Baseball wins first MAC series of season
Baseball was finally able to win a Mid-American Conference series this weekend after failing to do so over nearly the first month of conference play.
Sunday’s ninth-inning rally allowed CMU to win two of three games against Ball State, and, after suffering several close losses over the early part of the MAC season, the victory was a big one.
“Today, we came from behind to win a series,” said head coach Steve Jaksa. “BSU didn’t really make mistakes; we just played well, and we were able to get a big series on the road.”
Through four series against MAC opponents, the Chippewas have had several opportunities to win. CMU blew a four-run lead in the ninth inning in a loss to Buffalo on March 23. On March 29, sophomore ace Jordan Foley had his only blemish on his record, despite holding Bowling Green to just one run after his team failed to support him at the plate. The team would go on to lose 1-0 in the Theunissen Stadium opener.
It was a similar story on April 7, when Northern Illinois scored four runs over the final two innings to win the series finale at Theunissen Stadium.
“We had to go on the road after some really tough losses in other series,” Jaksa said. “The loss on Sunday to NIU last weekend was a really tough loss to keep us from winning the series.”
Despite some of the setbacks, Jaksa felt his team was close to getting the job done.
“We hadn’t won a series yet,” he said. “Still, we felt like we were right there in a position to win a couple of them but couldn’t capture either of them. This weekend, we got the job done.”
The win over the Cardinals improved CMU’s record to 15-19 overall and 5-7 in the MAC. It will look to continue the success when it continues MAC play next weekend at Toledo.
