
Chippewas Drop Series Finale to Miami (Ohio), 7-6
4/19/2025 5:33:00 PM | Baseball
Murphy's three-run homer in the 10th draws CMU to within a run, but Miami bullpen shuts the door
Miami (Ohio) scored four runs in the 10th inning on Saturday in handing the Central Michigan baseball team a 7-6 Mid-American Conference loss in the finale of a three-game Mid-American Conference series on Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
The win gave the RedHawks the series victory as they improved to 21-18, 16-5.
The Chippewas (16-24, 8-10) once again battled one of the league's top teams tooth and nail but came up just short in the end, despite outhitting the RedHawks, 13-9.
The Chippewas go to Oakland for a nonconference game on Tuesday and then entertain Ball State in a three-game MAC series next weekend.
Eight of CMU's MAC losses have come by three runs or fewer. Four have come by one run.
"We need to show up a little bit more," CMU coach Jake Sabol said. "There's some guys (that are) streaky, offensively, on the mound, you name it.
"We've got to find some consistency. The lineup was pretty different all weekend and we've got find out where some guys fit. I don't love saying that 30-some games in, but we're still at the point where we have a bunch of new guys and we're still trying to figure out where guys fit in.
"We've got to get over the hump a little bit, but if guys keep doing that (good) stuff, it's going to work out."
It nearly did for the Chippewas on Saturday. They trailed 3-2 when Zach Knowlton singled leading off the bottom of the ninth. He was bunted to second and scored to tie it, 3-3, on an Aydin Wright one-out single.
Aaron Piasecki doubled off the wall in straight-away center. Wright was thrown out at the plate trying to score what would have been the winning run. The game went to the 10th as the Chippewas stranded two baserunners in the ninth.
"I think in that moment, a double off the wall, runner at first, we needed to make a play there to make them throw us out," Sabol said. "They made the play. The center fielder kept the ball right there, it didn't ricochet anywhere and he hit the double cut and the double cut had to make a good throw there. They executed all the way around.
"Easy to second guess when the result doesn't go your way."
David Novak homered leading off the 10th to put Miami in front, 4-3, and then the RedHawks tacked on three more runs to extend it to 7-3.
Mikey Murphy hit a three-run homer with none out in the bottom of the 10th to draw CMU within a run, but the Chippewas then went down in order against Kaden Pfeffer, who came on in relief after Murphy's homer, his fourth of the season and CMU's first of the series.
"I told them I was proud of the way they played," Sabol said of his message to his players. "I didn't really have anything negative to say at all. They competed all 10 innings, all the way through, on the mound, offensively, defensively.
"We had our chances, we put ourselves in good situations. That's what our brand of baseball should look like. … We play hard all nine, no matter what the score is. I thought we did that today."
Liam Stumpf (1-6), the fourth Chippewa pitcher, took the loss.
Wright finished with three hits, while Murphy, Cole Kwiatkowski and Nathan Ball had two each.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Landon Fulk (2-2)
L: Stumpf, Liam (1-6)
S: Kaden Pfeffer (1)
Batting:
2B: Ryan Novak 2
HR: David Novak 1
RBI: Dillon Baker 1 ; Ty Batusich 3 ; Evan Appelwick 1 ; David Novak 1 ; Keenan Proctor 1
SH: Dominic Krupinski 1 ; Keenan Proctor 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Ty Batusich 1 ; David Novak 2 ; Ryan Novak 2 ; Dominic Krupinski 1 ; Keenan Proctor 1
CS: Ty Batusich 1
HBP: Keenan Proctor 1

Batting:
2B: Piasecki, Aaron 1 ; Campanale, Rees 1 ; Murphy, Mikey 1
3B: Ball, Nathan 1
HR: Murphy, Mikey 1
RBI: Wright, Aydin 1 ; Ball, Nathan 1 ; Murphy, Mikey 3
SH: Prout, Cole 1 ; Piasecki, Aaron 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wright, Aydin 1 ; Ball, Nathan 1 ; Smith, Cayden 1 ; Kwiatkowski, Cole 1 ; Murphy, Mikey 1 ; Knowlton, Zach 1
SB: Wright, Aydin 1
HBP: Kwiatkowski, Cole 1