Baseball Ends Home Schedule as Rival Chippewas Come to Town

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) -- Following a 12-4 setback to Michigan State University in a mid-week matchup, the Eastern Michigan University baseball team wraps up the home portion of the schedule with a three-game set against rival Central Michigan Universiy, May 9-11. The series begins Friday, May 9, at 6 p.m. under the lights of Oestrike Stadium. The following day, May 10, eight seniors will be recognized on the field before the game as part of Senior Day festivities; first pitch for Saturday afternoon is slated for 3 p.m. The final game of the series will be Military Appreciation Day as well as a Mother's Day celebration. The Eagles (17-30, 4-17 MAC) and Chippewas (29-20, 14-7 MAC) will take the diamond for the series finale at 1 p.m., May 11.

MID-WEEK REVIEW: Trying to avenge a loss earlier in the season to Michigan State University, the EMU baseball team could not achieve its goal. A seven-run seventh inning propelled the Spartans past the Eagles, 12-4, May 7, at McLane Baseball Stadium. EMU scored three runs in the sixth to bring the game within one, but MSU opened up the scoring as the clouds opened up with rain in East Lansing, Mich. Lee Longo continued his strong season as the leading hitter in the MAC, going 3-for-4 with two RBI, including two doubles to bring his career total to 52 two-baggers. John Rubino also added three hits and two RBI to keep his hot hitting going as the two and three hitters recorded six of the Eagles' 10 hits.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHTS: On Saturday, May 10, the EMU baseball program honors eight seniors who have helped transform the Eagles in their time on campus. During their tenure at EMU, the team has posted 105 victories, including three wins over ranked opponents. The seniors have led the Eagles during the past four seasons, starting their careers with a 37-22 record in 2011 when the Green and White reached the MAC Tournament semifinals for the third consecutive season.

#9 Kristian Calibuso: Having appeared in 51 career games for the Eagles, Calibuso has posted a career earned run average of 5.43 in 63 innings pitched. His six career saves rank him eleventh in EMU history. The Brandon, Fla. native has struck out 63 batters in his career, while only walking 50. The hard-throwing righty was fantastic during the 2011 season, serving as the team's closer. As the Eagles won 37 games that season, Calibuso converted five saves and held a 3-0 record to go along with an ERA of 2.55. After undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2012, he bounced back with a solid 2013 season with a 3.48 ERA in 16 appearances. Academically, Kristian majored in marketing at EMU.

#10 Lee Longo: Having played in 193 career games for the Eagles, Longo has started in 189 games and will go down in EMU history as one of the program's best hitters. The Mayfield, Ohio native has a career batting average of .315 at the plate, including .376 this season to lead the Mid-American Conference. Lee has etched his name in the EMU record books in multiple categories, ranking fourth all-time with 52 career doubles, sixth with 143 RBI and seventh with 223 career hits. In 2013, he served primarily as the team's designated hitter, blasting seven home runs to earn All-MAC First Team honors. This season, Longo has led the EMU bats in nearly every statistical category; his 19 doubles top the MAC and are tied for the 12th-most in NCAA Division I baseball. As a business major, Longo shines in the classroom and collected Academic All-MAC accolades a season ago.

#14 Dae Bowden: Having played in 126 career games for EMU, Bowden has made 52 starts. The Chicago, Ill. native has tallied 48 hits, including 10 doubles and five triples, to go along with 48 runs scored. Bowden has stolen 13 bases throughout his career, swiping seven bases in as many attempts this season. He also holds a career fielding percentage of .961, committing only four errors throughout his four seasons donning the Green and White. Bowden majored in pre-engineering as an Eagle.

#15 Sam Ott: A native of Canton, Mich., Ott has been a workhorse for the Eagles throughout his career. He has made 178 starts in 189 total games, including 175 consecutive starts that date back to the 2011 season. His streak of consecutive starts ranks as the fifth most out of any active Division I baseball player. Sam is also ranked fifth in EMU history with 50 career doubles. He has always found ways to get on base, tallying 117 career walks that tie for the fifth-most in program history. As a career .314 hitter, Ott has tallied 210 hits as an Eagle, cracking the top-10 in EMU laurels. Before becoming the team's starting right fielder in 2013, he claimed All-MAC First Team honors in 2012 as the league's top designated hitter. The following year, he paced the EMU sluggers in nearly every hitting category, while also finding success in the classroom to earn Academic All-District First Team and Academic All-MAC honors as a management major. This season, Ott is batting .315 and leads the team in runs scored with 43.

