Baseball evens series with 3-1 win over Bowling Green Saturday
Junior third baseman Joe Houlihan bats for the Chippewas during Central Michigan University's baseball game against Bowling Green State University on April 25 at Theunissen Stadium.
Timely hitting and strong starting pitching helped Central Michigan University baseball take game two in the series 3-1 over Bowling Green State University.
Head Coach Steve Jaksa said the team’s attitude was much different Saturday than it was Friday.
“It was a much different atmosphere within the group today,” Jaksa said. “We have to continue that into tomorrow.”
Senior pitcher Tim Black recorded his 10th save of the season and the 19th of his career, breaking the program record.
“It means a lot,” Black said. “There have been a lot of great pitchers that have come through here. It’s exciting. I can’t take all the credit for it. The guys play great defense behind me. I just go out there and do my thing and it works out for me.”
Junior pitcher Sean Renzi (3-1, 2.04 ERA) started on the mound for the Chippewas. He threw eight strong innings, giving up one earned runs on six hits while striking out six.
“I just tried to go out there and really attack the zone and make them put the ball in play,” Renzi said. “At first I started throwing a lot of fastballs, but around the third inning I started to mix in the off-speed pitches and I was able to locate them.”
Jaksa said he was very impressed with Renzi’s outing.
“(Renzi) gave us eight very, very, very good innings,” Jaksa said. “I asked him if he wanted to go back out there for the eighth. We had Tim (Black) ready to go. We preferred it exactly the way it ended up. It was a really good outing. He made some crucial pitches early in the game to keep (Bowling Green) to one run.”
Senior second baseman Pat MacKenzie led CMU with two runs scored to go along with his first career home run. Freshman shortstop Zach McKinstry led all Chippewas in hits with two.
CMU finished the game with seven hits while BGSU had six.
The Chippewas are now 28-14 and 13-4 in the Mid-American Conference, while the Falcons fall to 15-22 and 8-9 in the MAC.
A single by freshman shortstop Zach McKinstry advanced junior third baseman Joe Houlihan to third base with two outs in the second inning.
McKinstry advanced to second on the errant throw by the right fielder.
Both runners would be left stranded following the groundout by sophomore designated hitter Adam Collins.
BGSU scored the first run of the game with one out in the third inning on a sacrifice fly to left-center field.
Despite the leadoff runner reaching base during innings three through five, only in the third were the Falcons able to score.
Senior second baseman Pat MacKenzie's home run was to right field in the fifth inning, which tied the game 1-1.
“It was big for our momentum,” Jaksa said. “He finally gets a knock that gets out of the park and ties it. We added a run onto that and let Sean Renzi and Tim Black take over from there.”
Senior center fielder Nick Regnier singled up the middle in the fifth with two outs giving the Chippewas the lead 2-1.
“Nick’s hit was just a really good at-bat with two strikes and two outs,” Jaksa said. “He ended up getting a big hit for us in that situation and knocked in what ended up being the game-winning run.”
A failed pick-off attempt allowed Regnier to advance to third base.
MacKenzie reached first base on an error and then stole his 19th and 20th bases of the season in the seventh.
Junior right fielder Logan Regnier walked and then stole second base, which was followed by a walk to Nick Regnier.
The bases were loaded with one out in the seventh inning for CMU.
Houlihan had an RBI groundout to the third baseman scoring MacKenzie making it a 3-1 Chippewa lead in the seventh inning.
CMU will try to take its sixth consecutive conference series tomorrow afternoon. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m., with junior pitcher Adam Aldred (3-1, 2.96 ERA) starting for CMU.
