Baseball coach Jaksa looks for defensive consistency after win
Consistency is the name of the game, especially when it comes to Central Michigan’s defense.
CMU baseball coach Steve Jaksa said it best after Madonna University only scored one run against the Chippewas in their 3-1 win Tuesday against the Crusaders at Theunissen Stadium.
However, for CMU (8-9 overall), the focus after the game still was to improve its defensive consistency.
“Anytime you win, you have to feel good about it,” Jaska said. “We just need to get a little more consistent defensively.”
Jaksa was pleased with the overall performance of senior starting pitcher Jake Sabol but, as a whole, he wants consistency.
“I liked everything about his performance,” Jaska said of Sabol. “He competed and threw strikes.” Sabol pitched four innings, allowing only three hits and an unearned run. Along the way, he struck out four Crusader batters.
Sabol had to work his way out of early jams because of errors.
The Chippewas had three early errors and four throughout the game. The pitching performance by Sabol kept those errors from being costly, but Jaska said he wasn’t pleased with the amount of opportunities Madonna had.
“We can’t allow teams to have opportunities,” he said. “Sometimes, we put a bow around the ball and gift wrap it a little bit.”
CMU is on its largest winning streak of the early season. It sits at three and, over the weekend, it’ll have a chance to improve it to as many as seven with a four-game road trip against Missouri.
“We are starting to play more as a team,” Sabol said. “Guys are learning the ropes and, hopefully, we can run with this streak a little bit.”
Not only did the win give the Chippewas a three-game win streak, but the streak gave it a win in its home opener.
“It was definitely a good feeling to get out there, and we had a pretty good amount of fans here,” Sabol said. “It’s always good to get the home opener in and get a win.”
Junior catcher Will Arnold had the only run batted in for CMU.
“Will has learned a lot in his tenure here and he’s putting it to good use,” Jaska said. “He’s doing a nice job right now and consistency is the name of the game and that’s what he wants to be.”
