Central Michigan University
Michigan State
Chippewas Fall in Home Finale
5/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Cullen Maksimowski, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan basaeball team surrendered six runs in the second inning Tuesday and never recovered, as it fell to Michigan State, 13-7, in the final game of the season at Theunissen Stadium.
The Chippewas finish the season 1-2 against their in-state rivals from the Big Ten Conference. CMU earned a walk-off victory over MSU on April 15 at Comerica Park.
"Well we dug ourselves in a whole in the second," said CMU coach Steve Jaksa. "We made a mistake and couldn't pitch out of it."
CMU starter Jordan Grosjean (0-4) lasted just 4 1/3 innings, yielding eight runs (just three earned) on 11 hits.
Jimmy McNamara and Blake Hibbitts pitched in relief for CMU. McNamara worked a two-hit scoreless inning and Hibbitts gave up five runs on three hits with a pair of walks.
Daniel Jipping and Robert Greenman each homered for the Chippewas. It was Jipping's fifth of the season, and he shares the team lead with Joe Houlihan.
It was the first career round-tripper for Greenman, a sophomore, who finished with three hits, the first three-hit effort of his career.
Also for CMU, Tyler Huntey had his second consecutive three-hit day and Nick Regnier had two hits and drove in two runs.
"You always learn something," Jaksa said. "Even though it's game No. 52 I learned some things about a couple of our guys today. I thought Robert Greenman showed well today with the bat and some of our middle-of-the-order guys I thought had some real good approaches as the plate as well."
Seniors Pat MacKenzie, Huntey, Regnier, Alec Ornelas, Tim Black, and Cody Leichman suited up for the last time at Theunissen Stadium.
"Well it's a bitter sweet moment because they've had a lot of good memories here," Jaksa said. "The season is not over though. Those guys have a lot of pride and want to go out a certain way and my job is to make sure they just stay focused on the job at hand and good things are going to happen."
CMU is 32-20 overall and takes a 17-7 Mid-American Conference record into its final league series of the season at Western Michigan. The three-game set begins on Thursday.
Central Michigan owns a one-game lead in the overall MAC standings over Kent State.
"I don't think there is any question our guys are going to be prepared, focused, we just need to make sure we don't look too far ahead," Jaksa said. " Sometimes when you get ahead of yourself you loose track of what approach is."
"We are a confident team, we have the right guys, we just need to make sure we go out and execute our game plan like we have been doing."
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