Eastern Michigan Athletics
Thursday, May 17
Toledo, Ohio
3:05 p.m.
Eastern Michigan University
at
Toledo
Photo by: EMU Athletics/Randy Mascharka
Baseball Wraps Up Regular Season May 17-19 at Toledo
5/16/2012 4:43:00 PM | Baseball
Eagles still have a shot at the MAC West crown
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YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com)– The Eastern Michigan University baseball team will take on the University of Toledo in the final series of the 2012 regular season Thursday-Saturday, May 17-19, in Toledo, Ohio. Thursday's and Friday's contests are slated for 3:05 p.m., while Saturday's game starts at 1:05 p.m.
EAGLES AND ROCKETS CLOSE OUT 2012 IN TOLEDO: The Eagles (24-26; 14-10 MAC) enter the weekend in third place and two games behind UT (27-25; 16-8 MAC) for top spot in the Mid-American Conference West Division. Central Michigan University (28-25; 15-9 MAC) currently holds second place and is a game ahead of the Eagles.
SO MANY CHOICES: The Eagles can finish no lower than sixth place in the MAC standings, but they also have a chance to finish as high as second overall with a sweep of the Rockets this weekend. Three victories would put EMU one game ahead of Toledo and, depending on how the Chippewas fare against Western Michigan, still claim the West Division title. Eastern Michigan last won a division championship in 2008, when the squad also went on to win the MAC Tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament.
ROCKET POWER: The all-time series between Eastern Michigan and Toledo has been dominated by the Green and White to the tune of an 87-49 mark. Last season, the Eagles took two games of a three-game set over the Rockets, May 13-15. Since Head Coach Jay Alexander's arrival in 2009, the Eagles own a 5-7 record against their division foes including a 1-2 ledger in MAC Tournament games. A win against UT this weekend would give the Green and White six conference series wins this year.
LISTEN TO EMU BASEBALL FOR FREE ONLINE!: The EMU Athletic Media Relations Department is pleased to announce that all 2012 MAC Tournament games will be broadcast for free (audio only) on EMUEagles.com/showcase. Tune in to hear Chad Bush call play-by-play action and Greg Steiner and Chris Puzzuoli provide color commentary.
SEE YOU IN AVON: Eastern Michigan's decisive 11-7 win over Buffalo, May 12, clinched the squad a spot in the MAC Tournament for a seventh straight time dating back to 2006. Thanks to a come-from-behind, 4-3 triumph over the Bulls the following afternoon, EMU locked up at least the No. 6 seed. The Eagles enter their final MAC series against West Division leader the University of Toledo by two games and second-place Central Michigan University by one.
Winning the West Division would guarantee the Eagles second place headed into the MAC Tournament since Kent State has already dashed away with top honors.
ONE OR THE OTHER: The MAC Tournament will call a new venue– All-Pro Freight Stadium– home for the first time in five years. From 2008-2011, VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio served as the host site of the event. EMU and Kent State were the only two teams to celebrate a MAC Championship in Chilicothe as the Eagles captured the crown in 2008 and the Golden Flashes won the following three years.
EMU has played at the venue located in Avon, Ohio three times since the park opened in 2009 and has racked up a 2-1 record against Cleveland State University. The Vikings used the stadium as their home ballpark before discontinuing the program after last season.
LEAN ON ME: As the 2012 season winds down, several EMU players are still heating up with three games to play. Five Eagles – Adam Dennison (.400 batting average), Brent Ohrman (.370), John Rubino (.350), Tucker Rubino (.324), and Lee Longo (.300) – go into the series with Toledo hitting .300-or-better over the previous 10 games. Of those five players, Ohrman and Rubino (Tucker) have started in all 10 of those contests and Rubino (John) and Longo have each gone errorless during that time. Dennison has gone 6-for-15 with a pair of RBI.
CONFERENCE PITCHING NUMBERS: After 24 conference games, Eastern Michigan pitchers own a collective ERA of 5.21. Joe Battistelli (3-6) owns the staff's best ERA in MAC games with a 3.04 in 11 relief appearances and has converted six saves. Steve Weber (7-3) has the best record (6-1) and also has a club-best 35 strikeouts against MAC hitters. Opposing batters are hitting at a .302 clip with 101 doubles, 13 triples and 26 homers.
FIVE-OR-LESS: The statistics show that the Eagles give themselves a much better chance of winning when allowing five runs or less. EMU is 18-4 in that situation compared with 6-22 when giving up more than five tallies in a game.
