Preview: CMU baseball starts Sabol era with veteran led team
CMU baseball stands for the National Anthem on Tuesday before their game against Oakland University at Theunissen Stadium.
After another successful season in 2023 that saw Central Michigan baseball win 30 plus games for the fourth time in five years (shortened 2020 season), CMU will look to continue that success with a familiar but new face at the helm.
Coaching Staff
That face is referring to new head coach and former Chippewas starting pitcher Jake Sabol who now takes over the program after former head coach Jordan Bischel accepted the same position at the University of Cincinnati.
Sabol will have some pretty big shoes to fill as in Bischel’s five years at CMU he compiled an overall record of 174-77 and 113-38 in Mid-American Conference play.
“As an alum I've done nothing but obviously try to build my program up wherever I've been, but also I pay close attention to what CMU baseball has done ever since graduating in 2011,” Sabol said. “It's a program that's near and dear to me. It's always meant a lot to me. It gave me a lot of things in my life that necessarily I would not have had without being involved in this program.”
Bischel’s Chippewas also won the MAC tournament three times, sending CMU to the NCAA tournament in 2019, 2021 and 2022, its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1996.
This isn’t the first time Sabol has taken over a Bischel coached squad as he was named the head coach at Northwood after Bischel took the CMU job in 2019. At Northwood Sabol had a record of 140-90-1.
Sabol filled out his coaching staff by bringing in Aaron Hilt, a former pitching coach at Eastern Michigan. Doug Walters, who has been with Sabol since 2017 at Alma was hired in as an assistant with a primary focus on hitters and catchers.
Justin Sumner was also hired to be an assistant. Another familiar face and former Chippewa player joined the coaching staff as Garrett Navarra will be in the dugout as an assistant.
“He's been great,” Sabol said on Navarra. “Being a two-way guy and having so much success that he did here in the program the last four or five years, guys automatically respected, and they look at him as a coach now not just as a player which can be hard.”
Veteran Leadership
CMU will be veteran led in the 2024 season as the team features 14 seniors and nine juniors. Some of those leaders include seniors Danny Wuestenfeld, Drew Stengren, Ben Vitas, Jacob Donahue and redshirt junior Robby Morgan IV, who all have played in two NCAA tournaments.
“We got 14 Seniors… we might be losing 15 or 16 (players after the season) depending on a few different things,” Sabol said. “Those guys have been through a lot, they know how to win. They know what the ups and downs might look like throughout the course of the year. They've been through a 56-game schedule and in the NCAA tournament.”
Throughout the years CMU baseball has been known for its dugout antics, whether it is the team dancing or putting on the “home run helmet” after a home run. Sabol talked about how he is allowing the veterans to have a say in the team culture.
“It certainly helps to have an older group,” Sabol said. “Throughout the coaching change, I think that they made it a little easier for us to kind of pick their brain with what worked and what didn't and what they'd like to see the program continue on."
One of those seniors is right-handed pitcher Keegan Batka who finished last season with a 3.67 ERA in 81 innings while also adding 76 strikeouts. Entering the 2024 season Batka was named as the No.9 overall draft prospect in the MAC by d1baseball.
“It's been a lot different,” Batka said on his preparation for the season compared to last year. “Last year it was just trying to fight for that spot, coming into Division I not knowing what it is going to be like.”
Key Returners/Departures
Along with Batka, two other Chippewas were named inside the top 15 MAC draft prospects with one being Morgan IV at No. 12 and the other being junior left-handed pitcher Adam Mrakitsch at No. 4.
Mrakitsch was also named the MAC preseason pitcher of the year by d1baseball as he is coming off a season that featured a 3.59 ERA in 92 2/3 innings and 80 strikeouts all of which were team highs.
“It’s a group that has won championships and experienced highs and lows,” Sabol said. “... The talent level is there now we just have to put it together on the field.”
For Morgan IV, he is coming off of a year where he led CMU in home runs with 12 and also led the team with 53 runs batted in.
But with the departure of coach Jordan Bischel a few key players followed him to Cincinnati with those being now sophomores Luke Sefcik and Christian Mitchelle.
Sefcik finished last year with a team best .315 batting average while also carrying a .840 ops (on base + slugging). He was also awarded All-MAC first team honors for his performance.
Mitchelle finished the year with a .307 batting average which was good enough for runner-up behind Sefcik. He was also great on the basepaths as he swiped 23 stolen bases on 26 attempts, while also throwing 17 innings in relief with a 3.18 ERA. His performance earned him All-MAC second team honors at third base.
“Those two guys were good players,” Sabol said. “We've got a little bit of some roster things to figure out when it comes to replacing those guys, but I think we've got some good pieces here in our program currently that are gonna allow us to have a lot of chances to win games.”
Tough Schedule
CMU will start its season on the road with a trip to Texas where it’ll play nine games in 10 days against Texas A&M – Corpus Christi, Stephen F. Austin and Dallas Baptist.
After Texas, CMU will head to Oklahoma where it will take on Oklahoma State for four games before traveling to Tulsa to take on Oral Roberts.
“We're going to play a lot here in the first couple of weeks,” Sabol said. “A couple back-to-back 10-day trips, which is a little unusual, but will allow us to get some guys in the game and figure out what we have to work with as we head into MAC play.”
Once MAC play opens, CMU will then face a few tough non-conference opponents with a four-game series against the University of Central Florida and eventually playing single games against Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame.
“Our early conference or non-conference schedule is tough,” Sabol said. “We're going to be tested early on, we have a couple of top 25 opponents, a former college world series team and Oral Roberts is on there early. So, our guys like that, I think it's going to prep them for what our overall goals are and that's to play in the NCAA Tournament.”
CMU's season opener is on Friday when the Chippewas travel to Texas and face off against Texas A&M Corpus Christi at 3 p.m.
