Stories courtesy of MAC Sports Information Departments
Central Michigan 5, Toledo 4 - Boxscore
Central Michigan 10, Toledo 1 - Boxscore
TOLEDO, Ohio – It wasn't easy and nobody expected it to be.
That makes it all the more sweet and satisfying.
The Central Michigan baseball team topped Toledo, 5-4, in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday at the Rockets' Scott Park to clinch its second consecutive outright Mid-American Conference championship and punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
The Chippewas put the icing on the cake with a 10-1 win in the nightcap. They will find out their regional destination on Monday (noon) during the NCAA Selection Show (ESPN2).
CMU is 40-16 overall and finished 31-9 in MAC play. The Chippewas closed the regular season winners of 32 of their last 40, including their final eight in a row in consecutive weekend sweeps of Eastern Michigan and Toledo. The Chippewas dropped just one of their 10 MAC series this season; they split two and won seven, including five sweeps.
The finishing rush came after a bumpy opening month. CMU was 8-8, 0-2 MAC in late March and had lost starting catcher and cleanup hitter Griffin Lockwood-Powell to an injury for what eventually would be a 28-game stretch.
"We kept working and believing and staying behind each other," third-year coach Jordan Bischel said. "It's really been a tremendous job by the guys of sticking together and getting it done."
The Chippewas have won 40 games for the second straight season (2020 ended after 17 games because of COVID-19), marking the first time since 1986-88 that the program has put together back-to-back 40-win campaigns.
"It is really, really difficult to win 40 baseball games in a college season, and we didn't have a conference tournament this season, which takes away a couple of opportunities," said Bischel, who is 98-36 as the Chippewas' coach. "I'm not complaining about that, but that makes it a little bit tougher."
Sunday's seven-inning title clincher didn't follow the pattern the Chippewas had set in winning the first two games of the series behind dominant pitching performances from Andrew Taylor and Garrett Navarra.
CMU built a 4-0 lead through 2 1/2 innings, a seemingly safe advantage with No. 1 starter Jordan Patty on the mound.
But Toledo got to Patty, scoring two runs in the third inning and then two more in the fourth to tie it, 4-4. Patty left after surrendering a leadoff double in the fifth and then intentionally walking the MAC's leading hitter, Chris Meyers.
In came Grant Frazer, who put out the fire by inducing a foul popup and then a 3-6-1 inning-ending double play. Frazer (2-4) went three innings, allowing just one hit, for the victory.
"It could have been a little bit easier for my stress level had (Patty) dominated that game," Bischel said. "We'll take our chances if you stake (Patty) to a four-run lead; he just struggled a little bit and Toledo has a very, very good offense."
CMU went ahead for good when Mario Camilletti doubled to lead off the sixth inning and then scored on Jakob Marsee's double.
"It's a little bit more satisfying when it doesn't go your way and you've got to battle back and get it done," Bischel said. "A huge hit by Jakob Marsee to put us ahead and then (Frazer) goes out there and throws some great innings for us to finish. Grant's a great representation of our program and it's fun to see him go out there and get it done."
The Chippewas collected 13 hits, three each by Marsee, Zach Gilles and Chase Rollin.
Camilletti, CMU's leadoff hitter, had two hits in the opener and a single in the nightcap to extend his hit streak to eight games. He had two hits in each of the first seven games of the streak and has hit .535 (15-for-28) in his last eight games. He drew two walks in the nightcap, giving him a program-record 60 on the season.
"If there's a better leadoff hitter in college baseball, you're going to have trouble finding him," said Bischel of Camilletti, a junior who transferred to CMU from Oakland prior to the 2021 season. "He had a lot of (transfer) options. He took a chance on our program. We couldn't be happier that he did."
The Chippewas outhit the Rockets, 38-11, in the series and did not commit an error. CMU pitching held Meyers, the league's top hitter and a strong candidate for the MAC Player of the Year Award, to one hit in 10 at-bats and struck him out six times.
