Chippewas take two of three over Easter Weekend
The Central Michigan baseball team took two of three from Toledo over Easter weekend, winning on Friday and Saturday before dropping Sunday’s finale 10-9.
The Chippewas (14-18, 5-4 MAC) were able to secure the series on Saturday, but couldn’t finish the sweep Sunday, dropping a 10-9 slugfest to the Rockets (13-18, 4-5 MAC).
“Sweeping is what you need to do,” said head coach Steve Jaksa. “Today the guys are down a little bit, but we can look back and say we won two out of three.”
It looked as if a sweep was in the works after five innings of play Sunday after CMU posted four runs to take a 9-5 lead on UT .
But the Rockets plated five runs in the sixth to get the 10-9 win.
“On a day like today, with the wind blowing like it was, we needed to play a little better on the defensive side,” Jaksa said. “We opened a couple doors, especially after just scoring four runs to go up 9-5.”
The Chippewas recorded three errors on a day in which the wind was blowing 20-30 mph out into left field consistently.
“It’s the game and you have to deal with the conditions,” Jaksa said. “Each team had to play in those conditions and neither team was spotless.”
CMU was able to relax a little bit going into Sunday because of its wins on Friday and Saturday, which clinched the series.
The Chippewas had a couple stellar outings by their starting pitchers in the first two games.
Senior Zach Cooper recorded the win Friday after going seven innings and allowing just three hits and junior Patrick Kaminska made his first career start Saturday. He picked up the win behind seven 1/3 innings and allowed just five hits.
Cooper and Kaminska didn’t do it on their own in the first two games.
On Friday, junior first baseman Jordan Adams hit two home runs and had three RBIs as he and his teammates recorded seven runs and had 11 hits in support of Cooper.
“Anytime you put the team in a position to win, it feels great,” Adams said Friday.
Saturday Kaminska was aided by four runs in the final two innings of at-bats for CMU.
“It’s really big to get the second win of the series,” Kaminska said Saturday.
The Chippewas move to one game behind Eastern Michigan for first place in the Mid-American Conference West Division. They will travel to Ypsilanti, Mich. to take on the Eagles next weekend after playing a game at Oakland University Wednesday.
