Baseball looking to take hot streak into MAC play
A 7-2 record in the final nine games of the season-opening road trip has the CMU baseball team at 10-10, moving into conference play.
Mid-American Conference competition starts at 6 p.m. Friday at Ohio University.
Central Michigan got off to a slow start this season by going 2-6 at UNLV and Troy including a four-game sweep at the hands of the Rebels.
"The season didn't start (where we wanted) in a win-loss standpoint," said head coach Steve Jaksa. "We needed to clean some things up, (which) takes time to do it."
The biggest cleaning up comes at the plate.
In the first eight games of the season, the team averaged 3.13 runs per game with a combined batting average of .217, striking out 9.75 times per game.
In the ensuing eight games, those numbers improved to 7.83 runs per game, a .261 batting average and 9.67 strikeouts per game – with only 5.25 strikeouts in the last series against University of Incarnate Word.
"We started out a little rough and I don't think we had a team identity," said junior Tyler Huntey. "In the last week or two, we've really figured ourselves out as a team."
Huntey has found his identity at the plate, batting .450 in four games last week while bringing in eight RBIs.
His bat caught the attention of the MAC as he earned last week's MAC West Player of the Week.
"A lot of it came from my teammates getting on base," Huntey said. "They put me in good positions to be successful. I mean, you're never going to get RBIs if nobody is on base."
Leading off the MAC schedule for the Chippewas is the Bobcats (4-13) who are limping into the conference season with five consecutive losses during which opponents averaged 12.6 runs against them.
Three of those loses came at the hands of St. Bonaventure, a team CMU beat 5-0 to start the strong second half of the winter season.
"I don't have a good feel for (Ohio) personnel because we haven't played them in a while," Jaksa said. "All that matters is what (a team) does on one particular day. You just need to win the game you're in and I'm sure that's what he's telling his guys"
