Nine-run second inning powers baseball past Northern Illinois
Coming into Friday’s game, Central Michigan University baseball had lost three of its past four games, scoring nine runs over the span.
The Chippewas scored nine in the second inning alone Friday, as they cruised past Northern Illinois University 14-2.
“There’s no question we were ready to play today,” said Head Coach Steve Jaksa. “There was a little pep in our step and we executed what we were going to do. We are a good club when we play like that.”
Going to the bottom of the second trailing 2-1, CMU put it’s first six batters on base.
“We weren’t down very long,” Jaksa said. “We came back in that second inning and scored a lot of runs. But at the same time, we got down by one. They had a couple tough runs we gave up, then they made one mistake in the bottom of the second and we just took over from there.”
CMU’s first extra-base hit came on freshman designated hitter Daniel Jipping’s three-run home run driven over the left-field wall to put the team up 10-2.
The nine runs scored in the inning were the most the Chippewas have scored in a single inning this season.
“All of a sudden the runs started piling up, guys were in scoring position, momentum was on our side and we executed what we wanted to do in those situations with both the small game and then we hit a ball out,” Jaksa said.
All nine CMU starters picked up a hit. Junior first baseman Morgan Oliver led the team with four RBIs.
The Chippewas are 29-16 overall and 14-5 in the Mid-American Conference. They entered Friday first in the conference, two games ahead of Ohio and Kent State.
Junior pitcher Sean Renzi (4-1, 2.01 ERA) was promoted to the Friday start and allowed just one earned run in his five innings. Eight of his 15 recorded outs were strikeouts, including the first four.
Renzi started out the season in the bullpen, but is now one of the team’s most reliable starters. He leads the team in ERA, strikeouts (49) and opponent batting average (.168).
“(Renzi’s) our Friday guy right now,” Jaksa said. “We’ve got another Friday-type guy going tomorrow.”
Sophomore pitcher Nick Deeg (6-4, 2.82 ERA) will be the pitcher tomorrow, as the teams square up for game two of the three-game series at 2:05 p.m. tomorrow at Theunissen Stadium.
