Akron sends Chippewas to loser’s bracket in MAC Baseball Tournament
Junior outfielder Logan Regnier stands on second base Tuesday, May 12 at Theunissen Stadium in a game against Michigan State University.
A pair of unearned runs in the eighth inning doomed Central Michigan University baseball on Wednesday in the opening round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament against the University of Akron.
CMU is the second No. 1 seed in MAC Tournament history to fall to the No. 8 seed. The only other time it happened was in 2009, when the eighth-seeded Chippewas beat Bowling Green State University.
The Chippewas will play the loser of Wednesday night’s matchup between No. 4 University of Toledo and No. 5 Ball State University on Thursday at 1 p.m.
They will need to win at least five consecutive games over the next four days to win the double-elimination tournament.
“As a coach you just try to get your team ready to play,” said Head Coach Steve Jaksa, who was named MAC Coach of the Year on Tuesday. “I felt we made just too many mistakes. I don’t know why we did, but that’s what we did.”
A fielding error from senior second baseman Pat MacKenzie with one out in the eighth inning ended up costing the Chippewas. The Zips scored two runs after singling, scoring a runner on a groundout and singling to score another runner.
“The two runs they got in the third and the two runs they got in the eighth, those are just runs that we made a mistake on and they capitalized,” Jaksa said. “We’ve been playing better than that.”
Junior pitcher Sean Renzi took the loss, despite allowing just three earned runs over 7 1/3 innings and 110 pitches. Renzi entered the game with a 5-1 record and a team-best 2.17 ERA.
CMU threatened in the bottom of the eighth when junior outfielder Logan Regnier was hit by a pitch to start the inning, but the rally was killed by freshman Daniel Jipping’s double-play. The Chippewas had two on with two outs in the ninth, but senior catcher Tyler Huntey grounded out to end the game.
The Zips took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but it was quickly erased by junior outfielder Ryan Heeke’s RBI single followed by a two-run home run that snuck inside the right-field pole by sophomore first baseman Alex Borglin.
Akron responded by tying the game 3-3 in the top of the fourth, but CMU took a 4-3 lead in the bottom half of the inning on a Jipping RBI single.
“I’m very disappointed in the outcome tonight,” Jaksa said.
Akron upset CMU in the first round of the 2014 MAC Tournament as well, beating the second-seeded Chippewas 9-6. CMU would be eliminated in its next game.
CMU won two out of three games against both Toledo and Ball State this season. Sophomore pitcher Nick Deeg (8-4, 2.89 ERA) is expected to be on the mound for the Chippewas on Thursday.
