Central Michigan University
Ohio
Big Homer, Solid Pitching, And A Chippewa Sweep
5/19/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Pitching, defense and patience.
Central Michigan employed all three on Saturday in coming from behind to top Ohio, 4-2, in the regular-season finale at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium. The Chippewas swept the series from the Bobcats to finish the regular season 26-28-1, 16-11.
CMU goes into the MAC Tournament as the fourth seed and will play fifth-seeded Toledo in its opener on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Sprenger Stadium in Avon, Ohio.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Daniel Robinson hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to put the Chippewas ahead 3-2. They added an insurance run when Zach Gilles' hard smash grounder went for an error and Jacob Crum scampered home.
Zach Kohn (1-1) went three innings in relief of starter Logan Buczkowski for the win. Colton Bradley set down the Bobcats (21-32, 9-18) in order in the ninth for his first save of the season.
ON THE MOUND
Buczkowski allowed two runs - a two-run homer in the second inning by Tony Giannini - on four hits, struck out four and walked two over five innings. Kohn surrendered just one hit and struck out three.
Bradley, a senior playing his final home game, got a fly out and two strikeouts in the ninth. The trio combined to hold the Bobcats to five hits, walked two and struck out nine.
"That breaking ball, that fastball, just so crisp," CMU coach Steve Jaksa said of Bradley. "Just so proud of him as I was all the guys. That senior moment, your last time on Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium, and doing that, just really had to make him feel good. Made me feel good."
Jake Roehn (1-6), who came on in the ninth, took the loss. The Bobcats used eight pitchers, none going more than two innings, in their final game of the season.
AT THE PLATE
Robinson finished with three hits and his homer was his team-high fifth of the season.
The junior turned on a three-ball, one-strike fastball and drilled it to straight-away right field after Zach Heeke had led off the eighth with a double.
The Chippewas' got their first run in the sixth inning on an RBI grounder by Jacob Crum.
THE MAN TO STOP
Ohio's Rudy Rott did not have a hit in 10 at-bats in the series. The junior first baseman entered the series as the MAC's leading hitter with a .373 batting average and was tied for the league lead with 15 home runs.
"He had a couple of good swings, but overall I thought we did a really nice job," Jaksa said of the Chippewas' ability to silence Rott. "It's defensive positioning a little bit and if you can throw the ball where you want to and position yourself to where the spray chart shows you have a little better chance.
"He's a good hitter, he didn't miss a couple of those by much, but at the same time I thought we pitched it pretty good to him. You do some things because there's certain guys you don't want to have beat you, and he was a guy that we felt we didn't want to give an opportunity to beat us."
LONG BALL
Ohio entered the series with 46 home runs on the season. Their lone long ball in the three games was Giannini's two-run shot in the second inning.
Sunday's win was CMU's fourth straight, beginning with a 13-2 nonconference win last Tuesday over Michigan State. The Chippewas won the series opener on Thursday, 3-2, scoring all three of their runs in the bottom of the ninth.
"Pitching and defense put us in a position today to get those runs," Jaksa said. "When you do that it gives you a chance to win a lot of games, and we've done that all four games. These guys, they are resilient, they have been resilient. They keep trying to pick each other up.
"The thing we talked about on Monday was to play these last four games all the way through and I felt we did that and lo and behold we won two of those four coming from behind in the eighth and ninth inning. Finishing the game, finishing at-bats, it's the ability to finish."
CHIPPEWA NOTES
• The Chippewas are 24-13 in their last 37 games after a 2-15-1 start to the season.
• Robinson is hitting .437 (28 for 64) in his last 17 games.
• CMU junior Jason Sullivan drew a pair of walks in the game, marking the 17th consecutive game that has reached base.
• Heeke has reached base in 21 straight games and his on-base percentage is a MAC-best .507. He is hitting .600 (12 for 20) since moving to the leadoff spot five games ago.
• Crum, who switched from the leadoff spot to No. 6 in the order when Heeke moved to the top spot, is hitting .421 (eight for 19) in those five games.
