Saturday, April 17
Mount Pleasant, MI
4 P.M.
Central Michigan University
20-10, 12-3
2
vs
1
Kent State
13-17, 6-9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Kent State
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
4
0
Central Michigan
1
0
0
0
0
1
X
2
8
0
CMU senior Zach Heeke rounds third after hitting a towering home run in game 1 on Saturday at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
Photo by: Keara Chaperon '22
Solid Pitching, Another Big Blast Highlight Baseball Sweep
4/17/2021 7:11:00 PM | Baseball
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Another doubleheader, two more outstanding pitching performances, another memorable homer, and two more wins.
Andrew Taylor and Ian Leatherman combined to shut down Kent State in the opener and Cameron Brown delivered a gem in the nightcap on Saturday as the Central Michigan baseball team swept Kent State, 3-1 and 2-1, in a pair of seven-inning Mid-American Conference games at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
The Chippewas have won 12 of their last 13 conference games and are 20-10 overall, 12-3 MAC. They entered Saturday's games tied with Ball State for first place in the league. The Cardinals were scheduled to play a doubleheader at Eastern Michigan on Saturday.
The Chippewas and Golden Flashes, 13-17, 6-9, wrap up the series on Sunday (1 p.m.) at Theunissen.
Solid Pitching Continues
Taylor, a redshirt freshman right-hander, allowed seven hits and struck out eight in improving to 5-3 with the win in game one. Leatherman worked the seventh for his fourth save. Brown (5-0) went the distance in the nightcap, striking out four, walking three and surrendering four hits.
The performances of Taylor and Brown came on the heels of Jordan Patty's complete-game 10-0 win in Friday's series opener. That Patty-Taylor-Brown combo has been dynamite in the last three weekends.
"The last three weeks I don't know that there have been three guys who have strung together better outings than those three guys," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "They've just been fabulous.
"And (Taylor) was probably the least sharp of the three guys (this weekend), but he still did just a tremendous job. He wanted to finish that (game) out but it's kind of my job to protect a 19-year-old at times when that pitch count gets up. We've got pretty good options out of the bullpen with guys like (Leatherman) to finish it."
Another Big Blast
The hitting highlight of the day came from senior Zach Heeke who led off the second inning of the opener with a towering homer over the 20-foot-high wall in center field to give the Chippewas a 2-0 lead.
It was the second-career homer for Heeke, a solid everyday two-way player who has 207 hits in 203 career games. It came one day after teammate Jakob Marsee conquered the wall in nearly the same spot with his own memorable blast.
Striking Early
CMU has scored in its first at-bat in each of the three games in the series and has yet to trail.
The Chippewas made the most of their four hits in game one as Garrett Navarra delivered a pair of RBI singles, the first of which came in the first inning and the second of which came in the third.
The Chippewas seized a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap when Mario Camilletti led off the game with a double off the wall in center, took third on a bunt, and scored on a wild pitch.
Justin Simpson, CMU's No. 9 hitter, drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the sixth inning to force in the go-ahead run.
"I thought Kent State's pitchers pitched really well today," Bischel said. "We just ground out some good at-bats and put some things together and put some pressure on throughout the game and finally found a way to scratch one out in the sixth."
Heeke finished with three hits and Zach Gilles had two to lead the Chippewas.
Cam the Man
Brown set down the Golden Flashes in order in the seventh to finish out the nightcap. The senior right-hander appears to have regained his 2019 form, when he went 10-1 with a 3.20 earned run average in helping lead CMU to the MAC championship. In the abbreviated 2020 season, he went 1-3 with a 10-plus ERA.
"Obviously a big chunk of it is physical, but it's also mental," Bischel said. "He got in his head a little bit last year and took some time to work through it. It's possible there are other guys who have worked as hard as he has, but nobody's worked harder than he has. He's just prepared every day and it's really fun to see it paying off for him. I thought his best inning of the day was the seventh inning. He made every pitch; it was really an impressive finish to the game."
Surging
The Chippewas are 20-6 since an 0-4 start to the season and they have won three of their four MAC series after splitting their league-opening set in late March at Ohio.
"I told the guys before the first conference game that I had done some heavy research on conference games and what I had learned is that if you win you move up and if you lose you move down and there are not many exceptions to that rule," said Bischel in his typical deadpan tongue-and-cheek fashion. "You just win as many as you can and trust the results whatever they are.
"My hope is that whether we're in first place or eighth place going into the last weekend of the year we're out there just competing and enjoying ourselves and being good teammates and we'll let the results fall where they may. They're doing a good job. If you play good baseball you're going to move up in the standings and that's what's happened the last few weeks."