"We hit 15 home runs all year," Bischel said. "You'd think that you're going to struggle as a team (with so few), but our pitching and defense make it really challenging (to play us). That is an excellent Toledo offense and our pitching and defense was just fabulous this weekend."
Freshman Colton Coca hit his first career homer, a three-run shot in the eighth inning, to highlight the Chippewas' 12-hit effort in the nightcap.
Cameron Brown started and went 3 1/3 innings, and then Bischel employed five relievers to finish it. Logan Buczkowski, who relieved Brown in the fourth inning, picked up the victory.
Coca, who had two hits, was one of several Chippewa backups who saw extended action in Sunday's finale.
"We have a lot of players who can really compete at this level and help us win games, and they haven't had a lot of opportunities in a long time," Bischel said. "Those guys are a big part of the heart and soul of the team. If you're a good player and you can play at this level and you're sitting the bench, it's not easy. We don't win this league if those guys become bad teammates. They're as big a part of it as the guys who are in the lineup every day."
Ball State 4, Miami 0 -- Boxscore
Ball State 5, Miami 2 -- Boxscore
Recap coming soon...
Bowling Green 5, Northern Illinois 4 -- Boxscore
Northern Illinois 2, Bowling Green 1 -- Boxscore
OWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University baseball team, on the final day of the 2021 season, split a doubleheader with Northern Illinois University on Sunday (May 30). The Falcons won the first game by a score of 5-4 before the Huskies won the night cap, 2-1. With the split, BGSU secured the Mid-American Conference series win.
Bowling Green finishes the season with an overall record of 20-30, marking its first 20-win season and highest finish in the MAC since 2015. With the win on the day, BGSU surpassed Miami University to finish in seventh place within the conference. Bowling Green won six of its final seven games of the season.
The Falcons went 18-22 in league play in 2021. The 18 wins are the most in conference play for Bowling Green since 2010.
With the score tied at 4-4 in the sixth inning of the first game of the afternoon, Andy Gaytan drove home Nathan Rose. Jeremy Spezia slammed the door shut in the top half of the inning to nail down the win, earning his second save of the season in the process.
Andrew Abrahamowicz gave the Falcons a strong start, striking out three batters and allowing three runs over 5.1 innings. Adam Furnas, Jack Krause and Dylan Dohanos produced run-scoring hits to help carry the BGSU offense.
Kyle Gurney doubled home Bowling Green's lone run in the night cap. Gurney will take a 16-game hitting streak into the 2022 season. Gurney finishes the season with 40 RBI – the most RBI in a single season from a Bowling Green player since 2010.
After a strong start of two-run ball over four innings from Landon Willeman, fellow true freshman Peyton Wilson tossed 4.2 innings and allowed only one hit.
David Stopp, Nathan Lohmeier and Andy Gaytan appeared in their final games in the Orange and Brown. Stopp retired the only batter he faced, as he induced a ground out to end the seventh inning of the season finale. Lohmeier carved up a batter and earned the win in the first game of the day, while Gaytan recorded a hit in both contests.
Kent State 4, Eastern Michigan 2
Boxscore
YPSILANTI, MI- Benny Roebuck tossed five shutout innings and the Golden Flashes rapped out 12 hits in a 4-2 victory over Eastern Michigan in the regular season finale for both teams.
Roebuck was impressive on Sunday afternoon and picked up his second win of the season, allowing just two hits and two walks over his five innings. The freshman struck out three before handing the ball over to Max Rippl. Rippl took it the rest of the way, earning his second save of the season, allowing two runs on three hits over the final four innings.
The Flashes got things going in the second when Kevin Dobos smacked a double to right to score Kyle Jackson. Cam Touchette brought home a second run of the inning on a sacrifice fly. Kent State tacked on some insurance in the third as Jake Reifsnyder brought home Nick Elsen on a squeeze play to make it 3-0.
It stayed that way until the seventh when Elsen struck again, this time with a run-scoring single to bring home Justin Miknis.
