Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
2-4
San Francisco
3-3
Baseball Rallies for 5 Runs in the 9th to Take Opener of Twinbill at San Francisco
2/22/2025 9:16:00 PM | Baseball
Dons rebound to take nightcap; series finale set for Sunday (4 p.m. ET)
San Francisco rebounded to win the seven-inning nightcap, 12-2.
The teams play the finale of their four-game series on Sunday (4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT). CMU is 2-5, San Francisco is 4-3.
Trailing 11-8, the Chippewas sent 10 men to the plate in the top of the ninth of game 1, scoring five runs on four hits, three walks and a hit batter.
"It was a total team effort," CMU coach Jake Sabol said. "We emptied the bench, we threw a ton of guys in there. Fun to celebrate with the guys after that one.
"I brought them up in the seventh inning and I said, 'Hey about 12 hours ago this was role reversal; we had the lead late in the game and didn't walk away feeling good about it (3-2 loss) and we have a chance to do the same thing to them here.'
"We were able to execute some things and it went our way. If you can do that early in the year, it gives you hope as the season goes on that, hey we're never out of this. It was good to get one of those and use different guys and watch them battle and compete for one another."
Nate Ross pitched the ninth for his first save of the season and Jack Smith, the seventh of eight Chippewa pitchers, picked up the win.
The Chippewas collected a season-high 15 hits. Cole Prout hit his first home run of the season. Rees Campanale had three hits and Jake Kutella and Cayden Smith had two hits apiece.
The Chippewas scored all five of their runs in the ninth inning with two out. Kutella drove in two runs with a single to draw CMU to 11-10, Campanale tied it with an RBI single, and then Greg Guzik and Mikey Murphy drew back-to-back bases loaded walks.
"They were great in the dugout, they had great energy," Sabol said. "We had some great at-bats and we really put the pressure on. We had about 70 percent quality at-bats as far as how we track that, barrel percentage and whatnot, and our guys just did a really nice job battling."
San Francisco also collected 15 hits including three home runs.
CMU starter Hayden Bailey went two innings. Justin Morgan, Dean Brown, Carter Campeau, AJ Kostic and Quin Konuszewski each took a turn on the hill for the Chippewas before Jack Smith worked the eighth and Ross finished.
"We did just enough on the mound," Sabol said. "We've got to get better, but there were some bright spots from the guys who threw, and it took some guys to go in there and do their job and not worry so much about the scoreboard to give us a chance there at the end."
USF scored six runs in the fourth inning of the nightcap to take a 6-2 lead and then pulled away with two runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth.
The Chippewas finished with seven hits, two by freshman Cayden Smith.
Alejandro Espinoza started for CMU and took the loss. He allowed six runs on five hits, struck out two and walked one over four innings.
He was perfect through three innings before the Dons broke through in the fourth against the senior right-hander, a transfer from Cal State Dominguez Hills.
"He was really good for the first three, three-and-a-half (innings) and I know he's going to be good for us," Sabol said. "We've got a lot of faith in him.
"In that fourth inning, they got the leadoff guy on, and they bunted for a hit and they took back some momentum and I think he started to work up a little bit in the zone and when you do that with a good hitting team they're going to make you pay.
"With our staff we've just got to try to limit that stuff, work down in the zone and stay ahead in the count. Just try to stay present in the moment and take it one pitch at a time.
"Just overall with the course of today, I was happy with it. Yeah, we've got some things that we've got to get better at and correct and clean up, everybody does.
"In the first game and battling back and taking that one, it was just a great start to the day. We're getting better, it's slowly happening, but I know we're getting better and we're doing some really good things."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Smith, Jack (1-0)
L: Kolby Calia (0-1)
S: Ross, Nate (1)
Batting:
2B: Kutella, Jake 1 ; Campanale, Rees 1
3B: Smith, Cayden 1
HR: Prout, Cole 1
RBI: Piasecki, Aaron 1 ; Prout, Cole 1 ; Kutella, Jake 2 ; Campanale, Rees 1 ; Ball, Nathan 1 ; Guzik II, Greg 2 ; Wright, Aydin 2 ; Murphy, Mikey 1 ; Smith, Cayden 2
SH: Guzik II, Greg 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Piasecki, Aaron 1 ; Knowlton, Zach 1 ; Prout, Cole 1 ; Kutella, Jake 2 ; Kwiatkowski, Cole 1 ; Campanale, Rees 3 ; Guzik II, Greg 1 ; Wright, Aydin 1 ; Murphy, Mikey 1 ; Smith, Cayden 1
HBP: Webb, Bryson 1
PO: Webb, Bryson 1
Batting:
2B: Kenny DeCelle 1 ; TJ Rogers 1 ; Patrick Keighran 2 ; Eddison Esquivel 1
HR: Eddison Esquivel 1 ; Matty Fung 1 ; Matteo Bellisimo 1
RBI: Jordan Lewis 1 ; TJ Rogers 1 ; Patrick Keighran 4 ; Eddison Esquivel 4 ; Matty Fung 1 ; Matteo Bellisimo 1
SF: Jordan Lewis 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kenny DeCelle 1 ; Jordan Lewis 2 ; TJ Rogers 3 ; Patrick Keighran 1 ; Eddison Esquivel 1 ; Brendan Burke 1 ; Matty Fung 1 ; Matteo Bellisimo 1
SB: Jordan Lewis 1 ; TJ Rogers 1 ; Tyler Harries 1
CS: Matty Fung 1
HBP: Patrick Keighran 1 ; Eddison Esquivel 1
PO: Jordan Lewis 1
