Central Michigan University
Eastern Michigan
Chippewas Complete Sweep
4/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Zach McKinstry collected four hits and the Central Michigan bullpen was solid Sunday as the Chippewas defeated Eastern Michigan, 3-1, in the finale of a three-game Mid-American Conference baseball series at Theunissen Stadium.
The win gave the Chippewas a sweep of the series as they improved to 24-12, 10-2 MAC. They lead the West Divison by 1 ½ games over Ball State and hold the best record in the conference.
"As far as where we're at in the conference, it's just like anything else, you've just got to play the next series whoever that is," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "We're not even halfway yet, but we're in a good position where we're at.
"We've been there before and I think this veteran group, with the leadership that we have, knows we're a long way away from being where we want to get to."
Sean Martens and Tim Black provided solid relief in protecting the Chippewas' lead on Sunday, and CMU needed it as it found itself in a dogfight after blowing out the Eagles in the first two games of the series.
"Today was a really hard-fought win," Jaksa said. "Very pleased with how we played the whole weekend and today just topped it off.
"We talked about it being championship Sunday. We had already won the series and now we were going for the sweep and those are hard to get. (Eastern) fought really hard, played very, very well today and that's a credit to them.
"We came ready to play and we did the two things you've got to do to stay in every game: We pitched it well and we played good defense and doing those two things gave us a chance to win."
The Chippewas seized a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Logan Regnier, who finished with two hits and two RBI, drove in the first run with a triple. He later scored on a wild pitch.
Eastern Michigan cut it to 2-1 in the fourth on a Mike Mioduszewski RBI single.
The Eagles threatened in the fifth, putting runners at first and third with two out. Martens replaced CMU starter Adam Aldred and induced an inning-ending groundout to preserve the lead.
Eastern threatened again in the seventh when it used a single, a wild pitch and a groundout to get a runner to third with one out. Black came on for Martens and retired No. 2 hitter John Rubino on a fly ball to Regnier in right field, and No. 3 hitter Mitchell McGeein on a foul popup.
Black also worked out of a jam in the eighth when Eastern put runners at first and third with one out. The Eagles stranded 10 runners, while the Chippewas left 14 on base.
"We turned to (Martens) who's been really, really good and they hadn't seen him the whole weekend," Jaksa said. "He comes out there and does his deal and Timmy comes out and does his deal. And we played good defense. We made the plays we needed to make."
Regnier's bases-loaded infield single in the eighth brought in an insurance run.
Martens allowed two hits, walked one and struck out one over 1 2/3 innings for the victory. Black worked the final 2 2/3 innings, allowing two hits and striking out two for his ninth save.
Aldred went 4 2/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits while walking three and striking out two.
"We had good energy today," Jaksa said. "Right now we're doing some good things and we're competing. There were only a few at-bats today that we'd like to have back. Other than that we put some good swings out there and they had to make some good plays against us. That's baseball. We hung tough, played really good defense and pitched it really well.
The Chippewas play Michigan State (18-15) in their annual Clash at Comerica in Detroit on Wednesday (7 p.m.), then go to Buffalo (9-18, 4-8) for a three-game conference series next weekend.
