Central Michigan University
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Western Michigan
Opportunistic Chippewas Rally Past Western In Series Opener
4/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Pitching, defense and some small ball.
Steve Jaksa and his Central Michigan baseball team delivered it on Friday in taking the opener of a three-game Mid-American Conference series from rival Western Michigan, 7-5, at Theunissen Stadium.
Michael Brettell and Colton Bradley came out of the bullpen to slam the door and the Chippewas took advantage of a Western Michigan error and used the safety squeeze to go ahead in the seventh inning as they improved to 18-15, 7-0 MAC.
It was the sixth consecutive loss for Western, 13-16, 3-7. The teams continue their series on Saturday (2:05 p.m.) and close it on Sunday (1:05 p.m.).
CMU found itself in a 5-3 deficit then drew to 5-4 on Robert Greenman's sixth-inning sacrifice fly. The Chippewas went ahead with two runs in the seventh. Zach Gilles was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to third on Alex Borglin's single.
Western pitcher Kyle Mallwitz (4-2), who took the loss, threw wildly to first attempting to pick off Borglin, allowing Gilles to scamper home with the tying run. Borglin moved to third on the play, then Jason Sullivan brought Borglin home with the go-ahead run with a safety squeeze.
"You have to do what you can do," Jaksa said. "Those little things add up so you can breathe a little bit. They made a big error there to help us, no question. We fought really hard, so did they. I'm just really happy that our guys came out on top."
Brettell (5-1) earned the win in relief of starter Dazon Cole, who allowed five runs on 11 hits, walked two and struck out two over 3 1/3 innings. Brettell limited the Broncos - who came in as the MAC's second-best hitting team with a .300 team batting average -- to just one hit while walking three and striking out two over four innings.
Bradley came on with one out and a runner on in the eighth, and retired all five batters he faced for his seventh save.
"Boy, Brettell and Bradley, those guys just closed it out," Jaksa said. "All goose eggs, which we had to have because it's hard to get back in the game. They brought in their best guys and both teams were fighting like the devil.
"Michael can do a lot of different things. He's been a starter. He's a guy who's gone short and been a guy who can stretch like that a little bit. That's huge because we've kind of settled in on Colton being that guy at the end of the game, and we've got to get to him. Michael did his job tonight, Colton did his job again."
The Broncos outhit CMU, 12-8, and stranded 13 baserunners.
Borglin singled and doubled, and Evan Kratt had two hits to lead CMU at the plate.
The Chippewas, who committed a season-high five errors in dropping a nonleague game to Madonna on Wednesday, made several outstanding run-saving defensive plays, highlighted by a sensational inning-ending diving catch by Gilles in center field with the bases loaded in the sixth.
"Our team has responded, really, to everything I've asked them to do," Jaksa said. "We talked about it on Wednesday - we just didn't have the edge, our edge wasn't quite there.
"You're not going to have that edge unless you're ready to play. I knew we'd be ready to play today and I knew they'd be ready to play today. That's what a rivalry is. It was a dogfight out there and we came out on top today. All I know is we're 1-0 and we've got to win tomorrow to win the series. That's what we have to do. That's my focus right now, and the guys have been really good with that. They understand that."
Freshman left-hander Tyler Hankins (3-0) will start for CMU on Saturday against righty Jimmy Townsend-Chase.
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