Central Michigan University Athletics
Top-seeded Chippewas Open Wednesday
5/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
AVON, Ohio -- When you're at the top, you get everybody's best shot.
The Central Michigan baseball team gives as good -- maybe better -- as it gets.
The Chippewas enter the Mid-American Conference Tournament at All Pro Freight Stadium as the No. 1 seed after claiming their first regular-season MAC title since 2010.
CMU (35-20) opens on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. against eighth-seeded Akron (25-28). The bracket includes No. 4 Toledo (24-31) and No. 5 Ball State (30-23). On Thursday, the winners play at 8 p.m., the losers at 1 p.m.
The tournament continues through Sunday. The champion receives a bid to the NCAA Regionals. The other side of the bracket comprises No. 2 Kent State, No. 3 Ohio, No. 6 Bowling Green and No. 7 Western Michigan.
Clearly, the Chippewas have taken a big step -- and one that falls in line with expectations -- in 2015. Their regular-season MAC title came one year after they finished second, and that served as a motivator.
They entered the 2014 MAC tourney seeded No. 2, but failed to win a game in Avon. That, too, could serve as a motivator.
"This team is battle tested," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "We did learn, probably, from last year, and we should have learned some things.
"I think we're still hungry. We set some goals and we're trying to knock them off one at a time.
"You have to make sure you don't let the stage get bigger than what it really is. We go in there, we play our game, we do the things we've been doing, I'll take my chances pretty much against anybody. That's really how I feel."
The Chippewas rank No. 1 in the MAC with a .286 team batting average and are first with a .970 fielding percentage. They have committed a league-low 65 errors this season.
CMU ranks second in the conference with a 3.61 team earned run average. Second-seeded Kent State is first (3.26).
Junior right-hander Sean Renzi, who has emerged as the Chippewas' ace, will start against Akron. He will oppose left-hander John Valek (6-6, 3.07 earned run average).
Sophomore lefty Nick Deeg gets the call in CMU's second game.
Renzi is 5-1 and ranks third in the MAC with a 2.17 ERA. Since becoming a starter on April 11, Renzi is 5-0 with a 1.87 ERA. He has gone at least five innings in each of his six starts, and struck out 33, walked 18, allowed 23 hits, and eight earned runs in 38 1/3 innings. He ranks sixth nationally in hits allowed (5.28) per nine innings.
Deeg is 8-4 with a 2.89 ERA. His eight wins tied him for the most among MAC pitchers, and he ranks seventh in the conference in ERA. In his last two starts, Deeg is 2-0 with a 2.07 ERA.
If the Chippewas win one of their first two games, they are guaranteed a third game. Junior left-hander Adam Aldred (5-3, 3.49) would start that game, just as he has started on Sundays throughout the conference season.
The Chippewas have won seven of their last 11 games and in five of those wins have scored at least 12 runs, raising their team batting average to a season-high .286. The Chippewas are hitting .351 in the month of May.
The Chippewas have become accustomed to being the front-runner. They seized the top spot in the MAC early on and never let up, clinching the title with a sweep at Western Michigan last weekend.
"They knew what they had to do the last two weeks of the regular season and they did it, and they did it one game at a time," Jaksa said. "We've got to do the same thing (in the tournament). We don't change our approach. That's what got us here so we're not going to change that."
