Chippewas Score 2 in the 9th for Walk-Off Win Over Cleary in Home Opener

Wednesday, March 19

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

2 p.m.

Central Michigan University

6-15

Cleary

11-11

Cleary

Central Michigan

CMU's Nathan Ball (left) celebrates with a teammate after he drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning on Wednesday.

Photo by: Madison Davidson '25 - @_mld.jpeg

Chippewas Score 2 in the 9th for Walk-Off Win Over Cleary in Home Opener

3/19/2025 6:51:00 PM | Baseball

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CMU bats continue warming trend with 11 hits

By: Andy Sneddon

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Central Michigan scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday to post a 6-5 walk-off nonconference victory over Cleary in the Chippewas' home opener on Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.

The win, CMU's fourth in its last five games, lifted the Chippewas to 6-15.

CMU, which is 2-1 in Mid-American Conference play, returns to league action this weekend with a three-game series at Northern Illinois (7-9, 1-5). Cleary is 11-11.

Mikey Murphy singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth on Wednesday and Cole Prout doubled Murphy to third. Cayden Smith was intentionally walked to load the bases and then Murphy scored to tie the game, 5-5, on an Aaron Piasecki ground ball.

Jake Kutella was intentionally walked to re-load the bases and then Nathan Ball singled to right field to bring home Prout with the winning run.

"I give (Cleary) a lot of credit," said second-year CMU coach Jake Sabol, who previously coached at Division III Alma and Division II Northwood. "I spent a lot of time at smaller schools and any time you get a chance to come in here and play a Division I program, for whatever reason you make it a little bit bigger deal and I thought those guys came with the expectation to play hard and to get a win.

"I'm not saying we didn't. I probably expected our effort level and our energy level to be a little bit better for our home opener and for that, moving forward, we can talk about it and be a little bit better.

"But hey, winning is hard, I don't care who you play. … I'm glad we pulled it out; showed some stones there to be able to put something together there and come out with the win."

Murphy, Prout and Kutella finished with two hits apiece to lead CMU's 11-hit attack.

It marked the fourth time in four games that CMU has reached double digits in the hit department. They are averaging 12.4 hits per game in their last five.

"We have been swinging it well and we made some loud outs today too and eventually, if we kept having those good at-bats, things were going to happen for us," Sabol said. "The offense has been good, and I thought there were some bright spots on the mound today that we can try to figure out how to use that moving forward. If the offense continues to trend this way, we'll be in a good spot."

Nate Ross (1-0), who came on to pitch the top of the ninth, picked up the victory.

Freshman Dean Brown made his first start for the Chippewas and allowed two hits over two innings. He struck out two and walked one. Jack Bach, Trevor Busyn, Lian Stumpf, Hayden Bailey and Max Hammond pitched in relief.