Kaminska earns win in first start for baseball team
Making his first start in his Central Michigan baseball career junior Patrick Kaminska didn’t disappoint earning a 7-3 win.
The Naperville, Ill native was perfect through his first three innings of work until he hit one Toledo batter and allowed his first hit with one down in the fourth.
“That (perfect game) is something we don’t really think about, we just try and come out here and get wins,” Kaminska said.
Kaminska finished his day going seven 1/3 innings allowing just five hits, two earned runs while striking out three and walking one.
“I came in with a fastball to setup the off-speed pitches and that was our game plan coming in,” Kaminska said. “It feels good (to get a start), we had a couple holes to fill in and it’s really big to get the second win of the series.”
Kaminska had been solid in the bullpen leading up to the start Saturday by appearing in nine games throwing 22 innings with a record of 1-1 and an ERA of 2.05.
“He’s been pitching really well and we wanted another lefty in the (bull)pen,” said head coach Steve Jaksa. “Pat (Kaminska) in the couple stints has gone past three innings and it looked like he was doing a good job and that allowed us to put Ryan (Longstreth) in that (lefty bullpen) role.”
Kaminska was aided by the Chippewas' bats early as they plated two runs in the first inning. CMU (14-17, 5-3 MAC) continued to score with two in the seventh and eighth innings and one in the sixth.
Senior left fielder Sam Russell had two RBIs while freshman right fielder Nick Regnier went three-for-four at the plate and had an RBI of his own. Junior shortstop Jordan Dean also had an RBI off a single in the seventh and senior second baseman Tyler Hall added an RBI off a walk in the eighth.
“We scored two in the seventh and eighth so four of your seven runs in the last few innings, you just keep plugging along,” Jaksa said. “Put a run up here and a run there and keep the pressure on.”
The Chippewas will be looking to secure their first sweep of the season against the Rockets (12-18, 3-5 MAC) on Easter Sunday when junior Rick Dodridge takes the hill at 1:05 p.m.
“That is what we’ve been trying to do the past few Saturdays and we haven’t for a variety of reasons,” Jaksa said. “Today we played solid defense and when you get that kind of defense with the pitching we had today then it’s just a grind it out kind of game.”
