Central Michigan University
Michigan
Chippewas Fall at Michigan, 5-3
4/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Central Michigan scored all of its runs in its final two at-bats Wednesday to make it interesting, but could not get over the hump as the Chippewas fell to Michigan, 5-3, in a non-league baseball game at the Wolverines' Wilpon Complex.
The loss snapped a three-game win streak. CMU (18-11) has won five of its last seven starts and begins a three-game Mid-American Conference series Friday at Toledo (9-19).
The Chippewas are 5-1 in the MAC, tied with Ball State for the best ledger in the league. Toledo is 3-3 in conference play.
"We've only played two (league) weekends," said CMU coach Steve Jaksa, whose team swept a MAC series at Miami (Ohio) last weekend. "There's so many games to play. We've got seven weekends to go.
"I really wasn't paying any attention to where we're at (in the standings) because it's so early. We've just got to go there and play."
Michigan scored three runs in the fourth inning, Jacob Cronenworth led off the fifth with a home run, and the Wolverines executed a double steal in the seventh to build a 5-0 lead on the Chippewas on Wednesday.
Daniel Jipping's two-run single in the eighth drew the Chippewas to 5-2, then Zach McKinstry smacked a one-out triple in the ninth and scored on Cody Leichman's groundout.
"The inning they scored the three runs that was the crooked number we couldn't overcome," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "We had several opportunities, we kept coming at them. I thought we played hard. We gave ourselves opportunities. We did get some hits, but not quite enough."
Oliver Jaskie, the second of six Michigan pitchers, earned the win. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out one over 2 2/3 innings. Bryan Pall worked the ninth for his second save.
Sophomore right-hander Blake Hibbitts (0-2) started for the Chippewas and took the loss. Hibbitts, who was limited to 50 pitches, did not allow a hit, but walked four in surrendering one run.
"I thought Blake took a step forward," Jaksa said. "That was a plus. We'll build on it next time. His stuff is good, but three of his walks were after two outs. He'll tell you that's the one area that if he can do better, he'll be pretty good. At the end of the day there was a lot more positive. They loaded (the lineup) with lefties and he was still very effective."
Braxton Markle, Josh Pierce, Sean Martens and Tim Black worked in relief for CMU.
McKinstry finished with two hits for the Chippewas, while Alex Borglin and Zack Fields each doubled.
Sophomore left-hander Nick Deeg (4-2, 1.80 earned run average) will start for CMU on Friday (3 p.m.) at Toledo. Deeg tossed the first complete-game shutout of his career last Friday in blanking Miami, 11-0.
Junior right-hander Jason Gamble (4-1, 2.84) will start Saturday's game for the Chippewas, while Adam Aldred (1-1, 4.35), a junior southpaw, will start on Sunday. Both Saturday's and Sunday's games begin at 1 p.m.
