COLUMN: Baseball has the upper hand against rival MSU on the diamond
We all know Central Michigan’s Mid-American Conference rivals are Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan.
But for the baseball team there is another rivalry outside the MAC.
For the last three years, and again this year, CMU and Michigan State face each other in a three-game series. One game is played in East Lansing, one in Mount Pleasant and another on a neutral site.
“Their coach Jake Boss and I looked at it and thought, 'If we’re doing a three-game series, let's have home-home-neutral,'” CMU head coach Steve Jaksa said. “We go pretty much a month apart in March, April and May three games in kind of a unique setting.”
Since 2007 the Chippewas have the edge on the rivalry going 7-5 against the Spartans, but as of late the Big Ten rivals have the advantage winning four of the last six.
Playing MSU for most teams in the MAC could be intimidating, since the Spartans won the Big Ten Championship last season, but CMU seems to relish the opportunity to face the champions of the Big Ten.
“We always want to take down the bigger conference, it’s always nice to get a win against them,” senior first baseman Nate Theunissen said. “We (win) pretty regular on a year-to-year basis, but last year they took two from us and we want them back.”
Another special opportunity the Chippewas had with the rivalry is to play on the neutral sites. The first two years of the three-game series the teams played on Dow Diamond, home of the Great Lakes Loons, in Midland.
But this season marks the second "Clash at Comerica" where the teams will meet at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers.
The first time the teams met was in 1911 when Central Michigan Normal School faced Michigan Agricultural College and lost 5-0.
Since then the Chippewas and Spartans have played 109 times and the all-time advantage goes to the Chippewas 62-48.
“Overall I don’t want to say it’s about bragging rights, but yeah, it is,” Jaksa said. “They have some recruits we went after, we got some of theirs, so there is a recruiting aspect to it as well.”
The rivalry is renewed today at 3:05 p.m. at MSU. MSU comes to Theunissen Stadium April 18 and the two face each other at Comerica Park on May 15.