Andrew Taylor and Ian Leatherman combined to shut down Kent State in the opener and Cameron Brown delivered a gem in the nightcap on Saturday as the Central Michigan baseball team swept Kent State, 3-1 and 2-1, in a pair of seven-inning Mid-American Conference games at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
The Chippewas have won 12 of their last 13 conference games and are 20-10 overall, 12-3 MAC. They entered Saturday's games tied with Ball State for first place in the league. The Cardinals were scheduled to play a doubleheader at Eastern Michigan on Saturday.
The Chippewas and Golden Flashes, 13-17, 6-9, wrap up the series on Sunday (1 p.m.) at Theunissen.
Solid Pitching Continues
Taylor, a redshirt freshman right-hander, allowed seven hits and struck out eight in improving to 5-3 with the win in game one. Leatherman worked the seventh for his fourth save. Brown (5-0) went the distance in the nightcap, striking out four, walking three and surrendering four hits.
The performances of Taylor and Brown came on the heels of Jordan Patty's complete-game 10-0 win in Friday's series opener. That Patty-Taylor-Brown combo has been dynamite in the last three weekends.
"The last three weeks I don't know that there have been three guys who have strung together better outings than those three guys," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "They've just been fabulous.
"And (Taylor) was probably the least sharp of the three guys (this weekend), but he still did just a tremendous job. He wanted to finish that (game) out but it's kind of my job to protect a 19-year-old at times when that pitch count gets up. We've got pretty good options out of the bullpen with guys like (Leatherman) to finish it."
Another Big Blast
The hitting highlight of the day came from senior Zach Heeke who led off the second inning of the opener with a towering homer over the 20-foot-high wall in center field to give the Chippewas a 2-0 lead.
It was the second-career homer for Heeke, a solid everyday two-way player who has 207 hits in 203 career games. It came one day after teammate Jakob Marsee conquered the wall in nearly the same spot with his own memorable blast.
Striking Early
CMU has scored in its first at-bat in each of the three games in the series and has yet to trail.
The Chippewas made the most of their four hits in game one as Garrett Navarra delivered a pair of RBI singles, the first of which came in the first inning and the second of which came in the third.
The Chippewas seized a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap when Mario Camilletti led off the game with a double off the wall in center, took third on a bunt, and scored on a wild pitch.
Justin Simpson, CMU's No. 9 hitter, drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the sixth inning to force in the go-ahead run.
"I thought Kent State's pitchers pitched really well today," Bischel said. "We just ground out some good at-bats and put some things together and put some pressure on throughout the game and finally found a way to scratch one out in the sixth."
Heeke finished with three hits and Zach Gilles had two to lead the Chippewas.
Cam the Man
Brown set down the Golden Flashes in order in the seventh to finish out the nightcap. The senior right-hander appears to have regained his 2019 form, when he went 10-1 with a 3.20 earned run average in helping lead CMU to the MAC championship. In the abbreviated 2020 season, he went 1-3 with a 10-plus ERA.
"Obviously a big chunk of it is physical, but it's also mental," Bischel said. "He got in his head a little bit last year and took some time to work through it. It's possible there are other guys who have worked as hard as he has, but nobody's worked harder than he has. He's just prepared every day and it's really fun to see it paying off for him. I thought his best inning of the day was the seventh inning. He made every pitch; it was really an impressive finish to the game."
Surging
The Chippewas are 20-6 since an 0-4 start to the season and they have won three of their four MAC series after splitting their league-opening set in late March at Ohio.
"I told the guys before the first conference game that I had done some heavy research on conference games and what I had learned is that if you win you move up and if you lose you move down and there are not many exceptions to that rule," said Bischel in his typical deadpan tongue-and-cheek fashion. "You just win as many as you can and trust the results whatever they are.
"My hope is that whether we're in first place or eighth place going into the last weekend of the year we're out there just competing and enjoying ourselves and being good teammates and we'll let the results fall where they may. They're doing a good job. If you play good baseball you're going to move up in the standings and that's what's happened the last few weeks."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Brown, Cameron (5-0)
L: LONGWELL, A. (1-1)
Batting:
RBI: MIKNIS, J 1
Base Running:
RUNS: MATHEWS, C. 1
CS: DOBOS, K. 1
Batting:
2B: Camilletti, Mario 1
RBI: Simpson, Justin 1
SH: Rollin, Chase 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Camilletti, Mario 1 ; Navarra, Garrett 1
CS: Gilles, Zach 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
0
H
3
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
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RHP
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