Sunday, May 2
Mount Pleasant, MI
12 P.M.
Central Michigan University
28-11, 20-4
3
vs
1
Miami (OH)
19-19, 12-12
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Miami (OH)
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
3
1
Central Michigan
0
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
X
3
5
1
Photo by: Keara Chaperon '22
Baseball Completes Sweep, Stands Alone In First Place
5/2/2021 5:10:00 PM | Baseball
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – A perfect start and a perfect ending, and Central Michigan is alone in first place in the Mid-American Conference baseball race.
Three Chippewa pitchers combined on a three-hitter, and CMU's offense did just enough on Sunday as the Chippewas defeated Miami (Ohio), 3-1, at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium to complete a sweep of a four-game MAC series.
The series started on Friday with Jordan Patty's perfect game – the first in CMU baseball history – and ended with the Chippewas' second-consecutive league sweep as they improved to 28-11, 20-4 MAC.
The Chippewas are alone in first place after Ball State slipped to 19-5 in the league with an 8-5 loss on Sunday at Bowling Green.
CMU and Ball State open a four-game series at Theunissen on Friday, May 7 (3 p.m.).
"It should be fun," said CMU coach Jordan Bischel, whose team is the defending league champion. "I hope our guys enjoy the experience, and the biggest thing I tell them when they feel a little pressure is that a lot of teams would really give a lot to trade places with us.
"You can't put a bunch of pressure on yourself, you've just got to enjoy the experience. It's two good teams. Ball State, they do pretty much everything right. It should be a fun series."
Garrett Navarra started and went four innings for CMU on Sunday, and winning pitcher Grant Frazer (2-3) was outstanding in five innings of relief. They combined to strike out 10, and the Chippewas got a pair of standout defensive plays in left field from Chase Rollin.
"Garrett was tremendous, Grant was tremendous and the defense behind them – a couple of plays by Chase that were just remarkable," Bischel said. "Those were big-league plays."
As is CMU's Sunday custom, Navarra was slated to go anywhere from three to five innings and then the bullpen would take over. In this case, Bischel called upon Logan Buczkowski to start the fifth inning, but Buczkowski left with an apparent injury after hitting both batters he faced.
"He just didn't quite feel right, and obviously the ball wasn't coming out quite right," Bischel said. "We're going to err on the side of caution there and hopefully it's nothing major. He's been so good this year, but he just didn't feel quite right out there, and knowing that we had plenty of guys to pitch we weren't going to mess around and put him in harm's way."
The Chippewas, as they so often do, took full advantage of everything the RedHawks gave them in scoring all three of their runs.
Navarra singled to lead off the second, Chase Rollin followed with a bunt single, and Aidan Shepardson later walked with two outs to load the bases. Justin Simpson then drew a base on balls to force in a run, and Mario Camilletti, the next CMU hitter, was hit by a pitch to force in another run and make it 2-0.
Jakob Marsee singled leading off the CMU fourth, was bunted to second and then scored on Simpson's bunt single combined with a Miami error.
"Miami came into the weekend in third place and with arguably the best pitching staff in the league," Bischel said. "I think many would say (they have the) most talented staff in the league, and I think their numbers were the best.
"It's hard to beat anybody four times, but a program like Miami that year in and year out is always near the top of the standings, that was just a great job by our guys."
Three Chippewa pitchers combined on a three-hitter, and CMU's offense did just enough on Sunday as the Chippewas defeated Miami (Ohio), 3-1, at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium to complete a sweep of a four-game MAC series.
The series started on Friday with Jordan Patty's perfect game – the first in CMU baseball history – and ended with the Chippewas' second-consecutive league sweep as they improved to 28-11, 20-4 MAC.
The Chippewas are alone in first place after Ball State slipped to 19-5 in the league with an 8-5 loss on Sunday at Bowling Green.
CMU and Ball State open a four-game series at Theunissen on Friday, May 7 (3 p.m.).
"It should be fun," said CMU coach Jordan Bischel, whose team is the defending league champion. "I hope our guys enjoy the experience, and the biggest thing I tell them when they feel a little pressure is that a lot of teams would really give a lot to trade places with us.
"You can't put a bunch of pressure on yourself, you've just got to enjoy the experience. It's two good teams. Ball State, they do pretty much everything right. It should be a fun series."
Garrett Navarra started and went four innings for CMU on Sunday, and winning pitcher Grant Frazer (2-3) was outstanding in five innings of relief. They combined to strike out 10, and the Chippewas got a pair of standout defensive plays in left field from Chase Rollin.
"Garrett was tremendous, Grant was tremendous and the defense behind them – a couple of plays by Chase that were just remarkable," Bischel said. "Those were big-league plays."
As is CMU's Sunday custom, Navarra was slated to go anywhere from three to five innings and then the bullpen would take over. In this case, Bischel called upon Logan Buczkowski to start the fifth inning, but Buczkowski left with an apparent injury after hitting both batters he faced.
"He just didn't quite feel right, and obviously the ball wasn't coming out quite right," Bischel said. "We're going to err on the side of caution there and hopefully it's nothing major. He's been so good this year, but he just didn't feel quite right out there, and knowing that we had plenty of guys to pitch we weren't going to mess around and put him in harm's way."
The Chippewas, as they so often do, took full advantage of everything the RedHawks gave them in scoring all three of their runs.
Navarra singled to lead off the second, Chase Rollin followed with a bunt single, and Aidan Shepardson later walked with two outs to load the bases. Justin Simpson then drew a base on balls to force in a run, and Mario Camilletti, the next CMU hitter, was hit by a pitch to force in another run and make it 2-0.
Jakob Marsee singled leading off the CMU fourth, was bunted to second and then scored on Simpson's bunt single combined with a Miami error.
"Miami came into the weekend in third place and with arguably the best pitching staff in the league," Bischel said. "I think many would say (they have the) most talented staff in the league, and I think their numbers were the best.
"It's hard to beat anybody four times, but a program like Miami that year in and year out is always near the top of the standings, that was just a great job by our guys."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Frazer, Grant (2-3)
L: Bosma, T (1-2)
Batting:
2B: Stone, Nate 1
RBI: Hensor, J 1
SH: Wardwell, T 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Zapp,Brian 1
HBP: Zapp,Brian 1 ; Massman, P 1
Batting:
RBI: Camilletti, Mario 1 ; Simpson, Justin 2
SH: Shepardson, Aidan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Navarra, Garrett 1 ; Marsee, Jakob 2
SB: Marsee, Jakob 1
HBP: Camilletti, Mario 1 ; Gilles, Zach 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
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INF
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RHP
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballLHP/OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballOF/INF
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
INF
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