Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
Eastern Michigan
Chippewas Bust Out, Take Series Finale
5/6/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Battered and bruised, and maybe limping a little bit.
But they're still swinging.
Logan Buczkowski and Jack Collins combined on a five-hitter and the Chippewas got two big innings on Sunday in topping Eastern Michigan, 12-3, in the third and final game of a Mid-American Conference baseball series at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
CMU, which dropped the first two games of the series, improved to 20-25-1, 12-9 MAC. The Chippewas entertain Michigan on Tuesday and then Cleary on Wednesday in back-to-back nonleaguers before heading to Miami (Ohio) next weekend for their second-to-last MAC series of the season.
"Finish with a W," said CMU coach Steve Jaksa, whose team has battled a laundry list of injuries and illness in recent weeks. "(The series) wasn't all that you wanted, but you also look back and say look how close you were to winning two out of three. We've just got to move into Tuesday and keep playing."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Nate Jones hit a three-run homer off CMU starter Logan Buczkowski to put Eastern in front, 3-2, in the top of the fifth inning.
The Chippewas responded with six runs in the bottom half of the frame to retake the lead, 8-3. Daniel Robinson hit his first career grand slam in the seventh to extend the Chippewas' lead to 12-3.
CMU sent 10 men to the plate in the fifth. They pieced together four hits, two hit batters, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to break the game open.
"You want to make sure you're not pressing just because the situation changes or the inning changes or the score changes, which all of a sudden it did," Jaksa said. "We got deeper into their bullpen, put some good swings on there and we were able to break it loose. And it was important to add on too, good to add on. Hard to do sometimes, but you've got to be relentless toward adding on."
ON THE MOUND
Buczkowski, a freshman starting in place of normal Sunday starter Tyler Hankins (injury), went 4 1/3 innings. He allowed three runs on three hits, walked four and struck out five.
Collins (4-1), a junior left-hander, blanked the Eagles (18-27, 11-10) over the final 4 2/3 innings. He allowed two hits and walked two in picking up the victory.
"It all starts with pitching," Jaksa said. "Today, (Buczkowski) threw the ball very well and in the inning they scored the three runs there was only one hit. He just got a breaking ball up to the Jones kid and with the wind blowing out it ended up being a three-run home run.
"Then when we brought in JC, and he did a really nice job. That one-two punch was what we kind of expected. You don't ever want to take it for granted."
Dillon Schroeder (0-3), who relieved EMU starter Jackson Shaver in the fifth, took the loss. The Eagles used five pitchers.
AT THE PLATE
Robinson led the Chippewas with three hits, while Blake Cleveland and Jacob Crum had two apiece, and Jason Sullivan doubled.
NEARING A MILESTONE
The win was Jaksa's 498th as CMU's head coach.
