Chippewas Ponder Future Without Potential Draftees
5/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 31, 2014
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Thirty-five wins? Nice accomplishment, and a relatively solid number in the annals of Central Michigan baseball.
And the 2014 Chippewas were a contender, finishing second both in the Mid-American Conference West Division and the league's overall standings.
But they were two-and-out in the conference tournament when they went in as the No. 2 seed, and that, in athletic parlance, is the motivator going forward.
"Do you want to win every game? Sure," said Steve Jaksa, who completed his 12th year as the Chippewas' coach, upping his career mark to 408-309-1 with CMU's 35-23 finish. "Thirty-five wins is great. How can we build off that? Where can we go? You look back at the history of the program, 35 wins is a lot of wins.
"But at the same time, there is the whole concept of a championship culture. We felt like we played like a championship-caliber team, but we didn't win a championship."
The Chippewas led the MAC West by one-half game heading into a home series with Ball State in late April. At that point, CMU was 25-12 overall and 12-3 in the league. The Cardinals swept the series at Theunissen Stadium to move 2 ½ games ahead, and, try as they might, the Chippewas could never regain the top spot in the division - or the conference overall - the rest of the way.
But they appeared to have regrouped and caught their second wind, winning nine of their last 12 regular-season games including a 7-2 mark in MAC games, winning all three of their final league series.
Also during that stretch, they scored a season-high 16 runs in a win over Oakland and completed a sweep of the season series with Michigan State.
Then came the conference tournament, where CMU fell into a 4-0 hole early in its opener against Akron. A 1-hour, 45-minute rain delay spelled the end of the night for Chippewa starter and first team all-leaguer Pat Kaminska.
Still, the Chippewas clawed back and were down 9-6 and loaded the bases with none out in the bottom of the ninth, but could not push across a run. The next day, they dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker to the RedHawks, which put an end to their season.
The storyline of the MAC Tournament for the Chippewas: They left a combined 26 runners on in their two losses.
"Numerous guys expressed to me that there was a feeling of unfinished business," Jaksa said in reflecting on the league tourney. "Not that we didn't play well, not that we didn't play hard, just that we were so close to a championship and it didn't go our way. I think from a lot of guys' standpoint there's still that unfinished business out there of what we want to accomplish.
"That's the next piece. You want to put your guys in a position where they can compete for a championship and we did that. Now we're going to look at that next step, and that's the unfinished business."
The looking ahead to 2015 has already begun for Jaksa and his staff, and next season's roster may take on a different look. Kaminska is among three seniors - infielder/outfielder Noel Santos and reliever Kenton San Miguel are the others - whose college diamond days are now behind them.
Four other Chippewas, first baseman Cody Leichman, pitchers Jordan Foley and Matt Trowbridge, and catcher Tyler Huntey, could opt to leave CMU for professional baseball if they are selected in next week's major league draft.
Foley, a right-hander, was CMU's Friday starter all season; Trowbridge, a lefty, was solid out of the bullpen and an occasional starter; Huntey led the Chippewas in batting average (.329) from the No. 3 spot in the order; and Leichman, the cleanup hitter, led CMU in homers (7) and RBI (56) while hitting .315.
Losing any of the four, each of whom has a year of eligibility remaining, would leave a major hole to fill. But it's a scenario Jaksa - along with every other college baseball coach - faces annually.
"We're going to lose some juniors," Jaksa said. "How many? You don't know. Have we been through it before? Yes."
The more players that leave, the more questions there are to be answered.
"You have to replace those guys on the mound," Jaksa said. "Kaminska's going to be gone and if you lose both Foley and Trowbridge, that's three pretty good arms that you're losing. So it's `Who's going to pick up those pieces?'"
The rotation could include a pair of sophomore-to-be left-handers, Nick Deeg and Adam Aldred. Deeg was the Chippewas' Sunday starter this season, and Aldred was the mid-week starter. They were a combined 11-10 and each had an earned run average around 3.70.
Tim Black, a senior-to-be right-hander, made a team-high 21 appearances as the closer and finished with nine saves, tying him for second-best in the MAC and earning him first team all-conference honors.
"Deeg was our No. 3 the whole year, pitched on Sunday the whole year, so he's a natural to bump up," Jaksa said. "We may look to move Black from a closer role into a starting role. So if we do that, who's going to be the closer?
"Aldred pitched well for 90 percent of the season. He had very few outings where he didn't pitch well. He should be ready to move into a weekend situation."
Two-thirds of the Chippewas starting outfield will return in the Regnier brothers, Nick (center field) and Logan (right). Nick Regnier, the team most valuable player in 2013, led the MAC and was fourth nationally with 35 stolen bases this season.
Three-fourths of the Chippewas' infield will return in third baseman Morgan Oliver, shortstop Alex Borglin, and second baseman Pat MacKenzie. MacKenzie led the MAC and tied for ninth nationally with 46 walks.
If Leichman is drafted and elects not to return to CMU, the frontrunner at first base would be junior-to-be Zack Fields, who saw increased playing time at first throughout the 2014 season.
The situation is similar behind the plate should Huntey, CMU's most improved player and co-team most valuable player with Kaminska, moves on.
A trio of lettermen - Alec Ornelas, Robert Greenman and Dylan Goodwin - are waiting in the wings.
Shoring up the defense is a priority, Jaksa said.
"We weren't as good as we were hoping to be defensively," he said. "I think we can play more consistent defense and a good share of it was on the infield. We just didn't play as well as we would have liked to. We need to play it better.
"We have all those guys coming back in those spots and that's really important that they continue to develop."
