Baseball: Mid-Week Road Games With Notre Dame, Michigan State On Tap

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan baseball team takes a step away from Mid-American Conference play this week for back-to-back nonconference road games.

CMU is scheduled to play on Tuesday (6 p.m.) at Notre Dame at the Fighting Irish's Frank Eck Stadium in South Bend, Ind., and on Wednesday (4 p.m.) is slated to play Michigan State in East Lansing at the Spartans' McLane Baseball Stadium.

The Chippewas are 19-7 after sweeping Northern Illinois in a three-game MAC series last weekend at home. The Chippewas, winners of five consecutive games, scored 25 runs on 30 hits in the three games against NIU.

"We hope our guys are really excited to play," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "Not your run-of-the-mill mid-week games."

CMU is averaging just under nine runs per contest and is scoring just over seven runs per game during its win streak. The Chippewas are allowing just four runs per contest.

TOPPING THE LEAGUE
CMU ranks first in the MAC in batting average (.309), runs (222), hits (290), doubles (63), walks (151), and on-base percentage (.419).

The Chippewa pitching staff has allowed 113 runs and 84 walks, both league lows, and is second in the league in earned run average (3.74). Defensively, the Chippewas rank second in the MAC with a .970 fielding percentage.

AT THE PLATE
Junior center fielder Zach Gilles leads CMU and ranks third in the MAC with a .392 batting average; sophomore shortstop Zavier Warren is hitting .388 and leads the MAC in on-base percentage (.515), doubles (14) and walks (25).

Also for the Chippewas, sophomore Griffin Lockwood-Powell ranks seventh in the MAC with a .364 average and leads the conference in both RBI (34) and home runs (5); senior outfielder Jacob Crum tops the MAC with a .670 slugging percentage and his seven triples are the most in the nation.

ON THE MOUND
Three Chippewa starters are unbeaten. Senior Pat Leatherman is 4-0 with a 2.37 ERA and a team-best 37 strikeouts in 38 innings; Cameron Brown is 5-0 with a 3.70 ERA in 41 1/3 innings; junior Tyler Hankins is 4-0 with a 4.36 ERA. The junior left-hander has allowed a combined eight runs in his last three starts, and has gone at least five innings in each of his six starts this season.

Cameron Miller is 1-2 with three saves and a 0.98 ERA. He has struck out 15 and not walked a batter in 19 1/3 innings.

SCOUTING
The Fighting Irish are 11-14, including 2-2 at home. Notre Dame dropped two of three to Georgia Tech over the weekend in an Atlantic Coast Conference series.

The duo of senior Eric Gilgenbach and sophomore Niko Kavadas lead the Fighting Irish at the plate, combining for 14 home runs and 51 RBI.

Michigan State is 4-20 and is scheduled to play Western Michigan in a nonconference game on Tuesday at Comerica Park in Detroit. The Spartans dropped a pair of Big Ten games to Michigan last weekend, 6-3 and 16-2.

Junior Bryce Kelley leads the Spartans with a .311 batting average, while Adam Proctor tops MSU with four home runs, and Marty Bechina has driven in a team-best 15 runs.

NEXT
CMU returns home for a three-game MAC series with Ball State at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium this weekend. Game one is set for 3 p.m. Friday. Ball State is 17-9 and leads the MAC at 4-0. The Chippewas are 5-1 in league play and are tied with Miami (Ohio) for second place.

Baseball: Mid-Week Road Games With Notre Dame, Michigan State On Tap

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Players Mentioned

Cameron Brown

Jacob Crum

Zach Gilles

Tyler Hankins

Pat Leatherman

Griffin Lockwood-Powell

Cameron Miller

Zavier Warren