Midweek games continue to give baseball team problems
Midweek games haven’t been kind to the Central Michigan baseball team lately.
After losing against Michigan State and Michigan the past two midweek games, the Chippewas were hoping the third time was the charm today against Oakland.
However, OU put up two big innings en route to an 11-8 victory on its home field in Rochester.
“We probably walked too many guys,” head coach Steve Jaksa said. “They had a couple timely hits. We just weren’t able to get all the way back into it.”
It was a stalemate at six for two and a half innings, but the Golden Grizzlies busted that in the bottom of the seventh with one of their two major run-producing innings.
Hit batters and walks allowed OU to establish base runners for junior Nolan Jacoby. He’s the guy who damaged Trowbridge’s stat line. Jacoby smashed the winning three-run home run to ultimately seal the deal for the Golden Grizzlies.
The Chippewas made it interesting in the eighth inning with two runs, but senior Sam Russell left two runners stranded when he struck out to end the inning.
“We had two guys on and we couldn’t get that one more hit that maybe would have put us ahead,” Jaksa said.
In the beginning of the game, CMU responded to an early run from the Golden Grizzlies with three runs in the top of the second, but OU scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning.
The usual midweek pitcher freshman Matt Trowbridge was swapped out in favor of freshman Dylan Rheault, but the struggles continued for the midweek starters.
Rheault lasted just two innings, giving up five runs (two earned) on just one hit, but four walks.
Trowbridge entered the third inning in relief, but he had his ups and downs as well. He went 4 and 2/3 innings while giving up four runs on four hits with six strikeouts.
The Chippewas have a three-game series against Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti beginning at 6 p.m. Friday. The Eagles are first place in the Mid-American Conference West standings with a 6-3 record.
