Central Michigan University
Kent State
Chippewas Can't Overcome Slow Start Against Kent State
3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Kent State seized an early 6-0 lead Friday as the Golden Flashes handed Central Michigan a 17-5 loss in the Mid-American Conference opener for both teams.
The Chippewas (4-18) and Golden Flashes (15-5) are scheduled to play game two of the three-game series on Saturday at 4:05 p.m. at Theunissen Stadium. Friday's game was played at the Farmers Insurance Complex on the campus of Davenport University.
Sunday's game is slated for 1:05 p.m. at Theunissen.
Cleanup hitter Conner Simonetti homered twice among his three hits and drove in eight runs as the Golden Flashes collected 18 hits.
Simonetti hit a two-run double to highlight a four-run first inning for the Golden Flashes. His two-run homer in the second gave Kent State a 6-0 lead.
CMU starter Nick Deeg (1-5) took the loss. He went 6 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs on 10 hits. He walked three and struck out three. Deeg retired the first two batters in both the first inning and the second.
"We've got to do a better job pitching than that, our Friday guy against their Friday guy," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "Their Friday guy was pretty good."
Connor Kelly went the final 2 2/3 innings for the Chippewas.
The Chippewas managed just two hits off Kent State starter Eric Lauer. Lauer (4-1) struck out 11, walked four over 5 2/3 innings for the victory.
"If we come out there and do what I think we can do right from the start of the ball game, then that puts a little more pressure on their guy," Jaksa said. "We felt we could get him out of the game at a certain point and our hitters did that."
Joey Murray, Aaron Tadian and Patrick Dayton worked in relief for the Golden Flashes.
The Chippewas, who stranded 11 base runners, scored all of their runs in the final two innings.
Zack Fields hit a three-run homer for the Chippewas and finished with two hits, and Ryan Heeke added a two-run double. It was Fields' first homer of the season. Daniel Jipping also had two hits for CMU.
"We came back and we battled and we scored a few," Jaksa said. "We finally got a few hits there with people in scoring position. I know we were down, but we were still putting some good swings on.
"The competitiveness from some of our guys as the game continued was still evident, we still competed. I still believe we're going to get those hits, we're going to learn to do it, but we've got to be in a position where we start that game a little more competitively than what we did."
