Central Michigan 3, Ohio 2
Boxscore
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Central Michigan did all of its scoring in the ninth inning on Thursday in taking a dramatic 3-2 walk-off victory from Ohio in the opener of a three-game Mid-American Conference baseball series at Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium.
The win lifted CMU to 14-11 in the MAC and clinched a berth in the league tournament next week in Avon, Ohio. Game two of the series is scheduled for Friday at 3:05 p.m. and the finale is set for Saturday at 2:05 p.m.
The Chippewas (24-28-1) got three consecutive one-out singles in the ninth to load the bases, and then pinch hitter David Cole singled to cut Ohio’s lead to 2-1.
Jordan Patty then brought in the tying run with a ground ball. With two out, left-handed hitting Zach Heeke beat out an infield hit to the hole at shortstop and Ty Rollin scampered home with the winning run, touching off a mob-scene celebration surrounding Heeke.
Jack Collins (5-1) earned the win in relief of starter Dazon Cole. Cole, who drew the start in place of the injured Pat Leatherman, allowed two runs on six hits, walked two and struck out seven over six innings.
Collins, a junior left-hander, stuck out five. The lone Ohio baserunner over Collins’ three-inning stint reached on catcher’s interference.
Ohio starter Gerry Salisbury (4-7) struck out two, walked one and surrendered 10 hits over 8 1/3 innings. Jake Roehn relieved Salisbury in the ninth. The Bobcats are 21-30.
Miami 10, Kent State 3
Boxscore
OXFORD, Ohio - The Miami baseball team earned itself a 10-3 win to open its series against Kent State Thursday evening at McKie Field at Hayden Park. Pitcher Shane Smith tossed eight dominant innings in relief for the RedHawks, allowing just one run on four hits.
Smith, who improved to 3-2 on the year with the victory, came on to start the second inning and survived two separate rain delays in the fourth. He finished the evening by retiring 12 of the final 13 batters he faced.
The Golden Flashes (35-15, 18-7 MAC) got on the board early with a two-run first, but the Red & White had an answer in their half of the frame. Ross Haffey, Hayden Senger and Will Vogelgesang each drew walks to load the bases, setting up a three-run double by Kyle Winkler, handing the `Hawks a 3-2 edge after just an inning of play.
KSU pulled back even in the third with an RBI single.
Miami (32-17, 16-9 MAC) retook the lead with a three-run fourth. Vogelgesang led off with a walk and stole second. Winkler then walked as well, Vogelgesang stole third and scored on a Dallas Hall bunt. After Winkler was erased via a caught stealing, Parker Massman walked to put two runners back on with Hall on second. Adrian Texidor was then hit by a pitch to load the base paths. Back-to-back walks drawn by Haffey and Senger pushed across two more tallies to make it 6-3 after four.
The RedHawks added a single tally in the fifth to make it 7-3 when Vogelgesang reached on a leadoff triple and scored on a Winkler sacrifice fly to right.
Miami put up its third three spot of the day in the sixth. Texidor started things off with s single and later got to second on a failed pickoff attempt. Cristian Tejada then walked to put two on. Following a line out that Texidor tagged and got to third on, Tejada stole second and Senger walked to load the bases. Texidor would eventually score on a wild pitch and then Vogelgesang capped the evening's scoring with a two-run single to right.
Vogelgesang finished with a 2-for-3 night to go with three runs scored and two runs batted in. He also drew a pair of walks. Winkler went 1-for-2 with four driven in.
Miami and Kent State get back at it for game two of the series on Friday at 4 p.m.
Toledo 11, Bowling Green 6
Boxscore
Toledo, Ohio— The Toledo baseball team won its series opener against I-75 rival Bowling Green on Thursday, 11-6, to keep its Mid-American Conference Tournament hopes alive.
Tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning, freshman Chris Meyers laced a single up the middle to score freshman Trace Hatfield and give the Rockets the lead. Sophomore Michael Ryan then homered to left field to extend the advantage to 9-6, while seniors Dalton Bollinger and Brad Boss both drove in runs to cap an exciting eighth inning.
Meyers led the Rockets with three RBIs on Thursday, while Bollinger, Boss, and Ryan drove in two apiece. Junior Ross Adolph went 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of doubles and two runs scored. Senior Matt Hansen and Hatfield both tallied two hits for the Midnight Blue & Gold. Sophomore Joey Prechtel started on the mound and gave Toledo five innings. Junior Nate Haugh earned the win against the Falcons, throwing 3.1 scoreless innings while striking out two.
Due to an uncooperative weather forecast on Saturday, Toledo and Bowling Green will play a doubleheader on Friday beginning at Noon at Scott Park.
Eastern Michigan 2, Northern Illinois 1
Boxscore
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University baseball team won the crucial series opener over the Northern Illinois University Huskies with a nail-biting 2-1 win Friday evening, May 17, at Oestrike Stadium. With the win, EMU (21-31, 13-12 MAC) remained in sixth place in race for the Mid-American Conference Tournament with two games to play.
NIU (19-35, 8-17 MAC) had multiple opportunities to break the game open, as evidenced by the 14-6 difference in the hit column, but EMU got out of almost every jam with some slick fielding which included a thrown out runner at the plate by freshman Nate Jones (Battle Creek, Mich.-Lakeview) in the third inning.
