Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
10-15
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Grace Christian
3-19
Chilly Day, Hot Bats: Baseball Runs Win Streak to 5
3/25/2025 7:24:00 PM | Baseball
Chippewas set season highs in runs (26), hits (20) and home runs (5) in rolling past Grace Christian; welcome Bowling Green this weekend in big MAC series
With a game-time temperature of 35 degrees and the Chippewas in maroon jerseys and gold pants mimicking the look of the CMU football team in a home game, the Chippewa baseball team posted season highs in runs, hits and home runs on Tuesday on Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
It ended in a football-looking score (at least for the home team) as the Chippewas rolled to a 26-1 nonconference victory over Grace Christian. The game was called on the run rule after 6 ½ innings.
It was CMU's fifth straight win and its eighth in its last nine games as it improved to 10-15.
Bryson Webb homered twice and Rees Campanale, Spencer Verburg and Nathan Ball also homered as the Chippewas collected 20 hits. The five home runs was the Chippewas' most in a game since they hit six at Bowling Green on April 14, 2024.
"I think it's just building on what we've been doing the last nine or 10 games, just trying to be better every time out," said CMU coach Jake Sabol, whose team has hit 12 home runs in its last four games and has 22 on the season, double the total it had through 25 games a year ago.
Last week, the Chippewas needed two runs in the ninth inning to defeat Cleary, 6-5, in a midweek nonleague game.
Not so this time around, as Campanale hit a grand slam – his third homer in four games – to highlight a seven-run first inning.
"We talked about last week with Cleary coming in here and it was the same type of deal," Sabol said. "Smaller school and they want to come in and beat you, doesn't matter what their record is, and I think our guys were determined not to let what happened last week play out today.
"I thought they took really good swings and from inning No. 1 they were ready to run the bases. We played clean baseball, that always helps and for the most part we filled up (the strike zone).
"Overall, this is what we've been doing the last couple of weeks: swinging it and having really good at-bats and there's no better time to do that heading into the weekend."
The Chippewas, who are 5-1 in Mid-American Conference play and share first place with Ball State, welcome defending league regular-season champion Bowling Green (17-7, 7-2) for a three-game series this weekend. The opener is Friday at 3 p.m.
CMU posted double-digit hits for the seventh time in its last nine games on Tuesday. During their 2-14 start to the season, the Chippewas reached double digits in hits just four times.
"We have it right in our team identity, offense provides the juice in everything that we do," Sabol said. "When we're able to fly the barrel and put up runs and whatnot it helps the defense, it helps the pitching, and it certainly helps the dugout energy. Those things all correlate.
"They know it's going to be fun weekend. Defending MAC champs coming in here, but we're just trying to play the same style of baseball we've been playing the last 10 games.
"If we make it any bigger than that we're going to let the moment be too big for us. Just try to execute a pitch at a time, one inning at a time, and do the things we've been doing and see how it plays out."
Leadoff man Mikey Murphy and Webb led the Chippewas with three hits apiece. Campanale and Verburg each drove in four runs.
Webb's fourth-inning homer was his first of the season. He and Verburg hit back-to-back blasts in the fifth – Verburg's three-run shot was his third round-tripper of the season -- and Ball homered for the second consecutive game.
Starter Hayden Bailey (1-1) allowed one run on three hits and struck out seven over four innings for the win, his first as a Chippewa.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bailey, Hayden (1-1)
L: Michael Bontrager (0-3)
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Batting:
RBI: Ben Anderson 1
SH: Eric Whiting 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Dale Westphal 1
CS: Jared Garnaat 1
HBP: Jaden Schoeneman 1
Batting:
2B: Murphy, Mikey 1 ; Prout, Cole 1 ; Guzik II, Greg 1
HR: Campanale, Rees 1 ; Ball, Nathan 1 ; Verburg, Spencer 1 ; Webb, Bryson 2
RBI: Murphy, Mikey 2 ; Prout, Cole 1 ; Smith, Cayden 1 ; Kwiatkowski, Cole 1 ; Piasecki, Aaron 1 ; Campanale, Rees 4 ; Ball, Nathan 2 ; Henning, Elijah 1 ; Krzciok, Brady 1 ; Verburg, Spencer 4 ; Webb, Bryson 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Murphy, Mikey 3 ; Prout, Cole 3 ; Smith, Cayden 2 ; Kwiatkowski, Cole 2 ; Piasecki, Aaron 1 ; Guzik II, Greg 1 ; Campanale, Rees 4 ; Ball, Nathan 2 ; Henning, Elijah 1 ; Krzciok, Brady 2 ; Verburg, Spencer 2 ; Webb, Bryson 3
SB: Prout, Cole 1 ; Piasecki, Aaron 1
HBP: Prout, Cole 2 ; Krzciok, Brady 1 ; Verburg, Spencer 1
