Chippewas' Season Ends In Tourney Semifinal
5/26/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
AVON, Ohio - The Central Michigan baseball team never stopped battling, even when the needle dipped to E.
Miami (Ohio) scored two runs in the fifth inning for a 9-8 lead and made it stand on Saturday in ending the Chippewas' season in a Mid-American Conference Tournament elimination game at Sprenger Stadium.
The Chippewas, who won two elimination games on Friday to remain alive in the tournament, finished 29-30-1. Miami (35-19) advanced to the championship game against Kent State.
CMU was playing its fifth tournament game in four days on Saturday in a season that saw more than its share of injuries and aches and pains. The Chippweas lost two starting outfielders, Jacob Crum and Zach Gilles, to injury during the tournament after losing several others - including starting pitchers Pat Leatherman and Tyler Hankins -- at various points throughout the season.
Yet they hung in, winning 27 of their final 42 games after a 2-15-1 start and improbably coming within one win of the league-tournament championship game as the fourth seed. They played four one-run games in Avon and won two of them.
"I just really liked this group, how they handled the entire season from start to finish, how we fought all the way through," an emotional CMU coach Steve Jaksa said after the game. "This tournament was just an indication of all those things that you ask somebody to do as they grow and they fight. We kept losing personnel here and there and yet the next guy in just picked it up. We just fell a little short today. I'm just really proud of what they did and how they represented the university and themselves.
"Every team holds a special place in my heart. This one will be a little different because I know where they were and I know what they became. For me they showed those types of championship qualities, how they cared about each other, how they kept playing their butts off and how they just kept handling things that were dealt to them and we never batted an eye. Yeah I'm awfully proud.
"The one thing I always tell a group of young men is nobody can ever take your heart away, nobody can ever do that unless you allow it. And we played with tremendous heart and that will always make them special."
The Chippewas found themselves in an 7-2 hole after six-run Miami fourth. CMU answered with six runs in the top of the fifth for an 8-7 lead.
Miami scored twice in the bottom of the fifth, pushing across the go-ahead run on a bases-loaded walk issued by Jack Collins (5-2), the second of three Chippewa pitchers.
Miami relievers Jack Corbell and Gus Graham shut out the Chippewas over the final four innings. Corbell (5-2) picked up the win.
Cameron Miller started for CMU and surrendered seven runs on four hits, walked one and struck out two over 3 2/3 innings. Collins also went 3 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits. He walked three and struck out one. Colton Bradley, one of two seniors on the Chippewa roster, worked the final 2/3 of an inning.
The Chippewas committed four errors, equaling their season high. It was their highest number of errors in their last 26 games. Just three of Miami's nine runs were earned.
David Cole had two hits to lead CMU's nine-hit attack. Eight of the Chippewas' nine starters had at least one hit.
Ross Haffey had two hits to lead Miami. The RedHawks finished with seven hits.
