Baseball suffers series sweep in regular-season opener at UNLV
Baseball started its 2014 season losing big in Las Vegas this weekend, swept in a four-game series with UNLV.
The Chippewas lost 6-2 Sunday, 11-8 and 5-2 on Saturday and 5-0 Friday.
Senior left-handed pitcher Adam Aldred lasted the longest of any of the four starting pitchers this weekend, throwing 6.1 innings and allowing three earned runs Sunday.
Neither team had a hit heading into the fourth inning when the CMU's bats drove in two runs, including an RBI single by junior utility player Tyler Huntey.
The bats would cool off however, a theme for the weekend, as the Rebels took the lead in the sixth inning and never looked back.
"Our two-strike approach needs to get better," said head coach Steve Jaksa. "We took too many called third strikes and if that improves, our whole offense will improve."
Starting pitching got CMU in trouble in game three of the series as freshman Nick Deeg allowed seven runs in 3.1 innings in his first college outing.
The team was down 7-0 heading into the seventh inning of Saturday's double-header nightcap, but was able to clear the deficit and take the lead with a four-hit, eight-run inning.
However, the lead didn't last as UNLV scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh and shut out the Chippewas in the eighth and ninth innings.
"Nick will have learned a lot from how he threw (Saturday)," Jaksa said. "He's a quick learner and has good stuff and his stuff is only going to get better as he learns to execute his game plan."
In the early game, senior right-handed pitcher Pat Kaminska returned to the mound after receiving a medical redshirt last season. He struggled as the Rebels starting pitching shut down CMU bats yet again, holding the team to two hits and no runs until the eighth inning when it rallied for two runs.
Central Michigan threatened to score in the ninth inning with three hits, but no runs crossed the plate.
Friday
Day one on Friday set the tone for the weekend as UNLV's ace Erick Fedde and closer Brayden Torres dominated CMU's bats by striking out 13 and allowing three hits.
"(UNLV) pounded the zone and they would've pounded it a little less if we were more difficult outs," Jaksa said. "If you're a more difficult out then they have to throw more pitches and we weren't able to get that done this weekend."
CMU looks to improve in all facets of the game when it heads to Alabama next weekend for another four-game series against Troy University.
"They have a hostile environment and they've been pretty good lately," Jaksa said. "We played well the last time we went down there and our guys will learn and get back at it to be ready to play again"
