Thursday, May 16
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
2 p.m.
Central Michigan University
41-12, 20-5
6
vs
2
Miami (Ohio)
36-15, 15-9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Miami (OH)
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
2
8
0
Central Michigan
0
1
0
3
0
0
2
0
X
6
13
1
Pat Leatherman went seven strong innings as Central Michigan downed Miami (Ohio), 6-2, on Friday, taking one more step toward the MAC championship.
Photo by: Benjamin Suddendorf
Chippewas Win Series Opener, Eye Title
5/16/2019 6:26:00 PM | Baseball
CMU and Miami battle in critical game on Friday (3 p.m.)
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Chippewas held serve, and they remain on the doorstep of a Mid-American Conference championship.
Pat Leatherman went seven strong innings and his hitters gave him plenty of support on Thursday as Central Michigan downed Miami (Ohio), 6-2, in a Mid-American Conference baseball game at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
The win lifted the first-place Chippewas to 41-12, 20-5 MAC. They maintained their one-game lead over second-place Ball State, which improved to 18-5 in league play with a 10-1 win on Thursday over Toledo.
The Chippewas and RedHawks are scheduled to square off on Friday (3 p.m.), while Ball State and Toledo also meet again on Friday. The Chippewas can clinch the MAC regular-season championship, their first since 2015, with a win on Friday and a Ball State loss.
"This is fun for the guys," first-year CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "Just across the board, our guys kept battling, competing, and that's a real credit to them. Everyone wants to talk about how important these games are; these guys need to enjoy them.
"How many teams are in this position? Somebody's going to finish first, somebody's going to be disappointed, so you better enjoy the process of getting there. We saw it, Miami's pretty darned good; they're going to compete all the way to the end.
"Getting one win against these guys isn't easy and to get another one tomorrow is going to be even tougher."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Leatherman (9-1), a senior right-hander, allowed seven hits and struck out seven. The Chippewas staked him to a 4-0 lead, breaking through in the second inning on a Zavier Warren bases-loaded walk, one of seven issued by Miami pitching in the game.
CMU added three runs in the fourth on a Warren RBI single and a two-run double by Griffin Lockwood-Powell.
AT THE PLATE
The Chippewas got to Miami starter Sam Bachman (7-1), who left after five innings and took his first loss of the season.
CMU leadoff hitter Zach Heeke finished with three hits, while Warren and Lockwood-Powell had two apiece. Warren finished with four RBI to up his season total to a MAC-best 66.
Heeke has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games and his hitting .365 (19 for 52) over that span. He has seven hits in his last 11 at-bats.
"Coach does kind of preach to us, 'one game at a time,' but to get the first game (of the series) is just really big for the confidence," Heeke said. "You come in the next day and you're like, 'got one in the bag; let's get this one today.'"
ON THE MOUND
Leatherman gave the Chippewas the kind of effort and result they have come to expect. Miami's Kyle Winkler hit a two-out, two-run single in the seventh to spoil Leatherman's shutout bid and draw the RedHawks to 4-2. Leatherman, backing up a play at the plate, threw out Winkler at second base as Winkler tried to stretch his single into a double.
"I guess seven innings, two runs, is just an average outing for Pat," Bischel quipped. "It's an outstanding outing. He just does it every week. He just battled, competed. His career, his work ethic was personified by how he ended that outing by backing up a base and getting a guy out on the bases. That was great to see."
That play helped swing momentum back in the Chippewas' favor. Warren delivered a two-run single in the bottom half of the seventh to re-up CMU's lead to four runs, 6-2.
Zach Kohn worked the eighth before leaving with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth. Grant Frazer came on and got a strikeout to end it and notch his third save.
POWER ARM
The play of the game came with one out in the sixth inning when Miami's Landon Stephens flied out to CMU right fielder Jacob Crum. Crum unleashed an on-the-fly missile to Lockwood-Powell, the catcher, who tagged out a diving Cristian Tejada to end the inning. That kept the game at 4-0.
"That's a big-league arm right there," Bischel said. "That's a momentum changer. A team thinks they've got a rally going and at minimum thinks they're going to get on the board and to just gun a guy down like that totally changes things."
