Chippewas Crowned Champions

Friday, May 15

Kalamazoo, Mich.

3:00 PM

Central Michigan University

Western Michigan

5/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

May 15, 2015

Box Score

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- They hit and they hit and they hit.

Then they hit the pool.

The Central Michigan baseball team pounded out 14 hits Friday in rolling past Western Michigan, 12-3, at Robert J. Bobb Stadium, wrapping up its first regular-season Mid-American Conference championship since 2010.

The win clinched a title share for the Chippewas, who returned to the hotel in Kalamazoo and monitored via the internet Akron's 2-1 victory over second-place Kent State. That result gave CMU the outright championship.

"Then everybody jumped in the pool," said CMU coach Steve Jaksa, who remained on the pool deck and looked on as his players belted out the CMU fight song, The Fighting Chippewa. "It was fun to watch.

"I just hugged them all when they got out of the pool. It was their moment. Mine was to shed that tear of joy. That feeling that they had, that moment, that will bond them forever. They'll always have that memory."

And, they hope, more as the Chippewas will enter the MAC Tournament at the top seed after playing the regular-season finale Saturday (1 p.m.) at Western Michigan.

"My goal is to savor it tonight and then get back after it," Jaksa said. "It'll all sink in later. The guys deserve everything they got. Now we'll have a nice team dinner and move on, get back in the saddle and get ready for (Saturday) and then the MAC Tournament."

It is CMU's third regular-season crown under Jaksa, a former Chippewa pitcher who is in his 13th year at the helm of the program.

"You put a group together and it develops it into a championship team," he said. "It takes some special qualities to be a champion.

"The hugs from everybody, it's what you strive for, to create that kind of atmosphere. It's based on year after year. Not every team sniffs the championship. It'd be nice to win every year, but at the same time we want to constantly battle to get to the championship.

"It's not an easy path and this team made it, this team did that, and nobody can take that away from these guys. It goes so much farther than on the field."

The Chippewas finished second last season, a result that made winning the title that much more gratifying, Jaksa said.

"They remember the bitterness of last year, finishing second," he said. "We knocked on that door again. Nobody gave it to us. We took our bumps and bruises along the way, but at the end of the day the guys didn't give in. You give up a lot of personal things to win a championship. They did what's best for the team and did the unselfish things and gave everything to win a championship.

"That's been the focus of the program since we've been doing it. It's what it was before I came here. This program is built to win and it's built to win with an atmosphere of everybody doing whatever it takes. Alumni come back and it's still important to them, how this team does. Those texts are coming. People care. They care.

"One of the greatest feelings you can have is watching that happen over the course of the year and when it comes to fruition there isn't much better than that."

The Chippewas improved to 34-20 overall, 19-7 MAC. Western, which had won seven of its previous nine MAC games entering the series, is 21-27, 13-13.

Ryan Heeke had his first career three-hit game, Tyler Huntey drove in four runs, and Nick Regnier and Daniel Jipping both homered as the Chippewas remained hot at the plate with their sixth consecutive game in which they have reached double digits in hits.

Alex Borglin, Pat MacKenzie, Huntey and Regnier finished with two hits each.

CMU starter Nick Deeg (8-4), a sophomore left-hander, allowed three runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out two over six innings for the victory.

It was the second straight solid start for Deeg, whose eight wins lead the MAC. He had struggled in three consecutive starts, but in his last two he has allowed just three earned runs over 13 innings.

Jason Gamble, Jimmy McNamara and Connor Kelly each worked in relief for the Chippewas.

CMU scored five runs in the third inning -- highlighted by two-run homers by Jipping and Regnier -- to take a 5-1 lead. They added two runs in each of their next three at-bats to turn it into a rout.

"The guys responded really well," Jaksa said. "The two home runs we hit in the third inning were big and then we continued the pressure. We pitched it well, we played great defense."

It was Jipping's team-leading sixth homer of the season and the first for Regnier. Huntey, the Chippewas' senior catcher, continued his late-season surge with his fourth consecutive multi-hit game.

Huntey is hitting .369 (14-for-46) with 14 RBI in the month of May, a 10-game stretch.