Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
9-20
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Grace Christian
7-21
Season Highs in Hits, Runs for Baseball in 19-3 Nonconference Win Over Grace Christian
4/1/2024 7:12:00 PM | Baseball
Freshman Drew Loikits collects career-high 5 hits; Donahue, Wuestenfeld extend hit streaks
The Chippewas (9-20) began the second half of the season with a win, bouncing back from a tough weekend at Eastern Michigan when they dropped two games in walk-off fashion.
"Any time you're able to go out there and win a baseball game you feel really good about it," CMU coach Jake Sabol said. "We just needed to get back after it after a tough couple of games this past weekend. It was a good day for us.
"We got a bunch of guys in there and got them in some opportunities they haven't been in in a while."
The Chippewas collected 16 hits against the National Christian College Athletic Conference Tigers, who are in their third year of varsity competition.
Freshman Drew Loikits led the Chippewas with a career-high five hits including a double and a triple, while Danny Wuestenfeld had three hits including a double and drove in two runs to extend his hit streak to eight games.
It was the third consecutive game in which Wuestenfeld has had multi hits and multi RBI. He is hitting a blistering .441 (15 for 34) over his last eight games.
Cole Prout and Jacob Donahue also had two hits each for CMU. Prout drove in a season-high three runs.
Donahue, who leads the team with a .377 batting average, extended his hit streak to 12 games, a season high for a Chippewa.
Sabol used six pitchers, none of whom went more than two innings. Trey Miller started and Jake Brown (1-1), the first reliever, picked up the victory. Jack Bach, Trevor Busyn, Jonah Milchuck and Carter Campau also took a turn on the hill.
They combined to strike out 14, walk four, and limit the Tigers to seven hits.
"It was good to get them out there," Sabol said. "Some of those guys have not been in a game in quite some time. They needed that, they need the confidence to know they can be in the (strike) zone and they can help this team win.
"If we're going to be any good down the stretch, we need another guy or two to take a role out of the pen in different scenarios. (It) was important just to be able to get these guys some confidence heading into the weekend and moving forward. We just wanted to see what guys could do and hopefully when they get that next opportunity they're prepared for it."
The Chippewas, who are 4-8 in Mid-American Conference play, entertain Toledo (14-14, 8-4) in a three-game league series this weekend. The opener is set for Friday (3 p.m.).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Brown, Jake (1-1)
L: Matt Hoonhorst (1-2)
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Batting:
HR: Carter Willis 1
RBI: Carter Willis 2 ; Tyler Thomas 1
SH: Eric Whiting 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Royce Frieburger 1 ; Reagan Mutschler 1 ; Carter Willis 1
CS: Tyler Thomas 1
HBP: Reagan Mutschler 1 ; Dale Westphal 1 ; Josh Egberts 1
Batting:
2B: Wuestenfeld, Danny 1 ; Donahue, Jacob 1 ; Loikits, Drew 1
3B: Henning, Elijah 1 ; Loikits, Drew 1
RBI: Wuestenfeld, Danny 2 ; Donahue, Jacob 2 ; Prout, Cole 3 ; Murphy, Mikey 1 ; Jackson, Marquis 1 ; Henning, Elijah 2 ; Loikits, Drew 2 ; Stuart, Ely 1
SF: Stuart, Ely 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Dardas, Nick 2 ; Verburg, Spencer 1 ; Wuestenfeld, Danny 2 ; Guzik II, Greg 1 ; Donahue, Jacob 2 ; Prout, Cole 1 ; Murphy, Mikey 2 ; Campau, Carter 2 ; Henning, Elijah 1 ; Cuthrell, Sandyn 1 ; Loikits, Drew 3 ; Stuart, Ely 1
SB: Prout, Cole 1 ; Murphy, Mikey 1
CS: Prout, Cole 1
HBP: Dardas, Nick 1 ; Guzik II, Greg 1 ; Donahue, Jacob 1 ; Murphy, Mikey 1 ; Jackson, Marquis 1 ; Campau, Carter 2