#28 Adam Sonabend: Having appeared in 97 career games for the Eastern in just two seasons, Sonabend has started 95 of them, primarily behind the plate. In both seasons as an Eagle, Sonabend was named to the Johnny Bench Award Watch List, the award given annually to the nation's best collegiate catcher. He had a strong first season donning the Green and White, batting .325 to collect All-MAC Second Team honors as well as All-America First Team accolades by the Jewish Sports Review. As a business major, the Scottsdale, Ariz. native also earned a spot on the Academic All-MAC team in 2013. Sonabend is a career .284 hitter and has recorded four hits in one game four times throughout his EMU career.

#29 Paul Schaak: Having pitched in 40 career games for EMU, Schaak has made 18 starts on the mound, posting a 5-8 record. A native of Winkler, Manitoba, Schaak has thrown 127 innings throughout his time at Eastern, holding a 4.89 ERA and striking out 103 hitters while only walking 35. The southpaw struck out a career-high nine batters against Butler last season. This season, he leads the EMU pitching staff with a low 3.11 ERA along with striking out a team-best 35 opposing hitters in 37.2 innings. In the classroom, Schaak was a psychology major.

#35 Zane Birchler: Coming primarily out of the bullpen, Birchler has pitched in 14 career games for the Green and White. The Plymouth, Mich. native made four appearances in 2013, holding an impressive ERA of 2.25 to help contribute to three EMU victories. He posted a career-high four strikeouts against UT Martin earlier this season. In his career, Birchler holds a 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. As a student at EMU, Zane majored in apparels, textiles and merchandising.

#39 Steve Weber: The tall right-hander has pitched in 55 games throughout his career as an Eagle, including 38 starts on the mound. Weber's 16-15 career record give him the 16th-most wins in program history. In 2012, the North Royalton, Ohio native was drafted in the 33rd round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Miami Marlins. That year, he tossed three complete games, including a 10-inning outing in the MAC Tournament against Miami, tying a tournament record for inning pitched in a single game. After sitting out last season due to injury, Weber returned for one final season as an Eagle, making six appearances through the first part of the season that included nailing down a save in the season-opener against nationally-ranked Clemson. In his last outing donning the Green and White, he shut down Kent State, retiring 18 straight batters at one point to pick up the victory. An Academic All-MAC honoree in 2012, Weber has been a business major while at EMU.

CHIP DIP: Central Michigan enters the weekend with a 29-20 record, including 14-7 in MAC play as the Chippewas chase Ball State for the MAC West Division crown. CMU suffered a 7-1 loss to the University of Michigan during the week, May 6, after taking two-of-three against the University of Toledo in the past weekend series, May 2-4. Through the past four games, Central has reached double digits in the two victories while scoring just one run in both losses. Logan Regnier and Cody Leichman pace the CMU bats with averages of .315 and .314, respectively, as Leichman's seven home runs lead the team. Pat MacKenzie holds a team-high .425 on-base percentage due in large part to a MAC-best 40 walks that also rank eighth in the nation. On the mound, CMU will likely send out Jordan Foley, Pat Kaminska and Nick Deeg for the weekend rotation. Kiminska is the ace of the staff with a team-best 2.29 ERA and an impressive 7-2 record.

HISTORY AGAINST CMU: EMU leads the all-time series with the Chippewas, 89-62. However, the Eagles mustered just one win up in Mt. Pleasant in last year's three-game set between the two rivals, April 26-28, 2013. Eastern took the opener 7-3 before falling 1-10 and 9-11 in the final two games, hitting just .172 as a team throughout the series. In the lone victory, lefty Brian Hill pitched 6.1 innings, allowing just two earned runs on six hits and four strikeouts. Offensively, the Eagles needed a mere five hits thanks to CMU's five defensive miscues. Lee Longo had the hot bat, going 2-for-4 with an RBI. Under Head Coach Jay Alexander, the Eagles are 7-10 against their rivals to the north.

LISTEN LIVE ON EAGLE ALL-ACCESS: The series between the Eagles and Chippewas can be heard live on the airwaves of Eagle All-Access free of charge at EMUEagles.com/showcase. Veteran play-by-play voice of the Eagles Chad Bush and Greg Steiner will have the call throughout the weekend, beginning with game one at 5:50 p.m. on Friday, May 9.

FINDING THE NATIONAL RANKS: The EMU sluggers have found the charts in the the latest national rankings (May 8, 2014). The Eagles rank seventh in the nation in stolen bases (85), trailing nation-leading Wofford with 133. In terms of total doubles, EMU's 90 two-base hits are 30th in the country, while the Eagles' 1.91 doubles per game rank 36th nationally. Head Coach Jay Alexander's squad leads the MAC in base on balls with 205, a mark that stands at No. 35 in NCAA Division I baseball. Tallying 5.9 runs per game, the Green and White is the 59th-best scoring team in the nation, moving up 24 spots from last week. Individually, Lee Longo cracks the top-50 in doubles (12th) batting average (41st), while John Rubino is 36th in the nation with 21 stolen bases.

