CMU baseball snaps three-game losing streak in win over Cleary
With the bases loaded and two outs, freshman infielder Drew Loikits had a chance to give Central Michigan baseball an early lead against Clearly on Tuesday.
He would come through singling to left field to give the Chippewas a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
CMU wound up winning by a final score of 11-1, bringing the team to 12-25 on the season.
The Chippewas tacked on two more runs in the second and third innings on a pair of mistakes by Cleary. The first of which was a bases loaded hit-by-pitch and the other on a throwing error.
Cleary got on the board in the fifth, but CMU responded in its half of the inning as it scored two more runs on two more errors opening the Chippewa lead to 6-1.
"At the end of the day, you look at the score, 11-1 and you're trying to prevent runs," Sabol said. “Even though it wasn't as clean as we might want, nine free bases total, our guys, they're trying to be better than that.”
Junior infielder Sandy Cuthrell pinch hit in the bottom of the sixth leading off with a walk, where he eventually scored off a double by senior catcher Nick Dardas. Dardas then scored after the next batter singled making the lead 8-1.
After the first two Chippewas reached base in the eighth, CMU scored two more runs on back-to-back sacrifice flies, extending the lead to 11-1.
As the offense was dominant so was the pitching as six different Chippewas entered the matchup with none of them surrendering more than three hits.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Jake Brown got the start where he went four innings, while surrendering only three hits, two walks and struck out six batters.
“As a pitching staff we know that lately there's been some things that we've struggled with and pounding the zone and executing strikes has been one of those things. We're just trying to get a little bit better in that category," Sabol said.
Central Michigan will now travel to Orlando, Florida to take on the University of Central Florida in a three-game series starting on Friday at 6 p.m.
