Central Michigan University
Northern Illinois
CMU Bats Boom in 15-2 Win
5/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan baseball team pounded out 20 hits Sunday in a 15-2 rout of Northern Illinois in a Mid-American Conference baseball game at Theunissen Stadium.
It was the Chippewas' final MAC home game and it gave them the series victory over the Huskies. Their final two league series are at Ball State (May 8-10) and at Western Michigan (May 14-16).
CMU, which plays host to Michigan in a non-league game on Wednesday, improved to 30-17 overall and 15-6 in the league. The Chippewas head into the final two weekends of MAC play holding a two-game lead over second-place Kent State.
"The game doesn't change," said CMU senior second baseman Pat MacKenzie, who celebrated Senior Day with four hits on Sunday and went 8-for-14 in the three-game series. "The thing that I'll be telling guys is you can't make it any bigger. Just because it's the last two series, you don't all of a sudden put more pressure on yourself. Just keep playing the way we're playing."
The 20 hits matched CMU's season-high as the game unfolded much like Friday's series opener with the Huskies did. In that 14-2 win, the Chippewas finished with 16 hits and scored nine runs in the second inning to turn it into a laugher.
On Sunday, a seven-run third -- which started with a MacKenzie infield hit -- upped the Chippewas' lead to 9-0 and gave starter Adam Aldred all the support he would need.
Aldred (4-2) went 5 2/3 innings for the win, allowing one run on four hits while walking four and striking out six. Connor Kelly, Blake Hibbitts, Jimmy McNamara and Tim Black each worked in relief.
Every CMU starter had at least one hit. Tyler Huntey and Daniel Jipping finished with three each, while Zach McKinstry and Nick Regnier added two apiece. Huntey, McKinstry, Cody Leichman and Robert Greenman each doubled.
MacKenzie's 8-for-14 weekend came a week after he managed just one hit in 12 at-bats as the Chippewas dropped two of three at home to Bowling Green.
"Last weekend I didn't swing the bat too well," MacKenzie said. "I was really anxious at the plate so this whole week I worked on trusting my hands and letting the ball travel a little more. Sometimes you just get a little anxious at the plate. I just had to relax a little bit."
Which could have been something that applied to the entire team. The Chippewas followed up the Bowling Green series by losing -- and played poorly -- at Oakland on Wednesday.
They responded on the weekend, getting solid starts from Sean Renzi on Friday and Aldred on Sunday, and the CMU bats finished the three-game set with 34 runs on 45 hits.
"We didn't really panic coming into this weekend," MacKenzie said. "(Renzi) had a great game on Friday, we lost a close one (Saturday) but we never lost our confidence and I think it showed today in how we played."
After MacKenzie led off the third with an infield hit, the Chippewas got several infield hits, two bunt singles, or were safe on balls that weren't particularly hard hit.
"It was a plethora of things we did," Jaksa said. "We walked a couple times, we did the short game a little bit, and we plunked in a couple of hits and we just kept the thing going.
"The thing that we did on Friday and we did again (Sunday) is we didn't rest on that (big inning). It was nice to be able to continue to score runs. That was a good thing to see."
