Baseball Falls as SFA Rallies in the 9th Inning

Sunday, February 18

Nacogdoches, Texas

3 p.m. ET

Central Michigan University

1-3

Stephen F. Austin

3-1

Central Michigan

Stephen F. Austin

Robby Morgan IV homered twice on Sunday in CMU's 6-5 loss to Stephen F. Austin.

Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw

2/18/2024 7:49:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score

Robby Morgan IV homers twice for CMU

By: Andy Sneddon

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Stephen F. Austin scratched out two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday in handing Central Michigan a 6-5 nonconference loss at the Lumberjacks' Pilgrim's Park.

The Chippewas (1-3) and Lumberjacks (3-1) are scheduled to play on Tuesday (7:30 p.m.) and on Wednesday (4 p.m.). CMU continues its season-opening road trip with a three-game series in Dallas against Dallas Baptist next weekend.

"I tell our guys often, you're only going to get a win if you play all nine innings," CMU coach Jake Sabol said. "We did that, we just didn't do it as well as Stephen F. Austin did today. You've got to play the whole nine and get all 27 outs."

Though it was a tough-to-swallow loss, the Chippewas showed some mettle, Sabol said, in bouncing back from a 13-1 Saturday loss to Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

"Just going from (Saturday) to today I thought it was a significant improvement as far what we were trying to accomplish," said Sabol, whose team collected eight hits, rallied from an early 4-1 deficit to take the lead in the eighth inning, and got a pair of solo home runs from Robby Morgan IV, a middle-of-the-order slugger who is expected to provide big-time punch this season.

"Offensively, better swings," Sabol said. "Our goal was to have a little bit more hard contact than what we had the day before to put some pressure on the defense and force them to make some tough plays and we did that. We chipped away.

"This team is a new team; we just have to figure out ways to win with this team and we're still working on that process. There was a lot of good to take away from today. There was a ton of improvement from yesterday to today and that's how you build consistency."

In the ninth, SFA used a hit batter, an infield single, and a bunt single to load the bases against CMU reliever Evan Waters. Peyton Parker then hit a slow roller to shortstop that went for an error, allowing the tying and winning runs to score.

CMU seized a 5-4 lead in the eighth on Morgan's second homer of the game after it fell behind, 4-1, through two innings.

The Chippewas got an RBI groundout from Danny Wuestenfeld to draw to 4-2 in the third, and then tied it in the sixth on RBI singles by Morgan and Marquis Jackson.

Morgan finished with three hits and three RBI, and Ely Stuart singled and doubled to lead CMU at the plate.

Senior right-hander Trey Miller, who did not appear in a game last season after transferring from USC Upstate, struck out eight, walked two and allowed four runs on seven hits over seven innings in his first start as a Chippewa.

"Trey Miller hasn't pitched in a game in about a year and a half," Sabol said. "He competed; he got down early, he struggled early, but once he got in a groove, he kept us in the game and gave us a chance to inch back closer inning by inning and gave us a chance to win there late."

Jack Bell, Bryce Hellgeth and Waters worked in relief. Waters (0-1) came on to pitch the ninth and took the loss.

"Our bullpen, same kind of thing," Sabol said. "Bryce Hellgeth is a guy who hasn't pitched in about a year and for his first outing he looked about as comfortable as ever.

"We had it set up there in the ninth and went to who we think is one of our best relievers right now with (Waters) and things just kind of didn't go our way. Not that we'd draw it up any differently in the way it was. I think we'd like to make a few more plays defensively there in the last inning, but we did enough to put ourselves in position to win."