DO-OVERS: Tuesday's (May 15) non-conference clash between the Eagles and Golden Flashes marked the first time two MAC teams have played each other inside All-Pro Freight Stadium. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they were unable to hold onto a 7-2 lead as KSU put together a six-run rally including a ninth-inning walk-off sacrifice fly to win, 8-7.
Although EMU and KSU both play out of the same conference, Tuesday's game was not counted in the MAC standings. With the loss, the Green and White finished its 2012 non-conference schedule with a 10-16 record and fell to 1-3 in neutral-site contests. In their last 13 outings against Kent State, the Eagles dropped to 3-10.
BIG BULLIES: After sustaining a lopsided 18-3 defeat Friday, May 11, to Buffalo, the Eagles hunkered down to take the final two games from the Bulls by scores of 11-7 and 4-3, respectively. On Saturday, Brent Ohrman posted a 6-for-6 outing and Steve Weber (7-3) notched his fourth straight win as EMU secured a spot in the MAC Tournament and evened up the series.
On Sunday, the Eagles were down to their final strike and trailing, 2-0, when they rattled off four straight hits and benefited from sloppy UB defense to score four times in the ninth and sneak away with a 4-2 win. With two runners on, Bo Kinder hit a pinch-hit single to right and ended up making it all the way around the bases on a botched relay throw by Buffalo's first baseman as Kinder tried to stretch his knock into a double. Collin Taylor made his first MAC start Sunday, but settled for a no-decision despite giving up just one earned run in 7.1 innings.
LIVING DANGEROUSLY: EMU's ninth-inning comeback Sunday against Buffalo was not only unexpected, it was downright rare. When trailing headed into the final inning this season, the Eagles are now 3-21. In contrast, the Green and White is 20-1 when it owns the lead with just three outs to make.
WEBER'S WORLD: With another win against Buffalo, May 12, Steve Weber (7-3) moved to 6-0 in his last seven starts which includes four straight wins and has dropped his season ERA from a 7.78 mark after his April 7 outing at Western Michigan to 5.42. The junior right hander earned his first-career complete game in a three-hit, 4-0, shutout of Ball State Saturday, April 21. It marked the first complete game for an EMU pitcher to that point this season.
He was then honored by the MAC as the Co-Pitcher of the Week for a second time in 2012 after tossing a second complete-game shutout in three starts Saturday, May 5, versus Bowling Green. Weber led the Eagles to a 6-0 decision over the Falcons to clinch the series for the Green and White.
GET THOSE BATS GOING: After hitting a season-high .293 batting average following the series against Central Michigan, April 13-15, the EMU bats have cooled a bit to the tune of a .279 clip. Brent Ohrman (.355), Ben Magsig (.314) and Sam Ott (.314) are the only three EMU players batting above .300 despite the Eagles holding the second-best on-base percentage in the MAC (.382). KSU is first in that category at .384.
MIGHTY MAGSIG: Ben Magsig's team-best 46 walks this season have increased his career total to 113 and have earned him a fifth place on the EMU all-time list in that category. The record for walks in a career is held by EMU great Glenn Gulliver, who received 140 free passes from 1973-76.
The Okemos, Mich. native has notched several other important feats up to this point in 2012. His .493 on-base percentage is the best in the MAC by .043 and his walk total is tops by five free passes. A 32-game on-base streak from March 11-May 12 was the best in his stellar three-year career and was the longest such stretch for an EMU player since Jim Gulliver reached in 42 consecutive games in 2009.
TAKE YOUR BASE: EMU is on pace to walk 278 times this season, which would fall just shy of the school's single-season record of 286 set in 1982. In 50 games, the Eagles have drawn a MAC-best 260 walks for an average of 5.2 free passes per contest. The closest challenger to the Eagles' walk total in the conference is Central Michigan (233). Nationally, EMU ranks fourth out of 291 teams in the base on balls category.
Eastern Michigan walked a total of 234 times last season for second-most in the Mid-American Conference to trail only CMU (235).
OHRMAN'S CLAIM TO FAME: With an outstanding senior season, outfielder Brent Ohrman has solidified his spot in the EMU record books. The Adrian, Mich. native is just completed a career-best 23-game hitting streak which extended from March 16-April 26 and also posted a stretch of 26 games in which he reached base safely. With 50 career stolen bases including 18 this season, he is12th all-time at EMU. He is also 13th with 37 career doubles, eighth in runs scored with 146, tied for third in at-bats with 742, and fifth in hits with 226.
KINDER AND OHRMAN GET ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT NODS: Outfielders Bo Kinder and Brent Ohrman have been named to the 2012 Capital One Baseball Academic All-District V first team. Ohrman and Kinder will now go on the national ballot for All-America recognition. This is the fourth consecutive year that EMU baseball has put at least one member on the Academic All-District squad and the second consecutive time they have had multiple players on the team in the same season.
