Central Michigan University
24-11, 16-4
Akron
9-25, 3-21
Power Play: Chippewas Hit 4 Homers In Completing Series Sweep
4/25/2021 4:08:00 PM | Baseball
The Chippewas, who have won seven of their last eight games, completed their second MAC sweep of the season in improving to 24-11, 16-4 league. They share first place with Ball State.
CMU outscored the Zips by a combined 43-5 on the weekend. The four homers in Sunday's game were the most by a Chippewa team since at least 2014.
"We played a good weekend," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "Our guys competed well. I thought our enthusiasm and energy (on Sunday) was as good or better than it was in game 1 of the series and that's a hallmark for us. It was good to see that we took nothing for granted (on Sunday) and attacked it like a new day and an important game.
"That's a big key for us. When we play with that energy it's palpable what it does for our team, and they did a great job of that today."
Mario Camilletti, Zach Heeke, Garrett Navarra, and Jakob Marsee homered for CMU, which scored 10 runs on seven hits and three Akron errors in the fourth inning.
Marsee led off the inning with his third homer of the season; Camilletti later hit a grand slam, and then Heeke immediately followed Camilletti with his third home run in his last six games. Navarra's homer, his second of the season, was a three-run blast in the seventh.
"We had a little bit of favorable hitting conditions," Bischel said, "but on the flip side we've played a lot of games this year that were not real favorable for hitters and when you hit a ball well and it hangs up in the wind, nobody gets credit in the box score with a home run so we're not going to feel bad or apologize for having the wind behind us.
"You've still got to hit it hard, you've still got to drive it a little bit, and the guys did a good job of that."
Camilletti, a junior in his first season at CMU after transferring from Oakland, finished with three hits and drove in four runs, matching his high as a Chippewa.
Ian Leatherman (2-1), the second Chippewa pitcher, allowed just one hit over 3 1/3 innings for the victory. Navarra started and went 2 1/3. Logan Buczkowski and Grant Frazer also pitched in relief.
Leatherman entered the game with one out and a runner at third with the Chippewas trailing, 1-0, in the third inning. He surrendered a sacrifice fly that put the Zips up, 2-0.
Minutes later, Marsee blasted the first pitch of the fourth inning over the right-field fence, igniting the big inning and putting a charge into the CMU dugout.
"When (Leatherman) came in the game, he did give up a sac fly, but you could tell that he was sharp, he had great life on the ball and that injected a little bit of life into us," Bischel said. "Ian's been pitching late in games and he's been really good for us most of the year. I just thought it was important to get him in there early and let him impact the game and obviously he did. Our guys like playing behind him because he attacks hitters, he goes after guys; He was outstanding."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Leatherman, Ian (0-0)
L: MEYER, Mark (0-0)
Batting:
2B: Lechnir, Drew 1 ; Simpson, Justin 1
HR: Camilletti, Mario 1 ; Heeke, Zach 1 ; Navarra, Garrett 1 ; Marsee, Jakob 1
RBI: Camilletti, Mario 4 ; Heeke, Zach 1 ; Gilles, Zach 1 ; Navarra, Garrett 3 ; Marsee, Jakob 1 ; Simpson, Justin 1 ; Rollin, Chase 1 ; Donahue, Jacob 1 ; Shepardson, Aidan 1
SH: Shepardson, Aidan 1 ; Stengren, Drew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Camilletti, Mario 2 ; Heeke, Zach 2 ; Gilles, Zach 2 ; Navarra, Garrett 2 ; Marsee, Jakob 1 ; Lechnir, Drew 1 ; Simpson, Justin 2 ; Rollin, Chase 1 ; Shepardson, Aidan 1 ; Stengren, Drew 1
HBP: Heeke, Zach 1 ; Rollin, Chase 1
Batting:
2B: WARGO, Tate 1
RBI: DOMER, Austin 1 ; TREVINO, Dominick 1
SF: DOMER, Austin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: NELLIS, Joshua 1 ; WARGO, Tate 1
SB: NELLIS, Joshua 1
PO: GOULET, Bradley 1 ; TREVINO, Dominick 1
