S-MAC-ked: Baseball’s season ends with 6-2 loss in MAC Tournament
The two teams with the best regular season records in the Mid-American Conference were the first teams to be eliminated from the MAC Baseball Tournament Thursday.
After No. 2 Kent State University was upset in the morning game at All Pro Freight Stadium in Avon, Ohio, the top seeded Central Michigan University Chippewas fell to No. 4 University of Toledo 6-2.
The Rockets jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first Thursday off CMU sophomore starting pitcher Nick Deeg. The Lake Orion native allowed four earned runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings.
The Chippewas thought they had responded in the bottom of the first with senior outfielder Nick Regnier’s no-out bunt single with runners on first and second. Sophomore first baseman Alex Borglin came around to score, but was sent back to second base and Regnier was called out on interference at first base.
It was a call Head Coach Steve Jaksa was not in favor of, as evidenced by a long, heated argument with the umpires. Jaksa would lose the argument and CMU would not score in the inning.
The Chippewas put runners on base in six of the first seven innings, but could only score twice. They left 12 runners on base, even after being outhit 13 to five.
They scored their first run in the bottom of the sixth when senior catcher Tyler Huntey came home on a wild pitch to make it 4-1. With the bases loaded and one out, Borglin’s bunt attempt was caught and the runner on third was doubled up to end the threat.
Toledo Head Coach Cory Mee said he wasn’t happy with the five hits and 10 walks his team allowed, but said his team came up big in clutch situations.
“The thing we did well today is we made big pitches when we needed to and we made big defensive plays when we needed to,” Mee said. “We put too many guys on base, but the guys really bared down and they made big pitches in the clutch.”
After a Rocket run in the top half of the, Huntey doubled in the seventh to make it 5-2 and extended his hitting streak to 13 in his final game as a Chippewa. It was CMU’s only extra-base hit of the game.
CMU loaded the bases, but on a 3-2 pitch, junior third baseman Joe Houlihan’s weak fly ball was snatched to end the inning.
The top two seeds in the tournament were eliminated from the tournament on the second day for the first time since 2009.
CMU hadn’t lost two MAC games in a row since May 21-22, 2014 when it lost in the opening pair of rounds in last year’s MAC Tournament. The Chippewas haven't won the MAC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament since 1995.
