Central Michigan University
Ball State
Chippewas' Lead at 1 Game After Loss
5/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Ball State played turnabout with the Central Michigan baseball team on Sunday.
After scoring a combined 39 runs in winning the first two games of the three-game Mid-American Conference series, the Chippewas fell, 15-7, in the series finale on Sunday.
"That's probably the most frustrating thing," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "We felt we were really swinging the bats, scoring a lot of runs. Today we just couldn't score as many as we needed."
Ball State jumped to a 3-0 lead then used a five-run fourth to extend its advantage to 8-0.
Alex Borglin hit a three-run homer in the fifth to pull CMU (32-19) within five runs, but Ball State (28-21) answered with five more in the bottom of the sixth. Borglin, a sophomore, hit his first career homer leading off Friday's series opener and finished the series 9-for-18 with six RBI and an .833 slugging percentage.
The loss left CMU 17-7 in the MAC and one game ahead of second-place Kent State (16-8), which completed a three-game sweep of Bowling Green on Sunday.
"We just weren't able to find the right combination of pitching to stop their hitting," Jaksa said. "We tried several guys and we just weren't able to get it done. You just look at the numbers and the bottom line is we just didn't get a chance to fight back in the game."
Ball State outhit the Chippewas, 15-12. CMU starter Adam Aldred (4-3) allowed five runs on six hits while striking out three over 3 1/3 innings.
Sean Martens, Connor Kelly, Jordan Grosjean, Jimmy McNamara and Tim Black all worked in relief for CMU. They combined to allow 10 runs on nine hits and walk five.
Tyler Huntey had three hits to lead the Chippewas, while Borglin, Logan Regnier and Zach McKinstry finished with two each, and Nick Regnier tripled. McKinstry had two RBI.
Scott Baker (3-6) went 4 2/3 innings in relief of B.J. Butler for the win.
Next weekend the Chippewas play a three-game series at Western Michigan while Kent State plays at Akron. The Chippewas emerge from the Ball State series with a share of the MAC West title. Second-place Toledo is three games behind the Chippewas with three to play.
The Rockets close the regular season at Eastern Michigan next weekend.
Central Michigan's home finale is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. Tuesday at Theunissen Stadium against Michigan State (30-19).
