Central Michigan University Athletics
Saturday, April 8
DeKalb, Ill.
2 p.m. (ET)
Central Michigan University
17-12, 0
17
at
7
Northern Illinois
5-24, 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Central Michigan
3
0
5
6
1
1
0
0
1
17
13
1
NIU
1
1
1
0
0
4
0
0
0
7
12
1
Ryan Culley threw 3 1/3 solid innings in relief on Saturday in the Chippewas' win at NIU.
Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw
Sizzling Sefcik Leads Baseball to 17-7 Win at NIU
4/8/2023 7:11:00 PM | Baseball
DeKALB, Ill. – Luke Sefcik had five hits and drove in four runs on Saturday as the Central Michigan baseball team rolled to a 17-7 Mid-American Conference victory over Northern Illinois at the Huskies' McKinzie Field.
The Chippewas ran their win streak to a season-high four games in improving to 17-12, 7-4 MAC. They will attempt to complete their first sweep of the season when the teams close the series on Sunday (1 p.m. ET).
The Chippewas extended their win streak over NIU to 13 games and are a season-high five games above .500. They trail first-place Ball State by two games in the loss column in the MAC standings.
"We talked before the year that we're going to have a lot to learn as a team," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "We had a lot of new faces and I told the guys that that we're going to have some ups and downs as we learn what we're doing.
"We're trying to build; it's still not going to be perfect, but we're a lot more comfortable with who we are right now and trying to build in the right direction."
Sefcik, a redshirt freshman second baseman, had a two-run single in the first inning as the Chippewas opened a 3-0 lead, and he had another two-run single in the fourth as CMU extended its lead to 14-3.
An Illinois native playing in his home state, Sefcik has eight hits in 11 at-bats in the series and has hit safely in eight consecutive games. He is hitting .466 (14 for 30) over that span and has raised his average from .190 to a season-high .348 with 19 hits in his last 48 at-bats.
His five hits and four RBI are both career highs.
"(Sefcik) was around last year, but he didn't play and he got off to an OK start (this season) and then me missed a couple weeks with an injury," Bischel said. "It's only typical when you're playing college baseball for the first time that you're going to have some ups and downs with the confidence and you're just starting to see him trust in who he is and believe in who he is, and I think you're seeing the same thing with our lineup a little bit.
"We lost a lot of guys from last year and we've had some injuries take out some other pieces so it's been a challenging transition at times. But now you're starting to see guys really believe in who they are and then collectively who we are as a team and that confidence is starting to build."
CMU collected 13 hits, 11 of them singles, and led 16-3 through 5 ½ innings. The Chippewas have 27 hits in their two games against the Huskies after their 14-hit output in Friday's 7-0 win in the series opener.
The 17 runs are the Chippewas' second-highest total of the season behind the 20 they scored at Baylor on Feb. 18, and the 13 hits ties for their third-highest total in a game this season.
CMU drew a season-high 12 walks in Saturday's game as five NIU hurlers threw a combined 251 pitches. That ability to work deep into counts, draw walks, and make opposing pitchers labor for strikes has long been a staple of CMU's hitting philosophy in Bischel's five seasons in charge of the program.
"Pitching at this level is not just going to walk you with noncompetitive pitches," Bischel said, "but when you start to hit some balls hard and put some fear into pitchers, now they start to work toward the edges and out of the zone.
"You've seen the walks the last couple of games have started to pile up after we've hit balls hard early in the game. They go hand-in-hand and we're doing a nice job on pitches we can do some damage with, and taking the ones we can't."
Justin Simpson, Jacob Donahue and Christian Mitchelle added two hits apiece for CMU. Robby Morgan IV drove in three runs and Drew Stengren and Donahue had two RBI apiece.
Keegan Batka started for the Chippewas and allowed three runs on seven hits over four innings. He struck out five and walked two and left with a 14-3 lead.
Bischel could easily have let Batka work through the fifth, the requisite number of innings for a starter to pick up the victory. But he instead went to the bullpen after Batka's pitch count had reached 89.
Nate Ross, Ben Vitas, Ryan Culley and Shane Ryan pitched in relief. Ross (2-1), who pitched a hitless fifth, earned the victory.
"The one thing I love about our guys is they just don't care what their personal stats say," Bischel said. "And for (Batka), he's had pretty high pitch counts every week. It wasn't his best outing. He struggled a little bit and he got to about 90 pitches and it was a great chance to not tax his arm, give some other guys opportunities.
"He'll be happy that Ross gets the win. He's his (junior college) teammate so he'll be happy to turn that thing over to him."
Culley struck out four, walked one and allowed just one hit over 3 1/3 innings. It was by far the longest career outing for Culley, a grad student left-hander and an Illinois native.
"Really a pretty amazing moment for him," Bischel said. "He's a guy who for three years has really prepared for us and worked hard and got an opportunity and took advantage. Gave us three-plus great innings."
The Chippewas ran their win streak to a season-high four games in improving to 17-12, 7-4 MAC. They will attempt to complete their first sweep of the season when the teams close the series on Sunday (1 p.m. ET).
The Chippewas extended their win streak over NIU to 13 games and are a season-high five games above .500. They trail first-place Ball State by two games in the loss column in the MAC standings.
"We talked before the year that we're going to have a lot to learn as a team," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "We had a lot of new faces and I told the guys that that we're going to have some ups and downs as we learn what we're doing.
"We're trying to build; it's still not going to be perfect, but we're a lot more comfortable with who we are right now and trying to build in the right direction."
