Central Michigan University Athletics
Baseball Travels To Oakland
3/12/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 12, 2001
MOUNT PLEASANT - Central Michigan University's baseball team returns from its annual Florida spring trip ready to jump into its northern schedule.
Coach Judd Folske's Chippewas travels to Oakland University for a doubleheader on Saturday, March 17 before returning to open the home season on March 20 against Saginaw Valley.
Central Michigan (6-7 overall) returns to Mount Pleasant with a 5-5 record on its spring trip.
The Chippewas opened with three losses at Florida (11-8, 14-3, 11-2) before capturing the title at the Baseball Week Tournament at Rollins College with a 5-1 record.
Central beat Long Island (15-9, 11-8), Virginia Tech (10-9), 6-5) and Rollins (8-7). The lone loss was to host Rollins (11-10). CMU also dropped a game to Central Florida (9-3).
"It's a nice accomplishment to win the championship at Rollins," Folske said. "We had a veteran team last year with greater expectations. This year's team is so young and inexperienced that we didn't know what to expect."
The Chippewas go into their northern slate with many questions answered.
"The unknown got answered," Folske said. "We established a lineup and showed that we can score some runs. We still need to be more aggressive on the basepaths.
"I'm surprised a little by our offense. But, I like David Grewe's (assistant coach) approach. He taught them the strike zone and it's paid off."
Offense was the name of the game in Florida. The Chippewas were led by Tim Bullinger (Jackson/Jr.) and Jason Helps (Wyoming, Ontario/Sr.).
Bullinger, who batted .275 with 24 RBI in 2000, left Florida at .364 with 17 RBI while Helps is batting .300 with 16 RBI. Helps drove in 13 runs in the 54th Annual Baseball Week Tournament at Rollins College and slammed three home runs.
Both Bullinger and Helps were named to the all-tournament team at the Baseball Week Tournament. Joining them were Matt Crowley (Grand Rapids/Sr.) and Mike Galloway (St. Thomas, Ontario/So.).
Not only did the Chippewas prove that they can score runs, they showed that they can come from behind.
CMU trailed Long Island, 9-0, before rallying for a 10-9 win, CMU trailed Virginia Tech, 8-1, before coming back for a 10-9 victory, Central trailed Rollins, 7-0, before winning 8-7, and trailed Long Island, 3-0, before posting an 11-8 win.
Pitcher Dan Horvath (Allen Park/So.) picked up two wins in the Rollins tourney, throwing two innings of scoreless ball in the 10-5 win over Long Island and all nine innings in the 8-7 victory over Rollins, he tossed six scoreless innings to finish the game.
Of CMU's 12 pitchers used this year, eight are newcomers. CMU's first four starters on the Florida spring trip were two sophomores and two freshmen - Jeff Garner (Hemlock/So.) and Horvath and Jeff Opalewski (Saginaw/Fr.) and Ryan Cremeans (Adrian/Fr.).
"We're youngest in pitching and it showed," Folske said. "However, we have good, young arms and they already started showing improvement."
NOTES: Brad Reid (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/Jr.) leads the squad with a .432 (19-44) batting average and is second with 16 RBI ... Mike Galloway is second with a .382 (21-55) mark while Tim Bullinger has a .364 (20-55) average with a team-best 17 RBI ... CMU lost its starting leftfielder Bryan Scheurer (Portland/Sr.) with a sprained thumb and rightfielder Ryan Krueger (Alpena/So.) with a sore back, Scheurer did return and Krueger remains questionable, Scheurer missed two games and Krueger seven ... CMU has given up 114 runs in 13 games this season, 51 have reached base by error, walk or hit by pitch ... CMU opens the MAC schedule on March 23 at Ohio.
