Chippewas Drop Series Finale In Texas

Monday, February 22

Corpus Christi, TX

1 P.M.

Central Michigan University

0-3

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi

3-0

Central Michigan

A&M-Corpus Christi

Drew Lechnir had two hits and drove in two runs on Monday in the Chippewas' 6-3 loss in Corpus Christi, Texas.

2/22/2021 5:54:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Disappointing to open the season by being swept, no question.

But there is plenty on which to build as the Central Michigan baseball team looks to next week and beyond.

The Chippewas stranded 13 baserunners on Monday in falling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 6-3, in the finale of their three-game season-opening series at the Islanders' Chapman Field.

The Chippewas (0-3) stranded 10 runners in both games of Sunday's doubleheader, yet were very much in all three games down to the final out. Trailing by three runs, CMU brought the tying run to the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings.

CMU had not been outside and on a field before they played the opener of Sunday's twinbill.

"We're certainly never going to use being a northern team as an excuse," said CMU coach Jordan Bischel, whose team is scheduled to go to Bellarmine in Louisville, Ky. next weekend. "You can do that if you want to, but we expect to play well no matter what.

"We did some kind of out-of-character things in key spots (in the series). We'll learn from them. You don't have situational baseball in a batting cage. We just have to learn from it and get better. I think It's probably good that we're right back on the field in four days."

CMU finished with six hits, two by Drew Lechnir. One of his hits was a two-run single during a three-run fifth inning as the Chippewas drew to 4-3. Zach Lechnir smacked a run-scoring single.

The Islanders added two insurance runs in the seventh.

The Chippewas stranded at least one base runner in every inning and five times left two on.

"We were a little bit better today," said Bischel, whose team did not commit an error in the series. "We hit a few balls hard, got a couple of big hits with runners in scoring position. Even better than yesterday, we were able to get a lot of guys on base and create some opportunities.

"We're not going to panic. We needed to figure out our starting point and until you can get outside you don't know where you're at. We're just not quite good enough right now; doesn't mean we won't be good enough next weekend. We know what we have to work on and we have to get back to it.

"We played pretty good defense. We did some good things. We maybe misread one or two balls in the outfield, but there's not a lot of wind in the (CMU) turf bay, so we were dealing with that for the first time."

CMU starter J.T. Rogoszewski allowed three runs over 2 1/3 innings in taking the loss. Garrett Navarra, Logan Buczkowski and Ryan Palmblad pitched in relief.

"We pitched pretty well for 90 percent of the weekend, but the 10 percent that we didn't we just strung together a couple bad stretches where we didn't manage it well and that hurt us a little bit," Bischel said.

The Chippewas hit just .165 in the series and just two of their 15 hits were for extra bases.

"We've got guys at the top of the order who are pretty proven hitters and they didn't hit this weekend," Bischel said. "We trust that that's going to change. The fact that we were in these games (despite that) and had opportunities to win is a good sign."