Central Michigan University Athletics
League-leading Chippewas Host Bowling Green
4/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Yes, the Central Michigan baseball team is in a good spot in the Mid-American Conference.
But the only way to maintain that, according to veteran coach Steve Jaksa, is to focus on the most important game, which is always the next one.
The Chippewas open a three-game league series with Bowling Green at Theunissen Stadium on Friday at 3:05 p.m. The teams will meet at 2:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:05 p.m. Sunday. CMU's non-league home game with Northwood on Wednesday was postponed by weather. No makeup date has been set.
The Chippewas are 27-13 overall, 12-3 MAC. Kent State, Akron and Ball State are all three games back at 9-6. Bowling Geen is 14-21, 7-8 and in the hunt for a top-eight finish and a berth in the MAC Tournament.
The Falcons have won nine of their last 14 games, including four of their last five in the MAC.
"That is their history," Jaksa said. "They get better as the season goes.
"They have a very good catcher (Trey Keegan); he's a key cog. He'll test our running game. That doesn't mean we're going to stop running."
The Chippewas, who lead the MAC and rank 11th nationally with 74 stolen bases, have won all five of their MAC series this season, including last weekend, when they won the final two of the three-game set at Buffalo.
It isn't about where the Chippewas are in the standings or even necessarily who the opponent is, Jaksa said. It's more about how the Chippewas approach things and how they execute, that is most concerning.
"What is our expectation of our level of play?" he said. "Let's be good all the time and there's times you can be great. If you're good all the time, this team will take care of things."
Sophomore left-hander Nick Deeg had his worst outing of the season in the opener last weekend at Buffalo, an 11-7 loss. He allowed nine runs on 10 hits and left after just 3 1/3 innings.
Deeg, who is 6-3 with a 2.89 earned run average, will start Friday against right-hander Jason Link (2-3, 5.37), who is 2-0 with a 2.29 ERA in his last two starts.
"I think it will be a bump in the road, but only if that's what he wants it to be," Jaksa said of Deeg's outing against Buffalo. "I think he is looking forward to a start this Friday. Sometimes a guy wants to get a bad taste out of his mouth.
"I don't think he liked the way that game turned out, for him personally and for the team in general. He knows if he pitches the way he can we'll be in the game. Does he have to change what he's doing? No. He just needs to go back to being aggressive within his game plan."
CMU will start junior right-hander Sean Renzi (2-1, 2.27) on Saturday and junior lefty Adam Aldred (3-1, 2.96) on Sunday. Bowling Green will counter with left-hander Andrew Lacinak (2-3, 5.14) on Saturday and right-hander Zac Carey (3-3, 4.07) on Sunday.
Both Renzi and Aldred were spectacular last weekend against Buffalo. Renzi allowed just one hit over six innings in a 7-2 win, while Aldred pitched a complete game three-hitter to lead the Chippewas to a 6-1 victory.
Saturday will mark the third start of the season for Renzi, who has allowed just two runs on five hits in his last 17 1/3 innings. He claimed a spot in the rotation that was held by freshman Pat Leatherman at the beginning of the season. Leatherman is out with an injury.
Aldred has won two of his last three starts, and has surrendered just three runs on 11 hits in his last 20 2/3 innings.
"Everybody hates an injury, but it's an opportunity for somebody to move into a different role," Jaksa said. "That takes some depth, and that takes some work to make sure those guys are confident in what they can do.
"I think we thought we were going to have a good pitching staff. How good? You never know until you actually go out there and do it.
"At the beginning of any year, the hope is, the goal is, you get better as you go along. That doesn't just happen. It comes from hard work from the coaching staff, and hard work from the players.
"They look at it today and say we're better than we were nine, 10 weeks ago, and we can look at it over the next four weeks and I think they think we will be better."
The Chippewa lineup has been bolstered by the return of senior center fielder Nick Regnier, who was named the MAC West player of the week last week.
In his four starts since missing the better part of nine games with an injury, Regnier is hitting .500 (9-for-18) with six RBI and has raised his batting average 28 points to a season-high .305.
The Chippewas rank second in the league with a 3.38 team ERA, are fourth with a .278 batting average, and are the MAC's third-best defensive team with a .964 fielding percentage.
The Falcons rank eighth in team pitching, sixth in hitting and are last in fielding.
