CMU baseball cruises to a walk off mercy rule against Rochester Christian
Central Michigan University junior pitcher Jake Brown throws a pitch during the baseball game at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. Brown went in during the top of the fourth inning and pitched for the rest of the game. (CM-Life | Jasmine Brookins)
Central Michigan baseball ended things early once again, walking off Rochester Christian University 11-1 in a mercy-rule win Tuesday at Theunissen Stadium. Just like last Wednesday, the Chippewas closed out a non-conference opponent in the seventh inning.
Freshman infielder Jonathan Fleaka delivered the walk-off single to left field, driving in Miguel Correa Jr. and enacting the mercy rule in the seventh inning.
Outfielder Dominic Bouscher also had a big moment in that inning. Just before Fleaka’s single, he ripped a line drive for his first career hit. Bouscher, the team’s go-to pinch runner, made his first career start as a redshirt freshman.
Carter Campau took the ball for Central Michigan and worked a scoreless inning after allowing a leadoff bloop single. His day finished after just one inning, as Mitchell Tarnowski entered in the second.
Giving Campau just one inning was part of the plan, using him as an opener and allowing him to work through some things with minimal pressure.
“He’s dealing with a lot of stuff from an arm standpoint,” head coach Jake Sabol said. “I think last week we kind of did him a disservice, putting him in a tough situation, so we wanted to get him in there clean with the top of first.”
It was a quiet start for the Chippewas, who had just one baserunner through the first three innings. Rochester Christian briefly took the lead in the fourth inning in an unconventional way.
With runners on first and third, the runner on first intentionally took off and was caught in a rundown. The play allowed catcher Aiden Alspaugh to score before the tag was applied, putting the Warriors on the board first.
Central Michigan responded immediately, which has become one of its biggest strengths. The Chippewas broke the game open with an eight-run fourth inning, sending multiple hitters to the plate and keeping the line moving throughout the rally.
Five different players recorded RBIs in the inning. Catcher Spencer Verburg and shortstop Drew Loikits each had RBI singles, while third baseman Bryson Webb was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Left fielder Cole Prout drove in two runs with a single to right field, and designated hitter Logan Keilen added a two-run double to cap off the surge.
Central Michigan added a couple more runs later, including a fielder’s choice RBI from Verburg and a run scored by Keilen on a wild pitch in the sixth inning to set up the mercy-rule opportunity in the seventh.
Jake Brown pitched the bulk of the game, entering with runners on in the fourth inning. He allowed one run, credited to Tarnowski, and finished with four scoreless innings, five strikeouts, no walks and four hits allowed.
“Brown was really good today. We keep wanting to run him out there because he has the stuff to help us,” Sabol said. “He’s just been plagued by the free passes throughout his career, but he’s had some moments throughout each year where we’ve got to throw him out there again. I’m just waiting for him to do it twice. You do it twice, now you’ve got some confidence, now you feel like you can do it a third time.”
The shortened game provided a much-needed lighter workload for the pitching staff, as the Chippewas played Oakland on Tuesday and will travel to Miami (Ohio) for a weekend series.
That upcoming series against the Miami RedHawks carries significant weight. Central Michigan sits in seventh place in the Mid-American Conference with a 9-12 record, four games back of Toledo, and will likely need to win every remaining series to stay in contention for a conference tournament spot.
“They should be excited about this weekend; I know the guys are excited to get themselves back in the mix,” Sabol said. “This would be a big weekend for us to be able to do that. We’re going to have our hands full, but I just want our guys to ride what they’re doing. If they just stick to that, we’ll be in the game late.”
Rochester Christian competes in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference, where it currently sits seventh with a 10-14 conference record. Central Michigan will face another WHAC opponent on April 29 when Grace Christian University visits Theunissen Stadium.
