moved to second in the rotation.
Expect Moulton (3-4, 3.93 ERA) to get the start today for Ohio.
“They’ve changed their pitching rotation a little bit to try and accommodate the changes they needed to make,” Jaksa said. “I’ve kind of looked at where they were at and looked at their numbers a little bit and for them the biggest thing was trying to figure out their pitching staff.”
The Bobcats rank seventh in the MAC in hitting with a .299 team batting average, just below CMU’s .303 average.
They are led by junior Gauntlett Eldemire, who ranks fourth in the conference with a .391 batting average and .487 on base percentage. Junior Robert Maddox III, hitting .377 with a MAC-leading 20 home runs and 76 RBIs, sits 10th.
With a .403 average and .612 slugging percentage, sophomore Nate Theunissen ranks second in the MAC for CMU.
“We feel that they do have a good hitting team but, at the same time, we feel good about what we bring to the table,” Jaksa said. “Pitching and defense are always going to be a staple for us and we’re going to have to be ready to do those two things.”
