Central Michigan University
Michigan
Chippewas Can't Capitalize, Fall At Michigan
5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
ANN ARBOR - Central Michigan outhit Michigan, 8-5, and got solid pitching and good defense.
But the Chippewas could not get the big hit when they needed it on Tuesday in dropping a 4-2 nonleague game to the Wolverines at Michigan's Ray Fisher Stadium.
The Chippewas (25-22) and Wolverines (36-11) will meet for the third and final time of the season on Wednesday (4:05 p.m.) at CMU's Theunissen Stadium.
The Chippewas stranded 10 baserunners in Tuesday's game. They left the bases loaded in the eighth inning and left two, both in scoring position, in the ninth.
"We just didn't get a two-out hit," CMU coach Steve Jaksa sadi. "That's what you need to get and we didn't get it. We got a lot of guys on base and we out-hit them, but what counts is how many runs you score and that's where we came up a little bit short."
Michael Brettell (6-3) started for the Chippewas and took the loss, his first in his last five outings. The sophomore right-hander allowed three runs on four hits, walked two and struck out two over 5 1/3 innings. Left-hander Braxton Markle worked an inning of relief and Zach Kohn went the final 1 2/3 frames.
"I thought Brettell threw very, very well," said Jaksa, who added that Brettell was on a pitch count and had reached his limit in the sixth. "He did some of the things we thought he could do. It was as good a performance as he's had going deep into the game.
"I was really happy with the how Markle came in and got the hitters he got, some of the lefties, and that's what we wanted him to do. Did a really nice job."
Daniel Jipping had three hits and Alex Borglin and Jason Sullivan added two apiece to lead CMU at the plate.
The Chippewas seized a 1-0 lead in the third when Daniel Robinson was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch, took third on a Jipping single, and scored on an error.
The Wolverines struck for three runs on three hits off Brettell in the fourth. They added an insurance run, unearned, off Kohn in the seventh. The run scored on a CMU throwing error, the Chippewas' lone error of the game.
Jipping doubled in a run in the eighth to cut the CMU deficit to 4-2.
"Thought we pitched it well, thought we played really good defense except for that one mistake that we made in the seventh," Jaksa said. "Just didn't get the two-out knock today."
Michigan starter Ryan Nutof (5-2) went five innings for the win. Jackson Lamb, who has yet to surrender an earned run this season, worked the final 1 2/3 innings for his 10th save.
