Baseball team home over Easter weekend against Toledo
Most students will be traveling home for Easter this weekend.
“You give and you get,” said junior Jordan Dean. “We get to travel around and play baseball all year, so, obviously there are going to be some things that we miss out on, but I’m sure a lot of the guys’ families will be coming into town.”
“I’m lucky. They only live about 20-25 minutes away, so I’ll get to see mine.”
TheCentral Michiganbaseball team enters another crucial Mid-American Conference three-game series this weekend. It facesToledoat Theunissen Stadium, starting at 3:05 p.m. Friday. CMU senior pitcher Zach Cooper will be on the mound.
Despite the holiday, CMU doesn’t get a break. The Chippewas are in the thick of the race for a MAC West division championship withToledo. The Rockets enter the three-game series with a 3-4 record within the conference, just behind CMU (3-3) andWestern Michigan(5-0).
Both teams have been reeling of late. The Rockets have lost their past four games and the Chippewas have dropped their past three. The two teams have had similar situations, losing to top-tier universities last week.
UT lost 7-3 against Notre Dame Tuesday and CMU lost 7-3 against theUniversityofMichiganWednesday.
“It’s a big series coming up,” head coach Steve Jaksa said. “We’re just in the situation where we’ll both be ready to play, and I think I’m confident that we’re going to play hard and we’ve got to start it with Coop on the hill on Friday and get it going from there.”
The Chippewas have a couple of major advantages that stick out like a sore thumb in their matchup against the Rockets; offense is one of them.
CMU has a better batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored, hits, RBIs, home runs, doubles, triples, total plate appearances, at-bats, walks and the list goes on.
The Chippewas are 4-2 at home this season and the Rockets are 8-13 on the road.
Junior starting pitcher Patrick Kaminska will be on the mound at 2:05 p.m. Saturday and junior pitcher Rick Doderidge pitches at 1:05 p.m. Sunday.