Senior Justin McMurtrey (Redding, Calif.-Shasta (Butte C.C.)) earned his fifth win of the season and 12th of his career in his final outing at Oestrike. The right hander went seven innings, only allowing one run on 11 hits while striking out two. In relief, freshman Thomas House (Okeana, Ohio-Ross) tallied his team-best fourth save of the year after going the final two innings, yielding no runs on three hits with two punch outs as well.
Offensively, junior Max Schuemann (Portage, Mich.-Portage Northern) was the hero, as he knocked in the first run of the game on a double, and went on to score the eventual winning run as well. Sophomore Zachary Owings (Saline, Mich.-Saline) had the other highlight, as he extended his on-base streak to 30 games with a walk, as well as extended his hitting streak to a career-best 11 games with a single.
The game was a true pitchers duel in the first five innings, as both arms kept the other team off the board. EMU could only muster one hit through the first five, but the other side was a different story.
NIU had numerous scoring chances in the first five, leaving nine runners on base, while also having another thrown out at the plate by Nate Jones. When it was all said and done, though, McMurtrey kept NIU off the board into the sixth inning, where that changed.
After McMurtrey fired his sixth scoreless frame, EMU began to get the bats going in the bottom half. Nate Jones led off with a single down the line in right, which was followed immediately by a Schuemann double down the left field line to score Jones, and opening up the scoring. Later in the inning, NIU made a pair of errors to allow Schuemann to come around and make it a 2-0 game with three innings to play
The shutout was broken in the seventh as NIU turned a lead off triple into a run on an RBI ground out, bringing it back to 2-1 into the stretch. EMU had runners on second and third in that inning, but could not capitalize to keep it tight.
House entered in the top of the eighth and was able to work around a two-out single to keep EMU ahead by one. The Eagles couldn't scratch across any runs in the bottom of the eighth, setting up the ninth. There, House worked around a single, as EMU turned a double play. After that, NIU doubled to place the tying run in scoring position, but House got the final batter to chase, sealing the 2-1 decision.
EMU and NIU get back into action tomorrow evening, May 18, for game two of the series from Oestrike. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., and will be preceded by an Alumni Appreciation ceremony, where the 2008 MAC Tournament Champion team will be honored.
Western Michigan 10, Ball State 5
Boxscore
MUNCIE, Ind. – In game one of a pivotal Mid-American Conference series on Thursday, Western Michigan baseball put up six runs in the third and four runs in the seventh to cruise to a 10-5 victory over Ball State.
The Broncos registered just seven hits on the day but scored 10 or more runs for the seventh time this season. WMU capitalized on Cardinal miscues as the Brown & Gold drew eight walks while Ball State had four wild pitches and one passed ball.
Six different Broncos recorded a hit on Thursday with redshirt junior Andrew Stone registering the lone multi-hit game going 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Stone has now reached base safely in six straight games.
Junior Nate Grys extended his team-high hitting streak to 10 games after going 1-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI. Grys has also reached base safely in 11 straight games. Freshman Blake Dunn was 1-for-5 on the day and extended his team-high reached base streak to 13 games.
Overall the Brown & Gold had five different players register an RBI while the one through four hitters of Stone, Grys and juniors Connor Smith and Jimmy Roche scored eight of the 10 runs against the Cardinals.
On the mound the Broncos used three pitchers with junior RHP Nic Laio earning the start going four innings, allowing three runs on six hits and striking out six. In relief sophomore RHP Zach Mehelich got the win for WMU going 2.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits. Mehelich improves his record to 1-1 on the year.
Senior RHP Jake Bartels recorded the final eight outs for the Broncos, allowing no runs and no hits in 2.1 innings of work. Bartels entered the game with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning before retiring the final eight batters.
With the win the Broncos improve their overall record to 23-23 and 12-11 in conference play. In the first game of a three-game series this season, WMU is now 8-4 and has won five of the last six game one's. The victory also pulls the Broncos one game closer to securing a spot in the MAC Tournament for the fifth straight year.
The game was scoreless before the Bronco offense erupted for six runs on one hit in the top of the third. Sophomore Drew Devine led off the third with a walk before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by junior Conner Henderson. Devine then advanced to third on a wild pitch with Andrew Stone at the plate.
On a full count, Stone roped an RBI single to left field to give WMU an early 1-0 lead. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases before a wild pitch scored Stone from third. Nate Grys drew a walk to load the bases prior to the third wild pitch of the inning scored Connor Smith from third to give WMU a 3-0 advantage.
The Broncos had runners on first and third with two outs before the fourth wild pitch of the inning scored Grys from third to extend the Bronco lead. WMU added to its lead thanks to a two out RBI single to left field by Devine to make it 6-0 in favor of the Broncos. In the third the Brown & Gold scored three of its six runs by wild pitches.
Ball State cut into the WMU lead in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs on three hits but the Broncos responded with four runs on three hits in the top of the seventh. In the seventh, the Broncos saw nine batters come to the plate as WMU scored two of its four runs in the inning with two outs to take a 10-3 lead.
The Cardinals rallied in the bottom of the seventh scoring two runs on three hits, registering three straight singles with one out. Ball State loaded the bases in the seventh with one out before Bartels shut down the Cardinal offense with a fly out and a groundout to get out of the jam.
In the final two innings, Bartels needed just 17 pitches to record the final six outs and secure the 10-5 victory for Western Michigan.
