Baseball splits Saturday doubleheader at Troy
After a dominating performance from junior ace Jordan Foley on Friday Central Michigan answered with a 3-2 win in game two at Troy Saturday.
It was the pitching staff coming through in the clutch to give the Chippewas (2-4) their second win behind five innings from senior right-hander Pat Kaminska, who got the win, a strong four innings from sophomore left-hander Jimmy McNamara for the hold and junior closer Matt Trowbridge earning his second save of the season.
The team needed the staff to come through in the first game the doubleheader as the offense struggled to piece together the three runs needed to win.
The Trojans (3-3) struck out 14 batters with sophomore first baseman Zach Fields falling victim four times and sophomore shortstop Morgan Oliver going down three times.
CMU struck first in the third inning after sophomore outfielder Logan Regnier got hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a wild throw by Troy pitcher Shane McCain to first base. McCain then walked junior second baseman Pat MacKenzie before Regnier showed off his speed by stealing home.
Logan's brother, junior outfielder Nick Regnier, hit a two-out single after MacKenzie was caught stealing second and later scored off a RBI sinlge off the bat of junior utility player, Tyler Huntey.
The Trojans pieced together a run in the bottom of the third and fouth and the game stayed there until the top of the sixth when the Chippewas used their speed yet again to set up the run.
Junior designated hitter Cody Leichman stole third, his second stolen base of the game before redshirt freshman third baseman Alex Collins hit a RBI groundout to give his team the 3-2 lead.
That's all CMU needed as the duo of McNamra and Trowbridge shut the door the rest of the way.
The Chippewas will look to true freshman left-handed pitcher Nick Deeg in game two of the doubleheader as the team looks to clinch the series.
GAME TWO:
On just one pitch senior Kenton San Miguel’s ERA went from 0.00 to 3.86.
That one pitch happened to be in the ninth inning against Troy in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday night.
Troy senior infielder Garrett Pitts connected on that pitch to give the Trojans a walk-off victory over Central Michigan 5-4.
The loss drops CMU to 2-5 overall after winning its first two games against Troy.
Nick Deeg got the start for CMU and pitched over four innings giving up four runs, three of them earned on four hits.
Tim Black relieved Deeg in the fifth inning and went on to pitch over three innings giving up just one hit.
CMU got the scoring going early in the fourth inning.
Cody Leichman doubled down the right field line. Logan Regnier was then hit by a pitch to give Adam Collins a chance to do some damage with runners on base.
Collins didn’t disappoint homering over the left field wall to score three runs for CMU.
Troy answered with four runs in the fifth inning. Three of them coming from the bat of Pitts.
In what was a sequence of things to come, Pitts homered over the right field wall to score three runs. Troy wasn’t done as Jo-El Bennett singled to score another run.
CMU was able to tie the score up at four runs each in the eighth inning after Collins scored on a wild pitch.
CMU and Troy finish their series tomorrow at 11 a.m..