Roebuck and Rippl took care of business from there, Eastern scored single tallies in the eighth and the ninth but couldn't string a rally together. Rippl got a groundout to third to end it and the Flashes celebrated their 30th win of the season. Four seniors got the start in the 2021 finale, all four recording at least one hit on the day.
The win moves Kent State to 30-26 on the season and 23-17 in the MAC. The win marks the 22nd straight full season of 30-plus win for the Golden Flashes.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – In the final game of the regular season the Western Michigan baseball team sent the senior class out in style with a 6-3 victory over Ohio on Sunday afternoon inside Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field.
The Broncos end the regular season with an overall record of 24-26 and 23-17 in Mid-American Conference play. Western Michigan's 23 conference wins is tied for the most in a single-season in school history, also have 23 back in 1989. The Broncos' 24 overall wins is the most since 2017.
In the series finale the Broncos scored six runs on eight runs with five different Broncos registering a hit on Sunday. The duo of junior Sean O'Keefe and senior Ethan Hajdukovic each had multi-hit games with junior Connor Charping and Hajdukovic recording multi-RBI performances.
For the final time in the Brown & Gold Hajdukovic led the Broncos with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate with two RBIs, three runs scored and one home run. Hajdukovic's two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth was his eighth of the season.
Junior Connor Charping re-wrote the record books in the regular season finale in the bottom of the fourth inning. Charping registered his 32nd stolen base of the season, the most in a single-season in program history. At the plate Charping was 0-for-3 with two RBIs against the Bobcats.
In the 6-3 victory the Broncos got a dominant performance out of the bullpen from senior RHP Will Mullen and freshman RHP Hayden Berg. Mullen went three innings, allowing one earned run on four hits with three strikeouts in his final appearance as a Bronco. Berg picked up his first victory of the season going 3.1 innings, allowing no runs on two hits with five strikeouts.
Over the weekend WMU hit .270 as a team, scoring 19 runs on 31 hits with four doubles, one triple and two home runs. The Broncos were dominant on the mound posting a 2.73 ERA and holding Ohio to a .250 batting average. The WMU pitching staff recorded 31 strikeouts and gave up just 10 earned runs on 30 hits.
Once again the Broncos got on the board first scoring one run on two hits in the bottom of the first. With one out and runners on first and second, senior Drew Devine delivered with an RBI single to left field, scoring Blake Dunn from second to give the Broncos an early 1-0 lead.
WMU held the one-run lead until the top of the third when the Bobcats struck for two runs on no hits. Ohio capitalized on two Bronco errors in the inning to gain a 2-1
advantage after three innings of play.
The Broncos responded in the fourth scoring one run on two hits to tie the game. Leading off the inning the Brown & Gold got back-to-back singles from Ethan Hajdukovic and Logan Hudson to give WMU runner on the corners. Two batters later Charping reached base on a fielder's choice, scoring Hajdukovic from third to tie the game at two.
Ohio regained the lead in the top of the fifth scoring one run on two hits. The one-run Ohio lead didn't last for long as WMU scored two runs on two hits in the bottom half of the inning. Junior Sean O'Keefe gave the Broncos a runner in scoring position after a double down the right field line.
With two outs Hajdukovic blasted a two-run home run over the right field wall to give the Brown & Gold a 4-3 lead. The two-run home run was Hajdukovic's eighth of the season. WMU added to its lead in the bottom of the sixth as Charping registered a sacrifice fly to right field to extend the Bronco lead to 5-3.
The Broncos added another run in the bottom of the eighth registering two hits in the inning. Hajdukovic led off the inning with a single to left field before Hudson was hit by a pitch to give WMU runners on first and second with no outs. Two batters later Morrison connected on an RBI single to left field to give the Broncos a 6-3 lead.
In the ninth senior RHP Tyler Thorington tallied a strikeout and induced a 4-6-3 double play to secure the 6-3 victory to conclude the regular season.