DOUBLING DOWN: Two current Eagles are climbing up the program's all-time doubles list. Seniors Lee Longo and Sam Ott have recorded 52 and 50 doubles throughout their careers at Eastern, respectively, ranking fourth and fifth in EMU laurels. Longo leads the team in doubles this season with 19 while Ott has smacked 12 two-baggers throughout the 2014 campaign. The duo is chasing Derrick Peterson, who sits in third with 54 career doubles, looking to reach his total before season's end. Eastern Michigan hit king Zack Leonard holds the all-time record with 63 doubles during his four-year career.

ETCHING HIS NAME IN HISTORY: Along with ranking fourth all-time with 52 career doubles at Eastern Michigan, senior Lee Longo is moving up other career charts in EMU laurels. He is sixth with 143 career RBI, trailing Scott Barrett by two for fifth on that list. With 223 career hits, Longo ranks seventh in program history, one hit away from tying Jeff Davis for sixth. The EMU slugger has the eighth-most at bats out of anyone to ever step on the diamond wearing the Green and White. Although he sits in eighth with 708 career at bats, Longo will most likely leapfrog to fifth on the career list following the weekend as he is just 10 at bats away from reaching that spot.

THE MOST IMPORTANT INNING: A good indicator of the outcomes of EMU baseball games this season is to see how the Eagles fare after the sixth inning. The Green and White is 13-3 when leading after the sixth as well as 4-1 when tied with its opponent through the first two-thirds of the game. In contrast, the Eagles are 0-26 when they are behind through six innings of play. Moreover, Eastern is currently outscoring the opposition, 49-20, in the sixth inning.

LEE'S CLUTCH HITTING: When the Eagles need a hit with runners on base, there is not anyone that Head Coach Jay Alexander would rather have at the plate than senior first baseman Lee Longo. While he leads the team with a .376 average at the plate, the Mayfield, Ohio native thrives in pressure situations. With runners in scoring position, Longo is batting an impressive .500 (33-for-66), including a .733 clip of knocking in the runner on third with less than two outs (11-for-15). Another impressive stat is Longo's clutch hitting; with two outs in the inning as he has hit at an incredible .508 rate (31-for-61) with 24 RBI.

IRON MAN OTT: EMU looks to have its own Cal Ripken, Jr. as one Eagle has emerged as a baseball iron man. Since the end of his redshirt-freshman season in 2011, Sam Ott has started every game for Head Coach Jay Alexander. The Canton, Mich. native started the last 18 games of the 2011 season while starting all 110 games his sophomore and junior campaigns. He got in the lineup for all 56 games in 2012 primarily as the designated hitter while he had 54 starts in 2013, with the majority of them coming in right field. To kick off the 2014 slate, Ott has started all 47 games in right field to total 175 straight starts and counting for the EMU redshirt-senior. Ott is one-of-20 NCAA Division I baseball players that boasts an active streak of over 150 starts. His 175 consecutive starts rank fifth in that category behind: Justin Glass, Cincinnati (214); Ethan Gross, Memphis (203); Ross Kivett, Kansas State (200); Nick Favatella, Rutgers (190).

BETTER WITH DUCKS ON THE POND: With runners on the base, the pressure may seem to rise for hitters as they try to find a way to get their teammates around to score. However, the Eagles welcome the pressure by hitting at a better average with runners on than with the bases empty. EMU sluggers are hitting at a .301 clip with Eagles on the base path, including a .333 average with the bases loaded. When the bases are empty, Eastern is hitting .232 as a team.

LONGO LEADS THE WAY: First baseman Lee Longo has had an incredible final season as an Eagle. He is the team leader in multiple hitting categories, pacing the Green and White in batting average (.376), hits (65), RBI (44), total bases (91), doubles (19), hit by pitch (13), slugging percentage (.526) and on-base percentage (.453). Moreover, Longo's stats have found the top of the Mid-American Conference rankings. The EMU slugger is the MAC's leading hitter with a .376 batting average and is tied for the conference lead in doubles. Longo is also third in the MAC in on-base percentage, while also ranking four in RBI and slugging percentage.

ONE MORE WEEK: The Eagles will put a lid on the 2014 campaign with four games next week. First, the Green and White host the University of Notre Dame, May 13, in the final home contest of the season. Following the mid-week non-conference matchup, EMU will head south down US-23 for a series against the University of Toledo Rockets, May 15-17, for the final three games of the season. All four games will be available to listen to live on Eagle All-Access.

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