Plenty On The Line For Chippewas
5/16/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The Central Michigan baseball team enters the final week of the regular season in prime position to claim a spot in the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
The Chippewas will take on Ohio at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium in a three-game set that begins on Thursday (3:05 p.m.). Game two is Friday at 3:05 p.m. and the finale is on Saturday at 2:05 p.m.
WHERE THEY STAND
The Chippewas are still very much in the hunt and could finish as high as second in the league. But they could also, if the weekend with Ohio turns into a disaster, end up on the outside looking in when the league tournament begins next week in Avon, Ohio.
Kent State enters the weekend 18-6 in league play and has clinched at least a share of the regular-season title. The Chippewas are lumped in with the next six teams in the standings - Miami (Ohio), Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Toledo are also in that group - who are jockeying for seeding position for the league tourney.
One of that group will be left out as only the top six teams in the final standings make the tournament field.
Ohio enters the weekend 9-15 in the conference and would need to sweep the Chippewas and have myriad other factors fall their way in order to reach the tournament.
CMU is 23-28-1 overall and 13-11 in the MAC. Ohio is 21-29, 9-15.
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Thursday, CMU's Dazon Cole (1-6, 5.35 ERA) vs. left-hander Gerry Salisbury (4-6, 5.13); Friday, Michael Brettell (5-6, 4.48) vs. Michael Klein (4-1, 4.98); Saturday, Logan Buczkowski (2-1, 6.90) vs. TBA.
CHIPPEWA NOTES
• CMU defeated Michigan State, 13-2, in a nonleaguer on Tuesday at home. The win gave the Chippewas their first series sweep of the Spartans since 2014.
• Sophomore Zach Heeke has seven hits in 10 at-bats in his last two games, the first two of his career in the leadoff spot. Heeke led off the bottom of the first in the win over MSU on Tuesday with his first career home run. He finished four hits and four RBI, both career highs, against the Spartans.
• Heeke has been hit by a pitch 23 times this season and has a .500 on-base percentage. Nationally, he ranks fifth and 11th, respectively, in those categories.
• Junior Daniel Robinson continues his hot streak. He has hit safely in 14 consecutive games, raising his average to a season-high .284. He was hitting .225 before he began his hit streak.
SCOUTING
• Ohio ranks third in the MAC with a 4.47 team ERA and ninth with a .257 team batting average.
• The Bobcats top the league with 46 home runs. Rudy Rott, a junior first baseman, leads the MAC with a .373 batting average and is tied for the top spot in the conference with 15 home runs. He is second in the league with 49 RBI.
