Bullpen helps CMU baseball to 2-2 weekend at Troy
Missed opportunities came back to haunt baseball in the finale of its four-game series Sunday at Troy.
Central Michigan lost game four, 3-2, finishing the series 2-2.
The Chippewas had the bases loaded with no outs in the third, but failed to score as redshirt freshman Adam Collins, who hit the team's first home run of the season in game three, flew out to right. Junior outfielder Nick Regnier hit into an infield fly and junior first baseman Cody Leichman struck out looking, dashing the scoring opportunity.
The sixth inning ended in familiar fashion, with runners on second and third and one out. Sophomore shortstop Morgan Oliver went down swinging before redshirt freshman Alex Borglin went down looking to end the inning.
"We were that close and if you're going to win you need to get a hit here or there," said head coach Steve Jaksa. "We had several opportunities to do that."
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Adam Aldred gave up three runs in the first inning, but kept the Trojans (5-3) at bay the rest of game, throwing seven innings. Aldred allowed three runs on eight hits and one walk, and struck out six.
Sophomore pitcher Jason Gamble relieved Aldred in the eighth and kept the difference to one run.
"We need to be able to turnover our starting pitching to our bullpen," Jaksa said. "Those are guys who can sub out and guys who close games; all those things become important when you try to sustain and keep yourself in the game."
After struggling at UNLV last week, Gamble, and junior Matt Trowbridge, sophomore Jimmy McNamra, junior Tim Black and senior Kenton San Miguel threw 10.1 innings, allowing one run on three hits, eight walks and striking out nine. Trowbridge recorded his first two saves of the season.
The one run was attributed to San Miguel who gave up a walk-off home run in game three of the series. Miguel didn't give up a run in either of his appearances last weekend.
"Trowbridge did a real nice job in a couple of innings," Jaksa said. "McNamara came in and pitched outstandingly. Tim Black pitched outstandingly, so if we can continue to get that pitching and turn it over to the bullpen, we'll be in position to win."
CMU relied heavily on pitching as the team struggled to produce offense throughout the weekend.
The struggles were evident in game two of the series when the team saw 14 strikeouts, but was able squeeze in three runs, enough for senior starter Pat Kaminska, along with McNamra and Trowbridge.
"Kaminska really battled," Jaksa said. "He took a ball off his hand and had some swelling but kept going. We kept icing it between innings and he just battled."
In game one, the team didn't need much offense as junior ace Jordan Foley threw seven innings and allowed one run while striking out eight.
"It was a heck of a game on Friday," Jaksa said. "(A) real good win and then turned it over to the bullpen."
Next week, the Chippewas will play in the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla.
"We will figure out how to score runs," Jaksa said. "I truly believe that"
