Central Michigan University Athletics
CMU Baseball Looks To Bounce Back
4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - No, the won-loss record isn't anywhere near what coach Steve Jaksa would like it to be.
And while baseball is a bottom-line business, Jaksa has been reasonably happy with the effort and the flashes of progress his Central Michigan baseball team has shown throughout the 2016 season.
Case in point was CMU's 7-3 14-inning loss to Michigan State Wednesday in the annual Clash at Comerica. The Chippewas fell behind early and clawed back to tie it before finally succumbing in a marathon game that took more than 4 hours and 30 minutes to complete.
"The effort, the attitude, the hustle, the will to win, those things can't ever change," Jaksa said after Wednesday's game, which left CMU at 7-26. "Otherwise the game just steamrolls you. We've got to pick ourselves up and be ready to go by Friday."
The Chippewas open a three-game Mid-American Conference series on Friday at 3:05 p.m. against Ball State at Theunissen Stadium.
The Cardinals are 21-13 overall, 7-2 MAC and are in second place in the West Division. The Chippewas are 2-4 in league play, sixth in the West and ninth in the overall standings. The top eight teams in the final regular-season standings earn a berth to the league tournament.
The Chippewas used six pitchers and 14 position players - nearly every available man - in Wednesday's loss to Michigan State.
It's a familiar Jaksa refrain that in the game of baseball, one game does not, or should not, affect the next, for better or for worse.
"Every game's a new game," he said. "When the season's over I'll go back and revisit the whole thing. Right now we're fighting like hell to get ready and we think the second half of the season we can get things turned around."
While the Chippewas surrendered four runs to MSU in the 14th inning, the bullpen had performed admirably to that point.
The Chippewas held Michigan State to just two hits from the sixth inning through the 13th, and the Spartans went scoreless after the third inning until the 14th.
CMU's Colton Bradley and Morgan Oliver each pitched two innings in relief, combining to surrender just one hit and strike out four. Jordan Grosjean came out of the pen to blank the Spartans over four innings.
"It's really been a work in progress," Jaksa said of the bullpen, which has been hampered by injuries throughout the season. "You talk about two guys who never pitched before in Bradley and Oliver. Oliver hadn't pitched since high school and Bradley, we started pitching him a little bit in the fall and a little bit in the summer."
Oliver, an infielder by trade, has now logged 4 2/3 innings in four relief appearances. He has allowed just two hits, has not walked a batter, has struck out four, and recorded one save. Bradley, who is recovering from injury, has appeared in three games.
"Bradley's arm had been a little bit tender so we wanted to take it easy on him and not go a third inning (against MSU), and (Oliver) has never thrown that many pitches," Jaksa said. "He found a breaking ball (against MSU) to go along with that fastball.
"He's aggressive and he fills the zone. That's a plus. We extended Grosjean to try to get the W so we probably won't have him on Friday. But those other two guys will probably be able to go on Friday."
Sean Renzi (2-4) will start Friday's game for CMU against Zach Plesac (3-1); Nick Deeg (1-6) starts Saturday's 2:05 p.m. game for the Chippewas against Kevin Marnon (4-3) in a battle of lefties; and Pat Leatherman (0-3) takes the hill on Sunday (1:05 p.m.) for CMU against Brendan Burns (5-1).
Burns' five victories tie him for the top spot in the league. Cardinal closer B.J. Butler has recorded seven saves, which ties him for the top spot in the conference.
Ball State leads the MAC with a .307 team batting average and ranks second with a staff earned run average of 3.80. The Chippewas rank ninth in the league in both hitting (.235) and team ERA (6.57).
The Cardinals feature three of the league's top four hitters in Alex Call (.417), Caleb Stayton (.400) and Jaret Rindfleisch (.357). Call is among the top five in the conference in hits, runs, doubles, triples, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and Stayton leads the league with 48 RBI and ranks fourth with seven home runs.
