Baseball downs Ohio with pair of home runs, 15 hits
Senior catcher Tyler Huntey rounds third base as head coach Steve Jaksa waves him on. The Chippewas scored four runs in the third inning against Ohio Saturday.
Freshman pitcher Pat Leatherman (3-0, 3.00 ERA) was greeted with high-fives and hugs from his teammates as he walked off the field in the sixth inning in his first career start at Theunissen Stadium Saturday.
The Jenison native allowed five hits and three runs over 5.1 innings against the 12th highest scoring offense in the country as Central Michigan baseball (14-9, 1-1 MAC) defeated Ohio University (12-7, 1-1 MAC) 9-3.
“I don’t think (Leatherman) was a surprise,” said Head Coach Steve Jaksa. “He’s been pitching very well. Pat just really threw one bad pitch and that was it.”
Junior outfielder Logan Regnier started the scoring with a two-run triple in the third inning, his fifth triple of the season. Regnier was 3-for-3 Saturday with 3 RBI’s and two runs.
Freshman designated hitter Daniel Jipping followed Regnier with his second career home run. Senior catcher Tyler Huntey also had a home run Saturday.
“You don’t think about home runs,” Jaksa said. “Our guys aren’t that good where you can say ‘I’m going to hit a home run.’ I think one guy did that one time, Babe Ruth, and that’s been it in the history of the game.”
The Chippewas had just four home runs in their previous 22 games.
Junior pitcher Sean Renzi picked up his first save of the season, pitching 3.2 innings, striking out seven batters and allowing one walk and no hits.
“With Sean, his stuff’s been really good,” Jaksa said. ‘The only bugaboo had been he’d had a few too many walks. He started throwing over the plate, got in a real good rhythm, real good place and punched out quite a few guys in a short period of time.”
Renzi came on in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and one out and struck out the next two batters.
CMU and Ohio will finish off the three-game series tomorrow at 1:05 p.m.
