Baseball Drops Season Opener in 10 Innings at Baylor

Friday, February 17

Waco, Texas

4 p.m.

Central Michigan University

0-1

Baylor

1-0

Central Michigan

Baylor

CMU left-hander Garrett Navarra delivers to the plate on Friday in the Chippewas' 6-5 season-opening loss at Baylor.

2/17/2023 10:48:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score

By: Andy Sneddon

WACO, Texas – A tough way to lose, but there was plenty to the good for the Central Michigan baseball team in its 6-5, 10-inning loss to Baylor in its season-opening game on Friday at Baylor Ballpark.

"Certainly we're never going to be happy with losing," fifth-year CMU coach Jordan Bischel said, "but we learned some things about ourselves. We've got some things we know we can work on, and we did do a lot of things pretty well.

"You play a Big 12 school with a great history, they're not going to hand you wins and you've got to play at a high level. We did enough things well to hang in there and compete, but not enough to win and we're going to make an attempt to learn from it and hopefully build off of it."

Game 2 in the three-game set is scheduled for 3 p.m. (ET) on Saturday. Sophomore Ben Mrakitsch will start for the Chippewas against Cam Caley in a lefty-lefty matchup. Sunday's finale is scheduled for a 2 p.m. (ET) first pitch.

Baylor scored the winning run off Nate Ross (0-1) in the 10^th on Friday. Ross, a sophomore transfer from Kellogg Community College, came on to start the 10^th in his first appearance as a Chippewa.

He got the first two outs then walked Kolby Branch. Branch took second on a balk and went to third on a wild pitch. He scored on a Jack Johnson single to center.

"I don't know if it was nerves or it just went a little fast on him, but It was a little bit of a microcosm of how a lot of their runs came about," Bischel said. "They certainly had a few hits to bring them in, but we supplied some baserunners with free passes.

"Once they got a runner on base it might have moved a little fast for Nate, but he's going to be very successful as the season goes."

Garrett Navarra and Danny Wuestenfeld led CMU's eight-hit attack with two hits apiece. The Chippewas drew 10 walks and did not commit an error.

"The first half of the game we really swung the bats well and had some good at-bats," Bischel said. "We still had some baserunners late, but it was a little more stagnant and there was not as much aggression in the swings and we didn't pressure them enough.

"But we did some good things; we played pretty good defense, the pitchers were competitive, we got guys on base."

Trailing 5-4, the Chippewas tied it in the eighth when Marquis Jackson led off with a walk and took second on a groundout. He scored on Wuestenfeld's two-out single.

Navarra, a left-hander, started and allowed one run on four hits over four innings. He walked four and struck out four.

"Garrett was very competitive on the mound," Bischel said. "Probably got hurt by a few too many free passes and then they had some pretty good at-bats that drove his pitch count up.

"He maybe got himself into a little more trouble than he needed to. But he did a great job of battling and competing in those situations."

Ben Vitas, Michael Conte and Ryan Palmblad pitched in relief for CMU. The Chippewa pitchers combined to surrender 10 hits, walked nine, and struck out seven.