Central Michigan University
Eastern Michigan
CMU Can't Get Clutch Hit, Falls At Eastern
4/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
YPSILANTI, Mich. - Opportunities. Eastern Michigan capitalized; Central Michigan did not.
The Chippewas collected nine hits but stranded 11 base runners Friday in falling to the Eagles, 6-1, in a Mid-American Conference game at the Eastern's Oestrike Stadium.
CMU slipped to 11-31, 5-8 MAC. Eastern is 16-25, 7-6. The teams meet in game two of the series Saturday at 3 p.m. and play the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Eagles touched CMU starter Sean Renzi for two home runs, the first two the senior right-hander has surrendered in his collegiate career. Renzi (4-5) allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits, struck out three and walked two over six innings.
"He battled the whole way," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "If he keeps battling like that the rest of the way, he's going to give us those wins on Friday. He competed the whole way through."
Alex Borglin had three hits and Daniel Jipping added two to lead CMU at the plate. The Chippewas left the bases loaded in the seventh inning and left two on in four other innings.
"We weren't able to answer the call offensively today when we got down," Jaksa said. "I think offensively our approach wasn't quite where we wanted it to be until about the fourth or fifth inning.
"Then we locked into an approach and we got a lot of guys in scoring position, we just couldn't get a hit. We have to do a little bit better job in those situations. That's when you get the W's, when you can break through. We needed to do it once or twice during those times and we just didn't get it done."
Mitchell McGeein hit his first homer of the season, a solo shot with two out in the first inning, to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Eastern made it 2-0 in the second when John Montgomery doubled, took third on a groundout, and scored on an error.
CMU cut it to 2-1 on Ryan Heeke's RBI grounder in the fourth, but the Eagles answered immediately in the bottom half of the inning when Mike Mioduszewski singled, stole second and scored on a one-out Montgomery single.
Mioduszewski's sixth-inning two-run homer made it 5-1, and the Eagles tacked on an insurance run in the eighth on a two-out single by Jeremy Stidham.
