Baseball beats U of M
Tuesday will be the second consecutive game CMU plays against Michigan, as the two teams finished the Butler Classic against each other with a 12-8 CMU victory in baseball action.
The squad comes back from a 1-3 road trip and has one day off before playing at Michigan.
“We had a few tough losses. To come back today and play hard and come from behind and win is huge,” said Head Coach Steve Jaksa.
The team was powered by an eight-run fifth inning that included a two-run double by freshman Brian Campbell and a three-run triple by sophomore David Latour Jr. Senior Mike Gates set a MAC record for career walks with 143.
The squad added three runs in the sixth on a three-run home run by senior Tommy Grubb, who had two hits in the game.
The Chippewas faced Butler in the middle game of the classic, but failed to limit their miscues in a 7-5 loss. Five errors led to six unearned runs for Butler.
“The errors certainly didn’t help our chances,” Jaksa said. “But we struck out 11 times too, so that isn’t helping us any. We came out a little flat after the tough loss to Western and six unearned runs isn’t good at all.”
Junior pitcher Jeff Opalewski gave up five runs and seven hits in 3.1 innings, with one walk and one strikeout. Junior T.J. Johnson relieved Opalewski with 4.1 innings pitched, allowing one run on five hits, striking out four.
“T.J. kept us in that game. It was a really good situation for us to get him back on track. It’s definitely a plus for us,” Jaksa said.
Gates and sophomore Jeff LaFavors Jr. each had two hits, one RBI and one run scored. Sophomore Jim Geldhof added two RBI on a single in the eighth inning.
In the first game of the tournament, Central lost to rival Western 2-1.
The game was a pitchers dual as both teams’ starters went into the ninth inning with CMU leading 1-0.
Senior left-hander Joey Fahndrich ran into some trouble in the ninth. He gave up two singles followed by a walk to load the bases with one out. Freshman Mark Lundquist came in and rendered the two-run game-winning single to pinch hitter Mike Demetral.
Fahndrich went 8.1 innings, giving up five hits, striking out four, as he falls to 0-2 on the year.
“Obviously, it was a tough thing to go through,” Jaksa said. “Joey did a great job pitching, this was just a great college ballgame. I told him that we’ll get him some wins if he can do that for us every time,” he said.
