Chippewas Bounce Back, Give Sabol his First Win on Opening Day

Friday, February 16

Nacogdoches, Texas

3 p.m. ET

Central Michigan University

0-1

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi

1-0

TAMU-Corpus Christi

Central Michigan

Adam Mrakitsch struck out a career-high 11 in CMU's 9-4 win over Stephen F. Austin on Friday night.

Photo by: Sydney Kline '26 - @sydney.kline.photography

Chippewas Bounce Back, Give Sabol his First Win on Opening Day

2/17/2024 12:09:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score Game One Box Score Game Two

Mrakitsch, Konuszewski combine to shut down Lumberjack bats after extra-inning loss in opener

By: Andy Sneddon

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Adam Mrakitsch and Quinn Konuszewski combined on a four-hitter Friday night as the Central Michigan baseball team posted a 9-4 victory over Stephen F. Austin at the Lumberjacks' Pilgrim's Park.

It was the Chippewas' first win of the season and the first at CMU for first-year coach Jake Sabol.

CMU opened the season on Friday afternoon with a 3-1 11-inning loss to Texas A&M Corpus Christi at Pilgrim's Park. The Chippewas and Islanders are set to play on Saturday (noon).

Though the Chippewas broke even on day one, they got outstanding pitching in both games and they showed Sabol something in bouncing back from the extra-inning loss in the opener.

"I kind of challenged them after that first one," Sabol said. "Tough loss, opening day, first game of the year, you're leading going into the ninth and you lose in extras. That's a lot of things that don't go your way and then you've got to play in an hour after that.

"They had to make a choice to rebound and set their focus on the next game and the next opponent and they did.

"For day one, 20 innings, our guys competed their tails off and definitely put us in position to win. The majority of the time if we play like we did today I'll live with the results."

Mrakitsch (1-0), named the preseason Mid-American Conference pitcher of the year earlier this week by D1Baseball.com, started and lived up to the billing as he struck out a career-high 11 over five innings.

The junior left-hander, allowed two runs on two hits while walking four. He threw 93 pitches.

Konuszewski, a junior lefty making his Chippewa debut after transferring from Pitt, surrendered two runs on two hits, struck out six and walked four over the final four frames for the save.

In the opener, Chippewa starter Keegan Batka went seven scoreless innings. The senior right-hander surrendered five hits, struck out six and walked three. Jake Bell went 1 1/3 innings in relief and Evan Waters (0-1) allowed four hits over final 2 2/3 innings.

Bell surrendered the game-tying home run in the ninth and Waters took the loss.

"To be honest, pitching the entire day was good enough to get us two wins," Sabol said. "Neither (Mrakitsch or Batka) was super efficient for the first time out, but to do what they did on opening day against two pretty good, scrappy teams it obviously makes us excited for what these guys can do for us every weekend."

The Chippewas staked Mrakitsch to a 5-0 lead through two innings.

Drew Stengren, Ely Stuart and Nick Dardas each singled in a run during CMU's three-run first. Danny Wuestenfeld had an RBI single and Stuart delivered a run-scoring double in the second.

The Chippewas collected 11 hits off six Lumberjack pitchers. Stuart and Robby Morgan IV had four each. Stuart finished with three RBI.

Corpus Christi got a ninth-inning home run to forge a 1-1 tie in the Chippewas' first game, and then the Islanders scored twice in the 11^th to claim the victory.

CMU managed just four hits in game one.

"If we can get guys on we're going to create havoc on the bases; our guys run the bases really well," Sabol said. "We just didn't have enough baserunners in that first game to really create any action. Once we were able to do that in game two then we put pressure on (SFA) and it made it a little easier for guys to relax and take some good swings."