CMU baseball battles through errors to beat Ball State, extend winning streak to eight games
Baseball can be a strange game sometimes.
Friday was one of those games, as the Central Michigan baseball team extended its winning streak to eight with a 6-5 win over Ball State at Theunissen Stadium.
“We didn’t play very well and that’s the biggest thing,” said head coach Steve Jaksa. “A few weeks ago we don’t get a W, but today I was really pleased with how our guys battled back from adversity.”
It was a back and forth game between the Chippewas (26-25, 13-9 Mid-American Conference) and the Cardinals (11-34, 6-16 MAC) until the Cardinals took a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning when senior center fielder Tyler Hall seemed to catch a pop fly and drop the ball on the exchange.
But the umpires said Hall in fact dropped the ball and the runner was safe. While the runner was off the base, Hall tried to catch him off guard but his throw bounced off the bag and went into the BSU dugout.
After a long discussion between Jaksa and the umpires the runner was awarded third base and scored on a sacrifice fly.
“I just told our guys to focus on the game and let me worry about the umpires,” Jaksa said.
CMU would take the lead in the bottom half of the inning with three runs off RBIs from senior Nate Theunissen, freshman third baseman Joe Houlihan and a fielding error that allowed junior shortstop Jordan Dean to score.
“I thought we handled adversity really well and I thought we came back nicely," Jaksa said. "We were able to close it out."
Another oddity of the game was the final line for senior pitcher Zach Cooper, who went eight innings striking out six and allowing seven hits. While Ball State scored four runs off Cooper, only one of which was earned because of five CMU errors.
“Cooper battled really well against adversity,” Jaksa said. “Just battle and do your job is all we ask you to do, and Cooper held on.”
Dean was doing his best to support his pitcher by going 2-for-2 at the plate, with his seventh home run of the season in the third and a leadoff double to start a fifth-inning rally.
“3-2 count and he just hung a slider,” Dean said. “It was actually really high and I just reacted and put a good swing on it.”
Anyway you look at it, it’s another win for CMU. The Chippewas are now one game above .500 and keeping pace with MAC West leader Toledo, who remains ahead by one game after a 9-4 win against Bowling Green on Friday.
“We know where we’re at and it’s hard to not have that on the back of your mind,” Dean said. “We play our game and the standings should take care of itself.”
CMU will send junior Pat Kaminska to the mound Saturday when it goes for the series win. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. at Theunissen Stadium.
