Late comeback gives baseball 7-5 win over Western Michigan to improve to 7-0 in MAC play
Central Michigan Baseball defeated rival Western Michigan, 7-5 Friday in the first game of a weekend series.
The win improves the Chippewas' overall record to 18-15 and 7-0 in the Mid-American Conference.
CMU has a two-and-a-half game lead over Eastern Michigan in the West Division and a one game lead over Kent State for first place overall in the MAC.
Head coach Steve Jaksa said he is proud with his teams' ability to continuously fight back in games and said the biggest key to that is taking the long season one game at a time.
"We knew they would be ready to play today because that's what a rivalry is. It was a dogfight out there and we came out on top," Jaksa said. "All I know is we are 1-0 and got to win tomorrow to win the series .That's my focus right now and the guys have done really good with that."
Western Michigan put the first run on the board in the first inning with an RBI single.
The Chippewas would answer back with three runs in the bottom of the first. Sophomore Daniel Robinson drove in a run with a single and junior Daniel Jipping would have an RBI groundout to give CMU a 3-1 lead.
The Broncos would add a run in the second inning after a lead-off double followed by a RBI single to cut the Chippewas lead to 3-2.-
Western Michigan added three more runs in the fifth to take back the lead 5-3 and that would be all the scoring for the day for the Broncos.
CMU would add a run in the sixth with a sacrifice fly by senior Robert Greenman to cut the lead down to 5-4.
In the seventh inning the Chippewas would retake the lead. CMU scored off an error and sophomore Jason Sullivan had a sacrifice bunt to give the Chippewas the lead for the rest of the game.
The Chippewas would add an insurance run in the eight with an RBI single by freshman Reed Adams to give extend the lead to 7-5.
Sophomore right-hander Dazon Cole pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing 11 hits and five earned runs. The Pontiac native struck out two batters.
Junior Colton Bradley would pick up his seventh save for the Chippewas going 1 1/3 innings, giving up no hits and striking out two batters.
Sophomore Michael Brettell picked up his fifth win of the season going four innings while allowing no runs. Brettell surrendered only one hit and struck out two.
"Brettell went and Bradley went and those guys just closed it out. All goose eggs," Jaksa said. "We had to have that because it is hard to get back in the game."
What's Next
The Chippewas and Broncos meet again Saturday in the second game of the series. First pitch is at 2:05 pm.
