Central Michigan University
Bowling Green
CMU Baseball Drops Series Opener to Bowling Green
4/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Cullen Maksimowski, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Nick Deeg struggled in his second consecutive start Friday as the Central Michigan baseball team fell to Bowling Green, 7-2, in the first game of a three-game Mid-American Conference series at Theunissen Stadium.
The loss moves CMU to 27-14 on the season with a 12-4 mark in the MAC. Bowling Green is 15-21, 8-8 MAC. CMU's lead in the league dropped to two games over Ball State, which improved to 10-6 in conference games with a 4-3 win over Toledo on Friday.
"Well it's just disappointing," said CMU coach Steve Jaksa. "We didn't seem to have the kind of intensity we've been bringing to the game and I don't have a clear understanding of why that would be today."
Deeg (6-4) lasted just 4 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits while issuing five free passes.
Deeg surrendered nine runs on 10 hits over 3 1/3 innings in his last start, which came at Buffalo last Friday.
"Nick's going to get out of this and he's going to be OK," Jaksa said. "I thought Nick competed well today, he had one bad inning where he started to leave the ball up and that's all.
"I have a lot of confidence in Nick, I believe he's going to bounce back and start getting those outs as we move down the stretch."
Sean Martens, Connor Kelly and Josh Pierce combined to pitch the final 4 1/3 innings in relief of Deeg.
Bowling Green starter Jason Link held the Chippewas hitless through 5 1/3 innings and CMU finished with just five hits. Alex Borglin had two hits and Pat MacKenzie had an RBI for the Chippewas, who trailed 6-0 after 5 ½ innings.
The Chippewas could muster only two runs and five hits and were held hitless through the first 5 and 1/3 innings by Bowling Green starter Jason Link.
It was the third straight victory for Link (3-3), who allowed three hits, walked three and struck out nine over seven innings.
The teams will play game two of the series at 2:05 p.m. Saturday at Theunissen Stadium.
Both Akron and Kent State entered play on Friday trailing the Chippewas by three games in the MAC standings. Both were scheduled to play league games on Friday night, Kent State at Miami (Ohio) and Akron at Ohio.
