Offense and Weaver's pitching enough to hold off the Zips for doubleheader sweep
The Central Michigan baseball team would take the lead and then Akron would take it right back.
However, at the end of the game, one team wins and one team loses.
The Zips responded an inning after CMU took a 9-8 lead in the sixth inning to tie the game, but junior Reid Rooney’s groundout to second base was enough in the eighth to put the Chippewas over the edge, beating Akron 10-9 and sweeping the doubleheader in Akron, Ohio.
Head coach Steve Jaksa went to his senior pitcher Jon Weaver with the one-run lead in the eighth inning and it proved to be the correct move.
Weaver allowed one hit in those two innings and more importantly he kept the Zips scoreless on a day when both teams hit the ball well.
"I just went in there with the mindset that I wanted to throw strikes," Weaver said. "I had pretty good success with, putting the ball over the plate. They weren't exactly pitches they could put good swings on them, but they had to put swings on them."
Akron outhit the Chippewas by one, 14-13, but CMU had one more than the Zips in the all important runs category.
It was a rough start for CMU starting freshman pitcher Dylan Rheault. The 6-foot-9 right-hander gave up six runs, five earned and lasted only 1 and 1/3 innings.
"His first inning they just hit three ground ball singles, it was just one of those things," Jaksa said. "And another one was like a double-play ball and that's the only error we really made."
"For whatever reason he wasn't as sharp in the second inning and we needed to make a change."
Junior pitcher Dietrich Enns came on in relief on Rheault and went 5 and 2/3 innings before handing the ball off to Weaver.
Enns gave up 10 hits while walking three and giving up three runs. He struck out a game-high five batters on his way to his second victory of the season.
"I think we're fine," Jaksa said in regards to the team's pitching. "I'm very comfortable with where it's at I think it's actually going to get better."
"I think we're getting better on the mound, not worse."
Rooney’s RBI in the eighth gave CMU the last laugh, but it needed a lot of runs to get past the Zips in the second game of the doubleheader.
Fortunately for the Chippewas, their offense produced.
Five batters had at least two hits.
Senior William Arnold led the charge, going 3-for-5 with three RBI’s—tying a game high.
The Chippewas continue their seven-game road trip (3-1 thus far) next weekend with a three-game series against Northern Illinois.
"We have a pretty good amount of confidence," Weaver said. "We know we're a good team, things just haven't really been working out in our favor. These few wins we just picked up really help our confidence."
The Huskies are 13-30 overall and trail CMU by two games for third place in the Mid-American Conference West standings.
