Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
Kent State
Highs and Lows: Chippewas, Kent State Split
4/8/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A tale of two games.
Michael Brettell tossed a gem in the opener Sunday as Central Michigan won the opener of a Mid-American Conference doubleheader with Kent State, 5-1, at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
The Golden Flashes came back to win the nightcap, 19-3, jumping on the Chippewas early and turning it into rout.
The split gave Kent, an 11-3 winner in Saturday's series opener, the series victory.
CMU is 10-20-1, 5-4 MAC. The Golden Flashes are 17-10, 6-3.
GAME 1
Brettell (4-3) won his third consecutive start, going 7 2/3 innings and allowing one run on five hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.
Brandon Reed, a freshman left-hander came on with one on and two out in the eighth and retired lefty Pavin Parks to fly out. Reed then set down the Golden Flashes in order in the ninth.
"He did a great job all the way through, and really it was just a pitch-count thing," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said in explaining why he opted to remove Brettell, who threw 129 pitches. "We just thought it was time and we hadn't thrown Brandon for a while. (Reed) got his four guys out and did a really nice job.
"His (Brettell's) stuff plays pretty good, he trusts his stuff, he's confident in it. He's able to command the fastball to both sides of the plate. He only walked one guy today and they had a plethora of left-handed hitters in there. That's a good sign. He's just throwing the ball to the catcher's mitt and he's doing a really good job of it."
The Chippewas made the most of its opportunities. CMU had just three hits in the game, all of them coming during a four-run fifth inning. Chase Rolling led off with a double, was bunted to third by David Cole and scored on Jacob Crum's groundout. That broke a 1-1 tie.
Cole later scored on a passed ball, Griffin Lockwood-Powell brought home a run with a sacrifice fly, and Zavier Warren delivered an RBI single.
GAME 2
The Golden Flashes collected 19 hits and took advantage of three Chippewa errors and eight walks issued by Chippewa pitching.
Kent State struck for five runs in the first inning and four more in the third. The Golden Flashes were up 11-0 after 4 ½ innings and cruised from there.
The Chippewas managed just four hits, two of which came from Warren.
CMU starter Tyler Hankins (1-4) lasted just 2 1/3 innings in taking the loss. Zach Kohn, Cam Brown, Colton Bradley, Tyler Brown, Logan Buczkowski and Braxton Markle each pitched in relief.
"I learned some things in that game," Jaksa said. "It's amazing that you can learn something in a game that somebody might (think) is one-sided. I thought we put together a series of really good at-bats throughout the course of that game. Even through the ninth inning we had some good at-bats, got some walks, scored some runs.
NEXT
The Chippewas play host to Toledo in a MAC series beginning on Friday.
