Central Michigan University
Arkansas
Baseball Drops Series Finale At Arkansas
2/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. â€" Arkansas scored eight runs in its final three at-bats Sunday as the Razorbacks handed the Central Michigan baseball team a 9-4 loss in the finale of the teams' three-game season-opening series at Baum Stadium.
The Chippewas (0-3) head to Phoenix for four games next weekend, beginning on Thursday with a game against Grand Canyon.
Arkansas (3-0), which is ranked 22nd, collected 10 hits against five CMU pitchers on Sunday. The game, played before 7,531, was called after eight innings because of an agreement not to start an inning after 2:30 p.m. CST.
The Chippewas had seven hits, all singles. Jason Sullivan had two hits to lead CMU, while Zach McKinstry, Morgan Oliver, Logan Regnier, Dazon Cole and Daniel Robinson had one each. Robinson and Robert Greenman each had an RBI.
Pat Leatherman started for the Chippewas and went four innings, allowing one run on three hits while walking two.
Brady Williams, Grant Wolfram, Jason Gamble and Cole each worked in relief. Gamble took the loss.
The Chippewas scored three runs in the fifth inning to seize a 3-1 lead. Regnier was hit by a pitch leading off the inning and Cole singled. Robinson followed with an RBI single. A Sullivan bunt moved the runners up, and a throwing error allowed Cole to score and Robinson to advance to third.
A Greenman sacrifice fly scored Robinson.
Arkansas tied it 3-3 with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, taking advantage of two walks and three errors. The Razorbacks broke the tie with a three-run sixth then added three insurance runs in the seventh.
"Probably of the three (weekend losses) this one was the toughest just because of how we lost it," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "After the fifth inning we didn't throw nearly as quality of strikes and three of those four errors basically came on one play. It was kind of an ugly thing.
"You can't make the mistakes we made in that inning and gift-wrap it for them after we took that 3-1 lead."
The Chippewas got their final run on the eighth on a Morgan Oliver single, a groundout and two passed balls.
"we went toe-to-toe with them for a good share of the weekend," said Jaksa, whose team lost on Friday, 6-1; and on Saturday, 4-3. "(Saturday) we were literally just a swing or two away.
"Defensively overall I thought we were solid. There were some random mistakes. Solid teams play nine innings of good defense -- we (need to) shore that up and continue to get the good starting pitching.
"We've still got some work to do with our bullpen, but we knew that, and we'll continue to work on that until we find the right combinations."
On the whole, Jaksa said, the weekend provided him a good look at his team's potential, and he is encouraged as he looks ahead to the season.
"I think our guys can look themselves in the mirror and say this is something we can do, we can be a good club, and to go into that venue and play the way we did, I think you can see it," he said.
