Central Michigan University Athletics
Chippewas Fall In 14 Innings
4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
DETROIT - Michigan State scored four runs in the top of the 14th inning Wednesday in handing Central Michigan a 7-3 loss in the annual Clash at Comerica.
The Chippewas slipped to 7-26. They play host to Ball State this weekend in a Mid-American Conference series at Theunissen Stadium. Michigan State improved to 23-6.
The game ended at 11:43 p.m. and took 4 hours, 38 minutes to complete. At 14 innings, it was the longest game of the season for the Chippewas, who stranded 17 baserunners including nine from the ninth inning on.
"I think it was a heck of a ball game," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "If you came down to Comerica to watch a good college ballgame, you found it.
"Emotionally I'm sure (our players are) a little spent. Physically, probably the same."
It was the Chippewas' second-straight extra-inning loss. They dropped a 3-2 decision at Northern Illinois last Saturday.
"Back-to-back, couple tough losses," Jaksa said. "It's a tremendous test for our guys right now. We've got to get ourselves up and play another game Friday against Ball State. We've got to have (Sean) Renzi go out there and throw a heck of a game for us and we've got to play our butts off behind him."
The Chippewas trailed 3-1 heading into the bottom of the third inning, then drew to 3-2 on Daniel Robinson's RBI groundout. The Chippewas tied it in the seventh when Daniel Jipping doubled and Zach McKinstry scored from first on a throwing error.
The game remained tied until the 14th, when Michigan State broke through against senior left-hander Jimmy McNamara (2-1), the fifth of six CMU pitchers.
The Spartans used a bloop single, an intentional walk, and a hit batsman to load the bases for Brandon Hughes, who drilled a two-run single to left to take a 5-3 lead.
Taylor Grace followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3, then Kris Simonton delivered a single to up it to 7-3.
Riley McCauley (1-0), the fifth MSU pitcher, earned the victory. He blanked the Chippewas over the final three innings, allowing one hit and walking two.
Daniel Robinson, Zach McKinstry and Ryan Heeke finished with two hits apiece to lead the Chippewas' 10-hit attack.
Freshman Dazon Cole drew the start for CMU, the second of his career. He allowed three runs on five hits, walked four and struck out one over five innings.
"His stuff was really good again," Jaksa said. "It's just the inconsistency in some of his pitches. Sometimes he threw a great changeup, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes he threw a really good breaking ball. But overall I thought he did a nice job and the guys after him were just outstanding."
Colton Bradley, Morgan Oliver, Jordan Grosjean and Brady Williams also worked in relief along with McNamara.
"Overall I was really pleased with how our guys played, I was proud of how they played, and I thought we scrapped like hell," Jaksa said. "I've got nothing to be disappointed about with that kind of effort."
