Sloppy second inning dooms baseball against Michigan State
Junior outfielder Logan Regnier drops the ball in the outfielder May 12 against Michigan State University. Five unearned runs would score in the inning. Regnier would go 1-for-4 in the loss at Theunissen Stadium.
Central Michigan University baseball attempted another comeback against Michigan State University on Tuesday, but fell short 13-7.
The Chippewas erased a 7-0 eighth inning lead on April 15 at Comerica Park to top the Spartans 8-7, and looked for a similar rally Tuesday after falling behind 10-1 in the 2015 home finale at Theunissen Stadium.
“I thought the late innings went about the same (as at Comerica),” said Head Coach Steve Jaksa. “We were a line drive away from being three runs down. I think they remembered what happened down there and I think we were in a position to make a little bit of a run at them.”
CMU scratched across three runs in the eighth to cut the deficit to 10-5. With the bases loaded, the tying run came to the on-deck circle, but never had a chance to come to the plate as junior third baseman Joe Houlihan lined out on a 3-2 pitch.
A three-run home run by the Spartans in the top of the ninth put MSU back up eight, cementing the loss for CMU–even after a pair of Chippewas runs in the bottom half of the inning.
MSU’s six-run second inning came back to haunt the Chippewas.
“The second inning we obviously made one mistake in there,” Jaksa said. “That mistake, we just couldn’t pitch over it. That’s a big situation.”
A hard-hit ball got just past Houlihan’s outstretched glove to give MSU a 1-0 lead. The mistake came when junior outfielder Logan Regnier dropped a ball in right field that would have been the third out of the inning.
By the end of the inning, MSU had four doubles off sophomore pitcher Jordan Grosjean (0-4, 5.97 ERA) and a 6-0 lead, with five runs being unearned–all following the Regnier error.
Grosjean finished the day pitching 4 1/3 innings, allowing 11 hits, one walk and eight runs (three earned).
Both teams had a pair of home runs, with CMU’s coming from freshman designated hitter Daniel Jipping and sophomore catcher Robert Greenman.
It was Greenman’s first career home run. He went 3-for-4 with three runs and an RBI on Tuesday.
The Chippewas fall to 32-20 with the loss. They finish out the regular season in a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series on the road against Western Michigan. A sweep would guarantee CMU the top seed in next week’s Mid-American Conference Tournament.