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Live Stats
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com)– The Eastern Michigan University baseball team will take on the University of Toledo in the final series of the 2012 regular season Thursday-Saturday, May 17-19, in Toledo, Ohio. Thursday's and Friday's contests are slated for 3:05 p.m., while Saturday's game starts at 1:05 p.m.
EAGLES AND ROCKETS CLOSE OUT 2012 IN TOLEDO: The Eagles (24-26; 14-10 MAC) enter the weekend in third place and two games behind UT (27-25; 16-8 MAC) for top spot in the Mid-American Conference West Division. Central Michigan University (28-25; 15-9 MAC) currently holds second place and is a game ahead of the Eagles.
SO MANY CHOICES: The Eagles can finish no lower than sixth place in the MAC standings, but they also have a chance to finish as high as second overall with a sweep of the Rockets this weekend. Three victories would put EMU one game ahead of Toledo and, depending on how the Chippewas fare against Western Michigan, still claim the West Division title. Eastern Michigan last won a division championship in 2008, when the squad also went on to win the MAC Tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament.
ROCKET POWER: The all-time series between Eastern Michigan and Toledo has been dominated by the Green and White to the tune of an 87-49 mark. Last season, the Eagles took two games of a three-game set over the Rockets, May 13-15. Since Head Coach Jay Alexander's arrival in 2009, the Eagles own a 5-7 record against their division foes including a 1-2 ledger in MAC Tournament games. A win against UT this weekend would give the Green and White six conference series wins this year.
LISTEN TO EMU BASEBALL FOR FREE ONLINE!: The EMU Athletic Media Relations Department is pleased to announce that all 2012 MAC Tournament games will be broadcast for free (audio only) on EMUEagles.com/showcase. Tune in to hear Chad Bush call play-by-play action and Greg Steiner and Chris Puzzuoli provide color commentary.
SEE YOU IN AVON: Eastern Michigan's decisive 11-7 win over Buffalo, May 12, clinched the squad a spot in the MAC Tournament for a seventh straight time dating back to 2006. Thanks to a come-from-behind, 4-3 triumph over the Bulls the following afternoon, EMU locked up at least the No. 6 seed. The Eagles enter their final MAC series against West Division leader the University of Toledo by two games and second-place Central Michigan University by one.
Winning the West Division would guarantee the Eagles second place headed into the MAC Tournament since Kent State has already dashed away with top honors.
ONE OR THE OTHER: The MAC Tournament will call a new venue– All-Pro Freight Stadium– home for the first time in five years. From 2008-2011, VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio served as the host site of the event. EMU and Kent State were the only two teams to celebrate a MAC Championship in Chilicothe as the Eagles captured the crown in 2008 and the Golden Flashes won the following three years.
EMU has played at the venue located in Avon, Ohio three times since the park opened in 2009 and has racked up a 2-1 record against Cleveland State University. The Vikings used the stadium as their home ballpark before discontinuing the program after last season.
LEAN ON ME: As the 2012 season winds down, several EMU players are still heating up with three games to play. Five Eagles – Adam Dennison (.400 batting average), Brent Ohrman (.370), John Rubino (.350), Tucker Rubino (.324), and Lee Longo (.300) – go into the series with Toledo hitting .300-or-better over the previous 10 games. Of those five players, Ohrman and Rubino (Tucker) have started in all 10 of those contests and Rubino (John) and Longo have each gone errorless during that time. Dennison has gone 6-for-15 with a pair of RBI.
CONFERENCE PITCHING NUMBERS: After 24 conference games, Eastern Michigan pitchers own a collective ERA of 5.21. Joe Battistelli (3-6) owns the staff's best ERA in MAC games with a 3.04 in 11 relief appearances and has converted six saves. Steve Weber (7-3) has the best record (6-1) and also has a club-best 35 strikeouts against MAC hitters. Opposing batters are hitting at a .302 clip with 101 doubles, 13 triples and 26 homers.
FIVE-OR-LESS: The statistics show that the Eagles give themselves a much better chance of winning when allowing five runs or less. EMU is 18-4 in that situation compared with 6-22 when giving up more than five tallies in a game.
DO-OVERS: Tuesday's (May 15) non-conference clash between the Eagles and Golden Flashes marked the first time two MAC teams have played each other inside All-Pro Freight Stadium. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they were unable to hold onto a 7-2 lead as KSU put together a six-run rally including a ninth-inning walk-off sacrifice fly to win, 8-7.