Pat Leatherman went seven strong innings and his hitters gave him plenty of support on Thursday as Central Michigan downed Miami (Ohio), 6-2, in a Mid-American Conference baseball game at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
The win lifted the first-place Chippewas to 41-12, 20-5 MAC. They maintained their one-game lead over second-place Ball State, which improved to 18-5 in league play with a 10-1 win on Thursday over Toledo.
The Chippewas and RedHawks are scheduled to square off on Friday (3 p.m.), while Ball State and Toledo also meet again on Friday. The Chippewas can clinch the MAC regular-season championship, their first since 2015, with a win on Friday and a Ball State loss.
"This is fun for the guys," first-year CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "Just across the board, our guys kept battling, competing, and that's a real credit to them. Everyone wants to talk about how important these games are; these guys need to enjoy them.
"How many teams are in this position? Somebody's going to finish first, somebody's going to be disappointed, so you better enjoy the process of getting there. We saw it, Miami's pretty darned good; they're going to compete all the way to the end.
"Getting one win against these guys isn't easy and to get another one tomorrow is going to be even tougher."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Leatherman (9-1), a senior right-hander, allowed seven hits and struck out seven. The Chippewas staked him to a 4-0 lead, breaking through in the second inning on a Zavier Warren bases-loaded walk, one of seven issued by Miami pitching in the game.
CMU added three runs in the fourth on a Warren RBI single and a two-run double by Griffin Lockwood-Powell.
AT THE PLATE
The Chippewas got to Miami starter Sam Bachman (7-1), who left after five innings and took his first loss of the season.
CMU leadoff hitter Zach Heeke finished with three hits, while Warren and Lockwood-Powell had two apiece. Warren finished with four RBI to up his season total to a MAC-best 66.
Heeke has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games and his hitting .365 (19 for 52) over that span. He has seven hits in his last 11 at-bats.
"Coach does kind of preach to us, 'one game at a time,' but to get the first game (of the series) is just really big for the confidence," Heeke said. "You come in the next day and you're like, 'got one in the bag; let's get this one today.'"
ON THE MOUND
Leatherman gave the Chippewas the kind of effort and result they have come to expect. Miami's Kyle Winkler hit a two-out, two-run single in the seventh to spoil Leatherman's shutout bid and draw the RedHawks to 4-2. Leatherman, backing up a play at the plate, threw out Winkler at second base as Winkler tried to stretch his single into a double.
"I guess seven innings, two runs, is just an average outing for Pat," Bischel quipped. "It's an outstanding outing. He just does it every week. He just battled, competed. His career, his work ethic was personified by how he ended that outing by backing up a base and getting a guy out on the bases. That was great to see."
That play helped swing momentum back in the Chippewas' favor. Warren delivered a two-run single in the bottom half of the seventh to re-up CMU's lead to four runs, 6-2.
Zach Kohn worked the eighth before leaving with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth. Grant Frazer came on and got a strikeout to end it and notch his third save.
POWER ARM
The play of the game came with one out in the sixth inning when Miami's Landon Stephens flied out to CMU right fielder Jacob Crum. Crum unleashed an on-the-fly missile to Lockwood-Powell, the catcher, who tagged out a diving Cristian Tejada to end the inning. That kept the game at 4-0.
"That's a big-league arm right there," Bischel said. "That's a momentum changer. A team thinks they've got a rally going and at minimum thinks they're going to get on the board and to just gun a guy down like that totally changes things."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Leatherman, Pat (9-1)
L: BACHMAN, Sam (7-1)
S: Frazer, Grant (3)
Batting:
2B: ELVERS, Cal 1
RBI: WINKLER, Kyle 2
Base Running:
RUNS: WILLIAMS, Mackay 1 ; ELVERS, Cal 1
CS: VOGELGESANG, Will 1
HBP: ANDREWS, Cole 1 ; WILLIAMS, Mackay 1
Batting:
2B: Lockwood-Powell, Griffin 1 ; Sullivan, Jason 1 ; Rollin, Chase 1
RBI: Warren, Zavier 4 ; Lockwood-Powell, Griffin 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Heeke, Zach 2 ; Warren, Zavier 1 ; Navarra, Garrett 1 ; Rollin, Chase 2
SB: Heeke, Zach 1 ; Warren, Zavier 1 ; Crum, Jacob 2
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
2
H
3
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
4
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
2
AB
3
R
2
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballC
/ BaseballC/INF
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