Zach Cooper throws a shutout as the baseball team beats BGSU
A team can’t win if it can’t score a run.
Senior starting pitcher Zach Cooper did not allow Bowling Green to do that going the distance for the Central Michigan baseball team Friday in Bowling Green, Ohio.
He pitched a complete game, four-hitter against BGSU as the Chippewas took the first game of the three-game series with a 4-0 victory.
“I think he would have tackled me if I would have told him no,” head coach Steve Jaksa on the decision to send Cooper out for the ninth inning said. “We did have people warming up in the eighth and in the ninth, but at the same time, we wanted to give him that opportunity.”
Cooper struck out eight batters and walked two as he shut down statistically a top three Mid-American Conference offense.
The Falcons came into the game as a top three MAC offense in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, hits and RBIs, but Cooper blanked them.
“I just wanted to pound the strike zone and get early outs to go deeper into the game and hopefully give my team the best chance to win,” Cooper said.
Neither team could get on the board, but CMU broke through in the fourth.
Senior Tyler Hall led the inning with a walk, later scoring what would be the winning run when senior Nate Theunissen singled. An error by freshman right fielder Jeese Rait allowed Theunissen to stretch it to third base.
The error cost the Falcons another run because senior Sam Russell reached on another BGSU error later in the inning. This time, freshman shortstop Brian Bien committed the error and it scored Theunissen to cap the two-run fourth inning.
The Chippewas separated themselves from the Falcons in the ninth inning when it had some two-out errors as the catalyst to their run support.
Junior Reid Rooney singled with two outs to get the two-run ninth started. Junior Tom Lally, who struck out swinging and reached first base on a wild pitch, made it to second base on an error by sophomore catcher T.J. Losby and later scored when senior Eric Wrozek reached on an error by sophomore first baseman Jeremy Shay. Senior Kyle Henris also came around to score for the Chippewas on the error by Shay.
“We chipped away and got a few runs in here and there, but we needed to have Coop’s performance on the mound and we played error-less defense and that speaks a lot,” Jaksa said
CMU snapped the Falcons three-game home winning streak, giving them their first loss at home this season.
The two teams continue the series at 2 p.m. Saturday.
