Miscues cost baseball team against MSU
Tyler Hall - Central Michigan baseball team’s most valuable player last year - didn’t have an MVP day Wednesday against Michigan State.
He didn’t do CMU freshman starting pitcher Matt Trowbridge any favors in the process.
Hall committed three errors during a windy afternoon in Theunissen Stadium as the Chippewas dropped their second game against the Spartans 11-1 in their last head-to-head game before the Clash at Comerica May 15 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
“Defensively, we’re not where we need to be,” head coach Steve Jaksa said. “I think we did turn three double plays tonight, which is nice to see, but again, made some mistakes that (showed) we’re not quite where we need to be defensively.”
MSU opened the scoring with a two-run second inning when Hall committed his first error of the game on a slow ground ball to the third-base side.
Hall’s one-hop throw was too hard for junior first baseman Jordan Adams to handle and the error proved costly as MSU freshman Blaise Salter and senior Justin Scanlon came across to score.
The Chippewas responded in the bottom half of the inning when freshman Pat MacKenzie singled up the middle to score fellow freshman Tyler Huntey, making the score 2-1.
MSU freshman Nick Regnier sent a fly ball to left field with one out in the same inning and Adams – who doubled down the left-field line earlier in the inning – tagged up and tested the arm of junior John Martinez. Martinez throw easily beat Adams as sophomore Joel Fisher applied the tag for the inning-ending double play.
The Spartans built a lead in the fourth inning putting up three runs.
“It kind of went south when they got the three, that put them up five and then it became six,” Jaksa said. “It was more our inability to get more runs. Obviously, one wasn’t going to be enough.”
Junior Ryan Jones hit a double down the left-field line, scoring junior Tony Wieber. The scoring continued in the inning when junior Jordan Dean committed an error with junior Torsten Boss at the place.
The error allowed Jones to score.
A single to left field from freshman Ryan Krill scored Boss before Martinez flied out to end the inning.
MSU added a run in the sixth inning and a five-run ninth.
The Chippewas finish their five-game home stand with a weekend series beginning at 3:05 p.m. Friday against back-to-back Mid-American Conference champions Kent State.
