Baseball: Chippewas Break Out The Brooms in Athens

The Central Michigan Chippewas came into Athens 10-10 on the season and emerged with three straight wins to start MAC play.

Ohio fell once each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, by scores of 6-3, 10-2, and 4-2 respectively.

The 'Cats were unable to turn hits into runs in all three games, totaling 24 hits but only picking up seven runs over the weekend. Ohio left 26 runners on base over the weekend.

Jake Madsen and freaky-frosh Mitch Longo had the best offensive days at the plate for the series on Sunday as each went 3 of 4 at the dish. Even then, Ohio only managed to score two runs on the day. Longo pushed his season batting average, in this, his freshman campaign, to a sizzling .411.

Central Michigan was led by the bats of Pat MacKenzie, Cody Leichman, Tyler Huntey, and the Regnier brothers: Logan and Nick. The five combined to go 18-for-43 driving in 11 runs in the last two games of the series alone.

Though the Bobcats committed five errors in the series, the team did receive a bit of a pick-me-up in the form of the defensive play from the hot corner.

Third Baseman John Adryan made a couple of nifty plays in Saturday's loss specifically.

"John played well, he's getting better at third base" said Coach Rob Smith. "He's continuing to improve so hopefully he's a player who can continue to develop and give us somebody to help us in the process of building this program."

Overall, it was not the start to MAC play that the 'Cats had hoped for.

Smith was not happy with his team's performance over the weekend, especially so Saturday. "Lack of poise. No more complicated than that" said Smith "...It means you don't walk the leadoff batter. It means you don't balk with the bases loaded. You've gotta have more poise than that."

Ohio will play Eastern Kentucky on the road, then return home to play against Youngstown State in the middle of the week before welcoming the Western Michigan Broncos to Bob Wren Stadium for another weekend of MAC play from March 28-30.