Eagles Clinch Second Straight West Division Crown

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MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Despite an 11-9 setback today at Theunissen Stadium to the Central Michigan University Chippewas, the Eastern Michigan University baseball team captured its second straight Mid-American Conference West Division Championship. An 8-3 win by Western Michigan over Northern Illinois cleared the path for the Eagles to celebrate the top spot in the West.

With the loss, EMU falls to 21-31 (15-7 MAC) while Central Michigan improves to 28-25-1 (12-13 MAC). As of today, the Eagles are guaranteed at least the No. 2 seed in the upcoming MAC Tournament and can clinch the MAC regular season championship and the top seed in the tournament with a win tomorrow over Central Michigan.

“Despite our loss today I am extremely proud of our guys,” said first-year head coach Jake Boss Jr. “To start the season the way we did and battle back during conference play, it just shows that there is no let down with this group. All championship teams have great leaders, and the character of our senior class has proven them to be deserving champions.”

Picked to finish fifth in the division, the Eagles took control of the West Division after the conference-opening series against Miami, sweeping the RedHawks in three games, March 29-30, at Oestrike Stadium and never looked back.

Senior Dan Puls (Alpena, Mich.-Alpena) was charged with the loss today, throwing two-thirds of an inning, allowing six runs. Offensively, true freshman Zack Leonard (Canton, McKinley) went 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBI and one run scored. Juniors Aaron Powell (Clarkston, Mich.-Clarkston), Andrew Marshall (Mason, Mich.-Mason), Jim Gulliver (Allen Park, Mich.-Allen Park) and seniors Steve Bradshaw (Lapeer, Mich.-West) and Josh Ivan (Belleville, Mich.-Belleville) all recorded multi-hit games from the plate.

For the second straight day the Eagles struck first, putting two up in the top of the second to jump to the early lead. Ivan led the inning off with a single through the left side, advancing to third on Marshall double to right field. Senior Mike Boyd (Huntington Woods, Mich.-Berkley) walked on a Dan Taylor wild pitch, allowing Ivan to score from third. Gulliver’s single through the left side drove in Marshall to round out the inning.

After a scoreless third by both teams, the Green and White went back to work, scoring once in the fourth and twice in the fifth to increase its lead to 6-0. In the fourth, a Noah Lankford error at third allowed Marshall, who reached on a fielder’s choice earlier in the inning, to score. In the fifth, Leonard’s double to left-center field was enough to score Jeff Davis (Avondale, Ariz.-Westview) and Ivan, pushing the Eagles lead to 6-0.

After giving up just one hit through four innings, Hoffman ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth. Three singles loaded the bases with just one out. Matt Faiman’s fielder’s choice scored Dale Cornstubble, giving CMU its first run of the game. With runners on first and third, Leonard fielded Sean Hoorelbeke’s grounder at third, throwing to Gulliver at second for the force out to end the inning.

The Green and White offense increased its lead to 8-1 in the sixth inning. Bradshaw’s second double of the day, his team-leading 18th, was followed by Davis reaching on a fielder’s choice. Ivan’s bomb off the left-center wall allowed Bradshaw and Davis to score before he was thrown out at second base.

Central Michigan closed the gap in the bottom of the seventh, scoring four runs on four hits, cutting the deficit to 8-5. Hoffman ran into trouble after walking the first two batters of the inning then giving up a two-RBI double to Tyler Stovall that opened the floodgates. The Chippewas tacked on two more before Puls closed out the inning, getting Kipke to groundout to second base.

A balk by Kline in the top of the eighth allowed Gulliver to score, putting the Eagles up 9-5. Gulliver had drilled a double off the right-field wall to lead the inning off.

The Chippewas exploded for six runs in the bottom half of the eighth, taking an 11-9 lead. CMU took advantage of three Green and White errors in the field and two walks, batting around the order to take its first lead of the game.

CMU was able to hold off a late rally by the Eagles in the bottom of the ninth, as Chris Kupillas held on for his seventh save of the year.

The Eagles and Chippewas close out their three-game set tomorrow at Theunissen Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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