Sunday, April 24
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
10 a.m.
Central Michigan University
28-10, 21-1
16
vs
0
Akron
11-28, 9-19
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2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Akron
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
Central Michigan
1
0
5
2
1
7
X
16
21
1
CMU's Kade Preston and Jakob Marsee celebrate during Sunday's 16-0 win over Akron at Theunissen Stadium.
Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw
Bats Boom; Baseball Continues Torrid Streak
4/24/2022 3:57:00 PM | Baseball
CMU completes sweep of Akron; heads next week to Ball State for big MAC series
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Central Michigan baseball team earned its sixth Mid-American Conference shutout of the season on Sunday, downing Akron, 16-0, in a run-rule shortened seven innings at Theunissen Stadium.
It was league-leading CMU's fifth consecutive MAC series sweep as the Chippewas ran their MAC win streak to 21 – believed to be a conference record – and their overall win streak to 18.
The Chippewas are 28-10 and 21-1 MAC. They lead the league by three games over Ball State, which entered its Sunday game at Northern Illinois 17-4 in league play, and are scheduled to open a four-game series at Ball State on Friday, April 29. The series will go a long way in determining the MAC regular season champion and the host of the league tournament.
CMU is eyeing its third consecutive MAC regular season championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament.
"We've been in this situation before," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "We've got some young guys that maybe haven't (been in it), but we've got some experience too. On an annual basis we've played important games, big games. We'll treat it the same, but we should enjoy it; there's a lot of teams that would love to be in the position to be battling for first place late in the season, and I'm excited that our guys will have that opportunity."
The Chippewas collected a season-high 21 hits on Sunday against the Zips. Twelve Chippewas hit safely with the lower half of the batting order delivering big. Drew Lechnir led the Chippewas from the No. 6 spot with a career-high five RBI on three hits including two doubles. Garrett Navarra, who batted eighth on Sunday, drove in three runs.
Leadoff man Mario Camilletti led the Chippewas with four hits and finished the series 8-for-16. He set the tone with an opposite field double leading off the bottom of the first.
"If you count on a couple of guys to carry you, you're not going to win that many in a row and if you play inconsistently, you're going to get beat," Bischel said. "We've been versatile, we've had a lot of different guys step up, and that's something I'm really proud of.
"We've got a deep team. I talked to the guys about that this year; we have more than nine guys that can be in the lineup and help us, and that's hard for guys, they don't like sitting. But a guy like Drew (Lechnir) just prepares, and when his opportunity comes, he's ready for it."
With a few regular Chippewa pitchers on the mend, freshman left-hander Adam Mrakitsch (3-0) got his first MAC start and win. He went 6 1/3 innings, by far his longest outing of the year in 10 appearances, striking out one, walking two and allowing two hits. Ben Vitas completed the shutout by stranding two, striking out one before inducing the series-ending groundout.
Mrakitsch started CMU's last two midweek games, the first at Oakland and the second at home against Madonna.
"He built up his pitch count a little bit and that set him up for today, and he just ran with it," Bischel said. "Now, we've got one more good (pitching) option. Hopefully we can get healthy on the mound, but now we have another good option to use if we need him."
It was league-leading CMU's fifth consecutive MAC series sweep as the Chippewas ran their MAC win streak to 21 – believed to be a conference record – and their overall win streak to 18.
The Chippewas are 28-10 and 21-1 MAC. They lead the league by three games over Ball State, which entered its Sunday game at Northern Illinois 17-4 in league play, and are scheduled to open a four-game series at Ball State on Friday, April 29. The series will go a long way in determining the MAC regular season champion and the host of the league tournament.
CMU is eyeing its third consecutive MAC regular season championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament.
"We've been in this situation before," CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. "We've got some young guys that maybe haven't (been in it), but we've got some experience too. On an annual basis we've played important games, big games. We'll treat it the same, but we should enjoy it; there's a lot of teams that would love to be in the position to be battling for first place late in the season, and I'm excited that our guys will have that opportunity."
The Chippewas collected a season-high 21 hits on Sunday against the Zips. Twelve Chippewas hit safely with the lower half of the batting order delivering big. Drew Lechnir led the Chippewas from the No. 6 spot with a career-high five RBI on three hits including two doubles. Garrett Navarra, who batted eighth on Sunday, drove in three runs.
Leadoff man Mario Camilletti led the Chippewas with four hits and finished the series 8-for-16. He set the tone with an opposite field double leading off the bottom of the first.
"If you count on a couple of guys to carry you, you're not going to win that many in a row and if you play inconsistently, you're going to get beat," Bischel said. "We've been versatile, we've had a lot of different guys step up, and that's something I'm really proud of.
"We've got a deep team. I talked to the guys about that this year; we have more than nine guys that can be in the lineup and help us, and that's hard for guys, they don't like sitting. But a guy like Drew (Lechnir) just prepares, and when his opportunity comes, he's ready for it."
With a few regular Chippewa pitchers on the mend, freshman left-hander Adam Mrakitsch (3-0) got his first MAC start and win. He went 6 1/3 innings, by far his longest outing of the year in 10 appearances, striking out one, walking two and allowing two hits. Ben Vitas completed the shutout by stranding two, striking out one before inducing the series-ending groundout.
Mrakitsch started CMU's last two midweek games, the first at Oakland and the second at home against Madonna.
"He built up his pitch count a little bit and that set him up for today, and he just ran with it," Bischel said. "Now, we've got one more good (pitching) option. Hopefully we can get healthy on the mound, but now we have another good option to use if we need him."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Mrakitsch, Adam (3-0)
L: Biglin (0-2)
Base Running:
HBP: Benson 1
Batting:
2B: Camilletti, Mario 1 ; Lechnir, Drew 2 ; Navarra, Garrett 1 ; Proctor, Adam 1
RBI: Camilletti, Mario 1 ; Marsee, Jakob 1 ; Simpson, Justin 1 ; Wuestenfeld, Danny 1 ; Shepardson, Aidan 2 ; Coca, Colton 1 ; Lechnir, Drew 5 ; Navarra, Garrett 3
SH: Simpson, Justin 1
SF: Marsee, Jakob 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Camilletti, Mario 2 ; Marsee, Jakob 1 ; Preston, Kade 1 ; Simpson, Justin 1 ; Wuestenfeld, Danny 2 ; Shepardson, Aidan 2 ; Coca, Colton 1 ; Lechnir, Drew 2 ; Morgan IV, Robby 1 ; Navarra, Garrett 1 ; Proctor, Adam 1 ; Dardas, Nick 1
SB: Marsee, Jakob 2 ; Simpson, Justin 1 ; Shepardson, Aidan 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
2
H
4
RBI
1
AB
5
R
2
H
3
RBI
5
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
INF
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
LHP/OF
/ Baseball
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