Wuestenfeld Homers, Batka Turns in Solid Start as Baseball Evens Series at Eastern

Friday, March 29

Ypsilanti, Mich.

1 p.m.

Central Michigan University

8-19, 0

Eastern Michigan

10-15, 0

Central Michigan

Eastern Michigan

Danny Wuestenfeld hit his second homer of the season to put the Chippewas ahead for good on Friday in their 8-5 victory at Eastern Michigan.

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

Wuestenfeld Homers, Batka Turns in Solid Start as Baseball Evens Series at Eastern

3/29/2024 5:35:00 PM | Baseball

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Chippewas collect 11 hits in 8-5 victory

By: Andy Sneddon

YPSILANTI, Mich. – Danny Wuestenfeld hit a three-run homer and Keegan Batka earned his first victory of the season on Friday as the Central Michigan baseball team topped Eastern Michigan, 8-5, in game 2 of a three-game Mid-American Conference series as the Eagles' Oestrike Stadium.

The Chippewas evened the series at a game apiece. The series finale is set for Saturday (1 p.m.).

It was a big victory for the Chippewas, who improved to 4-7 in MAC play with their fifth win in eight games. Eastern scored five runs in the final two innings to take Thursday's series opener, 5-4, and spoil an outstanding start by CMU's Adam Mrakitsch, who threw seven shutout innings.

"We've that happen already a couple times this year, but to be able to bounce back I think it just shows that this team has some of that resiliency to know they're good enough to win games if they do the right things," CMU coach Jake Sabol said. "It was demoralizing a little bit (on Thursday), the way Adam threw, you want to win those games.

"You don't want to waste those kinds of performances. The guys know that, they realize that, and they were upset about it."

Wuestenfeld hit his second homer of the season to give the Chippewas a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning. The Chippewas never relinquished the lead as they scored four runs in the seventh to go up 7-2.

Cole Prout had a two-run pinch-hit double and Mikey Murphy followed with an RBI triple to highlight the seventh. Prout finished the game with two doubles.

"It's a tough job when you come to the field and your name's not in the lineup that day, but you've got to put that aside and just be prepared for your moment because you know it's going to come," Sabol said. "That (Prout's pinch two-run double) was a big one for us. He went up and got a fastball with two strikes and took a really impressive swing and gave us a little bit of breathing room there.

"I give Cole Prout a ton of credit. That was a big-time moment and he's done a great job staying ready."

Batka (1-4) allowed four runs on seven hits, walked three and struck out a season-high nine in 6 1/3 innings. Evan Waters pitched the final 2 2/3 innings, surrendering one run on three hits while striking out three and walking two.

"Keegan was really good, gave us a quality start," Sabol said. "That was the best he's thrown in quite some time."

Waters came on with one out and runners on the corners in the seventh. He walked the first two hitters he faced to force in a run and then surrendered an RBI single.

But he got a flyout that turned into a double play when the Chippewas tagged out a runner at the plate trying to advance to end the inning and snuff out what could have been a big inning.

"It was a big moment for us to be able to get out of that inning and that gave us some momentum back," Sabol said. "Innings eight and nine, (Waters) was a different dude, with a different mentality out there. He was working ahead, got some weak contact."

Waters retired the Eagles in order in the eighth. He allowed a run on two hits in the ninth but managed to close it out.

Wuestenfeld finished with three hits, extending his hit streak to six games. It was his fourth consecutive game batting in the No. 2 spot in the order after moving up from the three hole. He switched spots with Jacob Donahue, who moved from No. 2 to No. 3.

Since making the move, Wuestenfeld is hitting .437 with six RBI, doubling his season total. Donahue is hitting .428 over that span.

"He's been hitting all year long, but I think there's probably been some moments where he probably tried to do a little bit too much," Sabol said of Wuestenfeld. "We wanted him to take some pressure off himself a little and also could get him a few more at-bats."