Smith Homers, Bullpen Shines as Baseball Knocks Off Michigan State

Wednesday, April 9

East Lansing, Mich.

3 p.m.

Central Michigan University

12-21

Michigan State

17-14

Central Michigan

Michigan State

Brady Krzciok (25) drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out seventh-inning single in the Chippewas 6-5 win at Michigan State on Wednesday.

Smith Homers, Bullpen Shines as Baseball Knocks Off Michigan State

4/9/2025 6:53:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Chippewas overcome 4-0 first-inning deficit

By: Andy Sneddon

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Cayden Smith hit a three-run homer and Central Michigan pitching allowed just one run on three hits over the final eight innings on Wednesday as the Chippewas posted a 6-5 nonconference baseball victory over Michigan State at MSU's McLane Stadium.

The Chippewas, who were swept last weekend by Kent State in a Mid-American Conference series, improved to 12-21.

CMU, which is 5-7 in league play, opens a three-game MAC series at Akron (9-23, 3-12) on Friday.

"That's what we talked about heading into the game, getting ourselves ready to go for the weekend," CMU coach Jake Sabol said. "Our guys just wanted to get back out there and compete, and they have fun playing against Power 5 schools on the road. I think it's a good environment for them to showcase themselves. They played well today."

Michigan State (17-14) scored four runs – three unearned -- on two hits, a walk, and two CMU errors in the first inning.

CMU began its comeback on Smith's homer, his third of the season, in the third inning, to cut MSU's lead to 4-3. It came with two outs, and it was just CMU's second hit of the game. It broke a seven-game team homerless skid.

"Those kind of swings, they give the rest of your offense that they can do it too," Sabol said.

The Chippewas, who outhit the Spartans, 10-5, added single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings for their sixth win in the last seven meetings with the Spartans.

CMU's Zach Knowlton had an RBI double in the fourth to tie the game, 4-4.

After the Spartans went back in front 5-4, with a solo homer in the bottom half of the frame, the Chippewas re-tied it in the sixth when Mikey Murphy singled, moved to second on a bunt, and scored on an error.

Pinch hitter Cole Kwiatkowski reached on a fielder's choice in the seventh, stole second, and scored on Brady Krzciok's two-out single.

"We had a few innings that were pretty good from an execution standpoint and we were able to scratch across a few runs, which we really haven't done the last couple of weeks," Sabol said. "We did some things today which are important in winning games; what we did on the mound, and then we made some productive outs offensively when we needed to, and we hit a home run.

"It's been a while since we've hit a home run, and when we were going good that was a big part of our game. Hopefully this kind of gets us back on track."

Nate Ross (1-2), the first Chippewa reliever, pitched the sixth inning and earned the win. Jack Otis worked the seventh, Justin Morgan pitched the eighth, and Liam Stumpf pitched a perfect ninth for his first save.

The quartet of relievers combined to surrender just one hit, walk one, and struck out five.

Chippewas starter Hayden Bailey survived the rocky first inning and went five frames, allowing five runs on four hits. He struck out two.

"Down 4-0 after the first and it was an inning where nothing seemed to go right – for him to settle down and keep the game right where it was and make some big pitches was big for us," Sabol said. "The four guys that followed him were really, really good and that's been the story the last couple weeks is how good our bullpen's been and it was no different today."