Central Michigan University
.png&width=60&height=60&type=webp)
Western Michigan
CMU Maintains League Lead With 3-1 Win
5/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Sean Renzi pitched eight shutout innings and Tim Black white-knuckled through the ninth inning for the save Thursday as the Central Michigan baseball team held on to beat Western Michigan, 3-1, in the opener of a big Mid-American Conference series at the Broncos' Robert. J. Bobb Stadium.
The win kept MAC-leading CMU one game ahead of Kent State in the league race, and it gave the Chippewas the outright MAC West title. The Golden Flashes defeated Akron, 7-1, on Thursday. CMU's lead in the West is three games over Toledo -- a 7-1 winner over Eastern Michigan on Thursday -- with two games to play.
CMU is 33-20 overall, 18-7 MAC. Western Michigan is 21-26, 13-12. Central and Western play game two of their series on Friday at 3 p.m. and close the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. Kent State and Akron play on Friday and Saturday as well, with both games beginning at 4 p.m.
"Is it big? Yeah," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said of Thursday's win. "Trying to keep the guys to keep it in perspective. We just have to keep doing our deal. That's what we did and we were rewarded for it. It's not like it's over. We've got to do it again tomorrow."
A win on Saturday gives CMU a share of its first MAC regular-season title since 2010.
Renzi, who has emerged as one of the best pitchers in the MAC since becoming a starter a month ago, was superb in striking out four, walking three and allowing four hits over eight innings.
He improved to 5-0 as a starter, giving the Chippewas exactly what they needed: a win in game one of the biggest series of the season.
"I really believe we've got two guys who are capable of that," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said, referring to Renzi and left-hander Nick Deeg, who is scheduled to start on Friday. "When they're both good, either one can be that guy. That's how you build a staff and that's why we're on the brink of doing a good thing here. Renz was dominant today."
Tyler Huntey and Zach McKinstry had two hits apiece to lead CMU's 10-hit attack.
The Chippewas got an RBI single from Nick Regnier in the first inning to seize the early lead. They padded their lead with two runs in the sixth as Ryan Heeke laid down a suicide squeeze and Alex Borglin added a run-scoring single.
Renzi, meanwhile, cruised through eight innings before giving way to Black, one of the MAC's top closers.
"Tim's our guy in there, and I know we had a shutout going, but (Renzi) was at about 100 pitches," Jaksa said.
Black got a popup and a strikeout to open the bottom of the ninth, then things got interesting.
A passed ball on the third strike -- if the ball is secured by Huntey, the catcher, the game is over -- put a runner on first and breathed life into the Broncos. Three consecutive singles produced a run to cut the Chippewas' lead to 3-1 and left the bases loaded.
Black got pinch hitter Jordan Tillman to ground out on a full count to end the game and strand the tying run at second and the winning run at first. It was Black's 11th save of the season, a school record. David LeMieux set the previous mark, 10, in 2003.
"The nice thing about Tim is he doesn't lose who he is and he fell behind (to Tillman) 2-0 and pumped a couple in there to make it 2-2," Jaksa said. "The game's never over `til it's over. We played solid defense again, so we're out with a W.
"I think our guys went in with a good attitude. The game got heavy in the middle innings. We'd been scoring a lot of runs and all of the sudden we're not scoring a lot of runs.
"The things we always talk about are pitching and defense. When you pitch it and you play defense, you're always going to be in the game."
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
