Baseball team drops a wild one in Ypsilanti
It was a wacky finale for the Central Michigan baseball team this afternoon against Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti.
CMU took control of the game early with a rare inside-the-park home run by senior Nate Theunissen, but EMU had the last laugh.
The Chippewas were one out away from taking two-of-three games from their in-state rival, but senior Brett Ohrman took a two-out pitch from junior Dietrich Enns deep down the left field line for the winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning for a walk-off, series-clinching victory over CMU.
“I know Dietrich well enough to know what kind of competitor he is and I know he’s upset and I know he thinks he not only let himself down, but the entire team because he’s a team guy,” said head coach Steve Jaksa. “There would be no words I could say to him at this time that are going to make him feel better or know how I feel about him.
“He knows how we feel about him and I wouldn’t want the ball in anybody else’s hands in that situation.”
It was a heartbreaking loss for the Chippewas, who began the scoring with a four-run third inning that included the inside-the-park home run by Theunissen.
An unusual play that would surely get a team motivated did just the opposite. The Eagles went on a 6-0 run over the course of four innings with two runs in the third, one in the fourth and three in the sixth.
What once was a 4-0 lead for CMU became a 6-4 deficit.
And maybe that’s what the Chippewas needed because they responded with three runs of their own in the top half of the seventh inning.
Senior William Arnold was hit by a pitch, junior Jordan Dean singled and senior Tyler Hall walked before Theunissen delivered again. This time, with a two-run single. Hall concluded the inning’s scoring when he touched home off a wild pitch.
After a scoreless eighth inning, Enns came in to try and give CMU the series-clinching victory, but blew the save when Ohrman took him deep and flipped the switch on the Chippewas.
Theunissen went 2-for-5 with five RBIs to lead the Chippewas.
“I was seeing the ball well this weekend and I kind of got lucky on that home run,” Theunissen said. “The centerfielder tried to make a really good play on me and ended up running into the wall and I kept running.”
They have a day off before they begin a five-game home stand beginning at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday against Oakland and then another midweek game at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday against Michigan State.
“I thought we played hard, especially the past few days,” Theunissen said.