Sefcik, a redshirt freshman second baseman, had a two-run single in the first inning as the Chippewas opened a 3-0 lead, and he had another two-run single in the fourth as CMU extended its lead to 14-3.
An Illinois native playing in his home state, Sefcik has eight hits in 11 at-bats in the series and has hit safely in eight consecutive games. He is hitting .466 (14 for 30) over that span and has raised his average from .190 to a season-high .348 with 19 hits in his last 48 at-bats.
His five hits and four RBI are both career highs.
"(Sefcik) was around last year, but he didn't play and he got off to an OK start (this season) and then me missed a couple weeks with an injury," Bischel said. "It's only typical when you're playing college baseball for the first time that you're going to have some ups and downs with the confidence and you're just starting to see him trust in who he is and believe in who he is, and I think you're seeing the same thing with our lineup a little bit.
"We lost a lot of guys from last year and we've had some injuries take out some other pieces so it's been a challenging transition at times. But now you're starting to see guys really believe in who they are and then collectively who we are as a team and that confidence is starting to build."
CMU collected 13 hits, 11 of them singles, and led 16-3 through 5 ½ innings. The Chippewas have 27 hits in their two games against the Huskies after their 14-hit output in Friday's 7-0 win in the series opener.
The 17 runs are the Chippewas' second-highest total of the season behind the 20 they scored at Baylor on Feb. 18, and the 13 hits ties for their third-highest total in a game this season.
CMU drew a season-high 12 walks in Saturday's game as five NIU hurlers threw a combined 251 pitches. That ability to work deep into counts, draw walks, and make opposing pitchers labor for strikes has long been a staple of CMU's hitting philosophy in Bischel's five seasons in charge of the program.
"Pitching at this level is not just going to walk you with noncompetitive pitches," Bischel said, "but when you start to hit some balls hard and put some fear into pitchers, now they start to work toward the edges and out of the zone.
"You've seen the walks the last couple of games have started to pile up after we've hit balls hard early in the game. They go hand-in-hand and we're doing a nice job on pitches we can do some damage with, and taking the ones we can't."
Justin Simpson, Jacob Donahue and Christian Mitchelle added two hits apiece for CMU. Robby Morgan IV drove in three runs and Drew Stengren and Donahue had two RBI apiece.
Keegan Batka started for the Chippewas and allowed three runs on seven hits over four innings. He struck out five and walked two and left with a 14-3 lead.
Bischel could easily have let Batka work through the fifth, the requisite number of innings for a starter to pick up the victory. But he instead went to the bullpen after Batka's pitch count had reached 89.
Nate Ross, Ben Vitas, Ryan Culley and Shane Ryan pitched in relief. Ross (2-1), who pitched a hitless fifth, earned the victory.
"The one thing I love about our guys is they just don't care what their personal stats say," Bischel said. "And for (Batka), he's had pretty high pitch counts every week. It wasn't his best outing. He struggled a little bit and he got to about 90 pitches and it was a great chance to not tax his arm, give some other guys opportunities.
"He'll be happy that Ross gets the win. He's his (junior college) teammate so he'll be happy to turn that thing over to him."
Culley struck out four, walked one and allowed just one hit over 3 1/3 innings. It was by far the longest career outing for Culley, a grad student left-hander and an Illinois native.
"Really a pretty amazing moment for him," Bischel said. "He's a guy who for three years has really prepared for us and worked hard and got an opportunity and took advantage. Gave us three-plus great innings."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ross, Nate (2-1)
L: WILDE, Jacob (0-6)
Batting:
2B: Donahue, Jacob 1 ; Navarra, Garrett 1
HR: Mitchelle, Christian 1
RBI: Simpson, Justin 1 ; Donahue, Jacob 2 ; Jackson, Marquis 1 ; Morgan IV, Robby 3 ; Sefcik, Luke 4 ; Mitchelle, Christian 1 ; Navarra, Garrett 1 ; Stengren, Drew 2 ; Verburg, Spencer 1
SH: Mitchelle, Christian 1
SF: Stengren, Drew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Simpson, Justin 3 ; Donahue, Jacob 3 ; Jackson, Marquis 1 ; Sefcik, Luke 3 ; Mitchelle, Christian 3 ; Navarra, Garrett 1 ; Stengren, Drew 1 ; Brill, Jake 2
SB: Simpson, Justin 2 ; Donahue, Jacob 1 ; Sefcik, Luke 1 ; Mitchelle, Christian 1
CS: Donahue, Jacob 1
HBP: Jackson, Marquis 1 ; Morgan IV, Robby 1 ; Brill, Jake 1
Batting:
2B: SUMMERHILL, Colin 1 ; KOSOBUCKI, Kaden 1 ; PETERS, Malik 1
RBI: HARPER, Aaron 1 ; SUMMERHILL, Colin 3 ; KOSOBUCKI, Kaden 1 ; THIERRY, Tyler 1 ; KELLEY, Mason 1
Base Running:
RUNS: ERATO, Eric 1 ; DEMETRAL, Andre 2 ; HARPER, Aaron 2 ; SHUPE, Parker 1 ; KELLEY, Mason 1
SB: DEMETRAL, Andre 1
CS: ERATO, Eric 1
HBP: SUMMERHILL, Colin 1 ; THIERRY, Tyler 1
Game Leaders
AB
6
R
3
H
5
RBI
4
AB
3
R
3
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
3
H
2
RBI
2
3b/ss
AB
3
R
3
H
2
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
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