They hugged, the crowd of 405 at Theunissen Stadium cheered and junior Matt Faiman even got an "I love you Faiman!" from a fellow teammate. Minutes later, coach Steve Jaksa endured the proverbial celebratory water jug shower.

Needing a win and some outside help in the final day of the regular season, the Central Michigan baseball team got both Saturday as it beat Eastern Michigan 10-2 to win the program's first Mid-American Conference championship since 2004.

"What a campaign these guys put together," Jaksa said. "We just kept coming back. I have such a respect for our guys in terms of how they played every game. Win or lose, they got ready to play the next game."

The win caps off consecutive sweeps of in-state rivals – the Chippewas swept Western Michigan last weekend – needed to keep pace with Ball State, which had control of the MAC West for much of May.

CMU got some help from Toledo on Saturday as the Rockets scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to come from behind and beat Ball State 8-7, giving the Chippewas sole claim to the title.

"We had to play well," Jaksa said. "We didn’t want to feel that pressure, we (just) wanted to have quality at-bats all the way through. They knew what they had to do and they knew the prize at the end of the day."

The Chippewas wasted no time once the game began, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Nate Theunissen.

But that was just a precursor to what was to come, as CMU scored five runs on three hits in the second to bring at least a share of the conference title within sight.

A double down the left field line by sophomore Scott Phillion (2-for-4, two runs scored) and pair of walks loaded the bases for junior Brendan Emmett (2-for-2, four RBIs, three runs scored), who also walked and brought in the second run. Senior James Teas followed up by poking a two-run single to right field.

Senior Dale Cornstubble brought in two more with a double down the left field line.

"There’s no words to describe this feeling," said Teas, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored. "I have a great group of guys to play with and I can’t thank my teammates enough. This is my final wish to as a senior, to win a MAC championship, and we got it."

After EMU got itself on the board with a run in the third, CMU immediately responded with a two-run double by Emmett and RBI single from Teas to extend the lead to 9-1 and put the game out of reach.

Sophomore Zach Cooper earned the win in his best outing of the season, giving up one run (unearned) on four hits while striking out six in eight innings pitched.

"You knew it was a big game, but you don’t really change anything," said Cooper, who improved his record to 4-2. "You just go out there and throw strikes and let the defense pick me up, which they did."

Senior Billy Anderson and junior Robbie Harman (scored twice) each had a hit.

Steve Weber took the loss for EMU (25-30, 13-14 MAC).

CMU will enter the MAC tournament as the No. 1 seed and play on Wednesday against No. 8 seed Ohio in Chillicothe, Ohio.