Baseball drops doubleheader to Central Florida
After being blown out against Central Florida on Friday, the Central Michigan baseball team lost both games against UCF Saturday.
The two losses bring CMU's record to 5-10 on the season. The Chippewas lost all three games against the Knights.
The two teams played a doubleheader Saturday due to impending weather on Sunday.
Head coach Steve Jaksa was pleased with his starting pitchers even though the team wasn't able to win.
"I thought our starting pitching was really good," Jaksa said. "I am really happy with it. Dazon Cole pitched really well."
Game 1
UCF got off to an ideal start. The Knights recorded a 3-run homer in the first inning to take the lead and never looked back on their way to a 7-3 win.
CMU rallied in the fifth and eighth innings, but weren't able to hold off UCF's offense.
Sophomore Dazon Cole started the first game for CMU and played the bulk of the innings, but tallied his third loss of the season in three starts.
Game 2
The Chippewas scored two runs in the first inning from two hits. Sophomore Daniel Robinson was walked to reach first then reached home base on a double to right center from junior Daniel Jipping. Sophomore Evan Kratt singled to left field to score Jipping.
UCF came back to tie the game in the bottom of the first inning.
In the next six innings, CMU kept UCF scoreless and batted in two runs to lead by a score of 4-2 at the end of the seventh inning.
The Knights scored in the eighth inning to close the gap.
UCF loaded the bases in the ninth inning, then Eli Putnam batted a walk-off single to the left side to win the game by a score of 5-4.
Tyler Hankins pitched seven full innings and allowed 3 runs off of 4 hits. He faced 29 batters and threw 114 pitches in today's game.
Michael Brettell relieved Hankins in the middle of the eighth inning. Brettell faced five batters and didn't allow one run in one inning.
Jordan Grosjean finished the game for the Chippewas. He allowed two batters to get on base then UCF scored a walk-off single.
"I thought our team competed really well," Jaksa said. "I thought we gave it everything we had. We are right there and we are close, but we are unable to close out the second one."
What's Next
Central Michigan will take on Marygrove in its home opener Tuesday at Theunissen Stadium.
