Baseball team shut out at Michigan, 7-0
The baseball team’s bats were as cold as the weather in its 7-0 loss to the Michigan Wolverines at Fisher Stadium in Ann Arbor Wednesday afternoon.
The Chippewas (11-15) mustered seven hits but were held scoreless for just the third time this season. Five Wolverine pitchers combined to shut out CMU.
“I just think we can play a lot better than this,” said head coach Steve Jaksa. “A few of our guys are thinking too much. We need to focus on what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Back-to-back hits gave the Wolverines the 1-0 lead after one inning. Sacrifice fly outs to center field in the second and fourth innings made it 3-0 U-M after four innings.
Redshirt freshman left handed pitcher Blake Louscher entered the game in the fifth inning and gave up back-to-back singles. Both runners would later score on a throwing error by sophomore catcher Tyler Huntey and another sacrifice fly by the Wolverines to make it 5-0 after five innings.
“They only needed to score one run as it turned out,” Jaksa said. “So they didn’t need to be that efficient. We didn’t help ourselves today getting picked off a couple times.”
U-M added runs in the sixth and seventh innings to extend their lead to 7-0.
Freshman left handed pitcher Jimmy McNamara made his first career start for Chippewas. He gave up two earned runs, five hits and struck out three over four innings.
“Jimmy was fine, we had him on a pitch count,” Jaksa said. “We need him for this weekend; if this was a game when he wasn’t on a pitch count he would have continued. He did a good job, I was happy with his performance.”
Sophomore outfielder Nick Regnier led the Chippewas at the plate, going 2-for-4. Sophomore Cody Leichman and freshmen Zack Fields and Neal Jacobs had a double each in the loss.
The Chippewas continue Mid-American Conference play this weekend when they host Northern Illinois for a three-game series. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. at Theunissen Stadium.
