Central Michigan University
Toledo
Chippewas' Season Ends With Frustrating Loss
5/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
AVON, Ohio -- The Central Michigan baseball team went into the Mid-American Conference Tournament as the No. 1 seed with the regular-season league title in its pocket.
It left after two games frustrated and disappointed.
The Chippewas stranded 12 runners Thursday in falling to Toledo, 6-2, in an elimination game at All Pro Freight Stadium. The Chippewas, who dropped their tourney opener to Akron on Wednesday, finished 35-22.
The Rockets (25-32) got a single and two doubles in the first inning in jumping to a 2-0 lead, forcing the Chippewas to play catchup all day long.
The Chippewas managed just five hits, but were issued 10 walks and two CMU batters were hit by three Toledo pitchers.
CMU stranded two base runners in the first, second and sixth innings, and left the bases loaded in the seventh.
"I think there's no question, that can wear on you, and some guys maybe put too much pressure on themselves, but ultimately we played 57 games, and we've had a lot of guys come through in those 57 games," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "We just couldn't get the offense untracked. We just never could get that hit."
Just one CMU hit, a seventh-inning RBI double by Tyler Huntey, came with runners in scoring position.
"When that happens it's going to be tough," said Jaksa, whose team entered the tournament with a MAC-best .286 team batting average, but hit .229 in the two tourney losses. "This was not indicative of what we did during the course of the season, but it was indicative of how today went. Everybody's disappointed and if I had an answer for it I would change it."
Sophomore left-hander Nick Deeg (8-5) started and took the loss. He allowed eight hits, walked two and struck out six. Sean Martens and Tim Black pitched in relief of Deeg.
"I thought Nick kept us in there, but we just couldn't get any closer than two or three runs all the way through," Jaksa said.
Winning pitcher Steven Calhoun (7-5) allowed one run on four hits, walked four and struck out six over 5 1/3 innings. Ross Achter and Adam Tyson worked in relief for the Rockets.
Trailing 4-0, the Chippewas finally broke through in the sixth when Huntey walked, went to third on a Zach McKinstry single, and scored on a wild pitch with one out.
Two more walks loaded the bases, but Alex Borglin's line-drive bunt was caught for an out by a diving Achter, who threw to third to double McKinstry off third, ending the threat.
After Toledo scored a run in the top of the seventh, the Chippewas edged back to within three, 5-2, on Huntey's bloop RBI double to right field. A walk loaded the bases, but Joe Houlihan flied out to end the inning.
The loss was a bitter pill to swallow for the Chippewas, who were seeking their first MAC Tournament title since 1995 after capturing their first regular-season league crown since 2010.
"We just didn't get to all of our goals, and very seldom do people get to all their goals," Jaksa said. "But you always have to strive to get to the top rung to stay there.
"It's really tough to win the regular-season (title) and come in and win the conference tournament. That's what you have to make your team, tough enough to be able to do that. We just didn't quite get it going here.
"And that's tough on me, and tough for our guys to handle because you want so much more for them. I'm prejudiced. I feel we deserve more and it kind of grinds at you a little bit.
"But I'm so proud of how they battled, even today, after all the things that happened, all the adversity that was going on in that game, to keep coming back and putting runners in scoring position pretty much every inning."
It was the Chippewas' third MAC regular-season title under Jaksa, who is in his 13th year as CMU's coach. The MAC West crown was CMU's fifth during Jaksa's tenure. He earned his second MAC Coach of the Year Award.
The Chippewas with 35 wins for the second-consecutive year and won 30-plus games for the ninth time under Jaksa. He has compiled a 423-326-1 mark during his tenure at CMU.
"Lot of good during the year," he said. "It's tough to reflect on it right now because when it happens you try to keep that in the background because you want to come to the conference tournament. You only get a couple days. You celebrate one night and then you come back the next day and unfortunately it just didn't work out for us."
