After Nate Theunissen struck out swinging in the seventh inning Friday, Steve Jaksa told his sophomore first baseman to be prepared to have another at-bat in a key situation.

Sure enough, Theunissen came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in the eighth. Eastern Michigan reliever Robert Wendzicki entered the game for starter Corey Chaffins, who had just walked two CMU hitters on consecutive at-bats.

But instead of driving in the go-ahead run with a hit or sacrifice fly, he was hit by a pitch that set off a three-run inning as the Central Michigan baseball team beat EMU 5-2 before 416 at Theunissen Stadium.

"I was expecting something off-speed and the guy threw me fastball-fastball and dotted me in the back," Theunissen said. "I'm going to take that all day."

The next batter, senior Dale Cornstubble, walked on four pitches against right-hander Tim Combs, pushing across another run.

The Eagles' meltdown continued during the next at-bat as catcher Andrew Marshall overthrew right-hander Taylor Dimmerling – EMU's fourth pitcher of the inning – on a simple toss back to the mound, scoring senior James Teas from third.

Dimmerling would get senior Billy Anderson (2-for-4) to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

"We tried to make those guys feel a little bit uncomfortable at the end," said coach Steve Jaksa. "I credit our guys for taking some good pitches in that situation."

Unconventional ways of scoring – they only had five hits – was the theme of the game for CMU (32-20, 19-7 Mid-American Conference).

The Chippewas scored their first run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from sophomore Scott Phillion following a pair of infield bunt singles by Cornstubble (1-for-3, RBI, run scored) and Anderson.

A double by junior Matt Faiman (1-for-4, run scored) and subsequent RBI single from junior Brendan Emmett (1-for-3, RBI, run scored) in the sixth gave CMU a 2-0 lead.

"We knew Chaffins was a great pitcher, we faced him last year and we’ve seen his numbers early," Jaksa said. "That was the first time we’ve seen a straight-change that many times for quality strikes. He really did a nice job pitching today, but our guys stayed the course."

Junior right-hander Bryce Morrow limited EMU to five hits through six innings before the Eagles got on the board for the first time in the series in the seventh.

Morrow got leadoff hitter Bo Kinder to ground out to start the inning, but surrendered a single to Aaron Chavez (2-for-4, run scored). The next batter hit a routine ground ball to second base, but senior Ricky Clark bobbled the ball and overthrew first base, setting up first and third for the Eagles.

The Chippewas brought in sophomore left-hander Trent Howard, who got the next batter to fly out. He wasn't so lucky against EMU third baseman Aaron Crooks, who tied the game with a two-run single.

"You look at how they scored, it wasn’t the prettiest runs either," Jaksa said. "It just worked out well for our guys. They deserved (it) – they worked hard to put themselves in a good position."

The momentum shifted toward CMU in the top of the eighth. With two outs and runner on, Howard walked back-to-back EMU hitters to load the bases, setting up a potential nightmare for the Chippewas.

With freshman left-hander Dietrich Enns in the bullpen ready to go, Howard fought off the walks and powered himself back to strike out Chavez to end the inning.

"I kind of realized I was doing too much and letting other things bother me that shouldn't," said Howard, who got the win and improved his record to 4-3 on the season. "For that batter, I could do nothing other than focus in and hit my spots. That gave us all the momentum we needed … I feel like it might have sucked the wind right out of Eastern."

Morrow allowed two runs (zero earned) on six hits in 6 1/3 innings.

With the win, CMU maintains pace with Ball State, which had to come from behind to beat Toledo 8-7 in 10 innings on Friday. The Rockets now sit a game behind both teams in the MAC West Division.

The Chippewas must complete a sweep of EMU to win at least a share of the MAC championship. A Toledo win against Ball State would result in an outright conference title.

The series concludes at 3:05 p.m. Saturday at Theunissen Stadium.