Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
NIU
Chippewas Win MAC Tournament Opener
5/24/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
AVON, Ohio - Good omen? Maybe.
The last time Central Michigan won its opener in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, it proceeded to make the championship game.
Pat Leatherman settled into a groove and went seven solid innings on Wednesday as the Chippewas opened the tournament with a 6-2 victory over Northern Illinois at Sprenger Stadium.
CMU (30-26) will play Western Michigan (24-27) on Thursday (4:30 p.m.). The Broncos advanced with a 6-5 10-inning win over Eastern Michigan on Wednesday.
"Really pleased," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said. "You want to stay in the winner's bracket as long as you can. It's always good to get the first win. No question about it.
"Pat Leatherman threw a heck of a ball game. He went out there after the first run and then we were able to turn it over to our bullpen for short stints, which was great. (Catcher) Robert (Greenman) was really good behind the plate. Pretty sharp."
Leatherman (7-4), a sophomore right-hander, surrendered just three hits, one in each of the first three innings.
NIU's Roderick Bynum led off the game with a triple, and the Huskies got a double in the second and another double in the third.
Bynum scored on a groundout. But after that, Leatherman posted all goose eggs. He finished with a career-high 11 strikeouts against four walks as CMU won its MAC Tournament opener for the first time since 2010.
"The doubles, I thought I made my pitch and they just kind of went with where the ball was," said Leatherman, who is 6-1 with a 2.05 earned run average in his last 10 starts. "The triple, I missed my spot. (Bynum) had a couple triples off me earlier in the year. He's definitely a tough out and you need to make your pitches or he'll hurt you.
"I felt like I had good command throughout the rest of the game (and) little things didn't turn into big things. I had to try to lock in the rest of the game."
The Chippewas seized a 2-1 lead with two runs in the third. Zach Gilles walked to lead off the frame, and took third when a ball hit by Alex Borglin went for an error. Gilles scored on Jason Sullivan's safety squeeze.
Borglin scored the go-ahead run when a Daniel Jipping grounder went for an error.
CMU struck for four runs in the fourth. Gilles drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 3-1, Borglin delivered an RBI single, and Sullivan added a two-run single to up the lead to 6-1.
"Our hitters were amped up a little bit (early)," Jaksa said. "We were able to settle them down. Had a nice conversation with several of them and finally we were able to get them to relax and let the game come to them a little bit."
Evan Kratt finished with three hits and Borglin had two.
Jordan Grosjean worked the eighth for CMU and Colton Bradley closed it out in the ninth. The Huskies (17-37) picked up an unearned run off of Grosjean.
Losing pitcher Joe Hawks (4-6) allowed five runs on two hits, walked three and struck out five over 3 1/3 innings.
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