Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
Toledo
Baseball Wins In 18 Innings, 16-15
5/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2002
TOLEDO, Ohio - Central Michigan scored a run in the top of the 18th inning on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Krueger to give the Chippewas a 16-15 Mid-American Conference win over Toledo here Sunday.
The win pushed CMU's record to 29-23 for the season and 14-10 in MAC play, good for a fifth-place seed in this week's conference tourney at Bowling Green. Central will meet Eastern Michigan in the opening-round contest on Wednesday. Toledo closes with a mark of 18-34 and 9-18.
Tommy Grubb led off the 18th with a walk, went to third on Danny Gibbons' single and scored on the flyout by Krueger.
The game was tied at 15-15 after nine innings and remained that way until the 18th.
David LeMieux was the ninth CMU pitcher and picked up the win, upping his record to 3-1. Central ended the game with a doubleplay. LeMieux tossed four scorless innings after Nick Zastrow had hurled four scoreless frames.
Central Michigan took a 2-0 lead as fast as possible when Tim Bullinger singled on the first pitch of the game off Shawn Hurst and Tommy Grubb deposited the second over the right field fence at the 370-foot mark. It was his third of the season.
The Rockets fought back for four runs in the second, all unearned as two Chippewa errors helped the UT cause. Toledo did bang out five hits in the inning off the starter Ryan Cremeans.
Toledo upped the advantage to 6-2 after three innings with two runs in the third. Cremeans left with one on and one out in favor of Gavin Gillette. Gillette was touched for a couple of hits that led to both markers.
CMU got two runs back in the fourth on only one hit, an infield RBI single by Bullinger. Gates drew one of four walks in the inning to drive in the second one.
UT put four more on the board in the fourth to cop a 10-4 lead. The first three came off Gillette and were earned while the fourth was off Travis Osborn and unearned.
Central got one back in the sixth when Grubb singled to right to score David Latour who had reached on a single.
An eight-run explosion in the seventh gave the Chippewas a 13-11 lead. CMU had seven hits in the inning along with two walks. Keith Sampsell had two singles and scored twice while Grubb had a two-run single and Ryan Krueger's two-run double gave Central the two-run lead.
CMU added a pair of runs in the ninth inning when Gates doubled and Krueger singled. Both scored on a single to center by Pickens, giving Central a 15-12 lead.
However, Toledo scored three runs in the ninth, two unearned, to force extra innings tied at 15-15.