Although EMU and KSU both play out of the same conference, Tuesday's game was not counted in the MAC standings. With the loss, the Green and White finished its 2012 non-conference schedule with a 10-16 record and fell to 1-3 in neutral-site contests. In their last 13 outings against Kent State, the Eagles dropped to 3-10.
BIG BULLIES: After sustaining a lopsided 18-3 defeat Friday, May 11, to Buffalo, the Eagles hunkered down to take the final two games from the Bulls by scores of 11-7 and 4-3, respectively. On Saturday, Brent Ohrman posted a 6-for-6 outing and Steve Weber (7-3) notched his fourth straight win as EMU secured a spot in the MAC Tournament and evened up the series.
On Sunday, the Eagles were down to their final strike and trailing, 2-0, when they rattled off four straight hits and benefited from sloppy UB defense to score four times in the ninth and sneak away with a 4-2 win. With two runners on, Bo Kinder hit a pinch-hit single to right and ended up making it all the way around the bases on a botched relay throw by Buffalo's first baseman as Kinder tried to stretch his knock into a double. Collin Taylor made his first MAC start Sunday, but settled for a no-decision despite giving up just one earned run in 7.1 innings.
LIVING DANGEROUSLY: EMU's ninth-inning comeback Sunday against Buffalo was not only unexpected, it was downright rare. When trailing headed into the final inning this season, the Eagles are now 3-21. In contrast, the Green and White is 20-1 when it owns the lead with just three outs to make.
WEBER'S WORLD: With another win against Buffalo, May 12, Steve Weber (7-3) moved to 6-0 in his last seven starts which includes four straight wins and has dropped his season ERA from a 7.78 mark after his April 7 outing at Western Michigan to 5.42. The junior right hander earned his first-career complete game in a three-hit, 4-0, shutout of Ball State Saturday, April 21. It marked the first complete game for an EMU pitcher to that point this season.
He was then honored by the MAC as the Co-Pitcher of the Week for a second time in 2012 after tossing a second complete-game shutout in three starts Saturday, May 5, versus Bowling Green. Weber led the Eagles to a 6-0 decision over the Falcons to clinch the series for the Green and White.
GET THOSE BATS GOING: After hitting a season-high .293 batting average following the series against Central Michigan, April 13-15, the EMU bats have cooled a bit to the tune of a .279 clip. Brent Ohrman (.355), Ben Magsig (.314) and Sam Ott (.314) are the only three EMU players batting above .300 despite the Eagles holding the second-best on-base percentage in the MAC (.382). KSU is first in that category at .384.
MIGHTY MAGSIG: Ben Magsig's team-best 46 walks this season have increased his career total to 113 and have earned him a fifth place on the EMU all-time list in that category. The record for walks in a career is held by EMU great Glenn Gulliver, who received 140 free passes from 1973-76.
The Okemos, Mich. native has notched several other important feats up to this point in 2012. His .493 on-base percentage is the best in the MAC by .043 and his walk total is tops by five free passes. A 32-game on-base streak from March 11-May 12 was the best in his stellar three-year career and was the longest such stretch for an EMU player since Jim Gulliver reached in 42 consecutive games in 2009.
TAKE YOUR BASE: EMU is on pace to walk 278 times this season, which would fall just shy of the school's single-season record of 286 set in 1982. In 50 games, the Eagles have drawn a MAC-best 260 walks for an average of 5.2 free passes per contest. The closest challenger to the Eagles' walk total in the conference is Central Michigan (233). Nationally, EMU ranks fourth out of 291 teams in the base on balls category.
Eastern Michigan walked a total of 234 times last season for second-most in the Mid-American Conference to trail only CMU (235).
OHRMAN'S CLAIM TO FAME: With an outstanding senior season, outfielder Brent Ohrman has solidified his spot in the EMU record books. The Adrian, Mich. native is just completed a career-best 23-game hitting streak which extended from March 16-April 26 and also posted a stretch of 26 games in which he reached base safely. With 50 career stolen bases including 18 this season, he is12th all-time at EMU. He is also 13th with 37 career doubles, eighth in runs scored with 146, tied for third in at-bats with 742, and fifth in hits with 226.
KINDER AND OHRMAN GET ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT NODS: Outfielders Bo Kinder and Brent Ohrman have been named to the 2012 Capital One Baseball Academic All-District V first team. Ohrman and Kinder will now go on the national ballot for All-America recognition. This is the fourth consecutive year that EMU baseball has put at least one member on the Academic All-District squad and the second consecutive time they have had multiple players on the team in the same season.
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