Baseball heads to Buffalo for weekend series
Freshman infielder Zach McKinstry bats against Eastern Michigan April 11 at Theunissen Stadium.
The first place Chippewas will take their six-game winning streak on the road this weekend for a three-game series with the University at Buffalo.
CMU (25-12, 10-2 MAC) comes into the matchup with UB (10-19, 4-8 MAC) a winner of 10 of its last 12 games while the Bulls has won three of their last five.
Head Coach Steve Jaksa said although his team is at the top and Buffalo is at the bottom of the standings, the Bulls are a good team.
“There is no difference between us and Buffalo,” Jaksa said. “The only difference that anyone can correlate is our record is better than theirs right now. Our record going into this weekend is 0-0. It’s that simple. That’s a focus and a mindset that a team has to understand.”
Last weekend, UB took two of the three games against Miami (OH).
First pitch is at 3 p.m. on Friday while games on Saturday and Sunday’s will begin at 1 p.m.
Sophomore pitcher Nick Deeg (6-2, 1.68 ERA) will start Friday while junior Sean Renzi (1-1, 2.81 ERA) starts Saturday. Junior Adam Aldred (2-1, 3.59) takes the mound Sunday.
Deeg leads the CMU pitching staff in earned runs average (1.68), wins (6) and innings pitched (59).
The 1.68 ERA for Deeg leads all MAC starting pitchers as well as the six wins.
Deeg said the difference in his growth this season has been the ability to stay within himself and not try to do too much.
“Last year I was young and I tried to make pitches better than they had to be,” Deeg said. “This year I’m just trying to be myself out there and throw pitches exactly where I want them. I’ve always tried to be aggressive. I like to pitch inside and jam the hitter and get in on his hands. I want the hitter to hate hitting against me. That’s my goal. So far I’ve been doing that this season.”
The Chippewas have won six straight and are averaging nearly 12 runs per games in that span outscoring opponents by an average of eight runs.
Coming into the weekend CMU leads in multiple statistical categories including stolen bases (60), walks (167), runs batted in (349) hits (349) and runs scored (233).
Jaska said every game is different and the mindset of the team has to be focused on one game at a time in order to succeed.
“Every single weekend takes on an identity of its own and this team recognizes that,” Jaksa said. “We recognize that every game is important. We have to get on the bus today (Thursday) and get over there and make sure we are in a good place mentally.”
For the most part this season the Chippewas have shut down opposing hitters currently ranking third in the MAC in opponents batting average at .252 and earned run average at 3.27.
UB is led by junior outfielder Nick Sinay, who is second in the MAC in on-base percentage (.504). Sinay leads the Bulls in batting average (.337), runs (27) and hits (35).
The Bulls pitching staff is led by sophomore Mike Kaelin. The Cheektowaga, NY, native leads all UB pitchers in ERA (1.95) and opponents batting average at .126.
Six pitchers have started at least one game for UB with a combined ERA of 5.55.
Offensively the Chippewas continue to be led by senior second baseman Pat MacKenzie, the reigning MAC Player of the Week.
MacKenzie leads CMU in batting average (.364), runs (36) hits (47) and on-base percentage at .506.
Sophomore center fielder Alex Borglin (.326), junior right fielder Logan Regnier (.346) are the two other Chippewas hitting above .300 this season.
“We can’t take any team for granted especially if we want to win the whole thing,” Borglin said. “We just have to keep playing like we are and being a really tough team to beat.”
