Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
10-32-1, 5-12
Toledo
15-26, 3-12
Baseball Overpowers Toledo to Earn Second MAC-Series Win
4/27/2019 4:50:00 PM | Baseball
John Rensel Jr. knocks two RBIs; Thomas House earns first win as an Eagle
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) - Senior John Rensel Jr. (Tallmadge, Ohio-Tallmadge) provided two RBIs and sophomore Thomas House (Ross, Ohio-Ross) earned his first-career win en route to the Eastern Michigan University baseball team's series-clinching win over the University of Toledo, 5-3, April 27, at Oestrike Stadium.
After falling behind twice in the early going, 1-0 in the third, and 2-1 in the fourth, Eastern (10-32-1, 5-12 MAC) gained momentum in every aspect of the game, riding stellar pitching and solid at-bats in its win over the Rockets.
Down 1-0, the Eastern offense broke through to tie the game in the third. With two outs and no runners on, redshirt sophomore Jeff Timko (Rochester Hills, Mich.- Brother Rice) drew a walk and advanced to second with his eighth swiped bag of the season. After junior Zachary Owings (Saline, Mich.-Saline) was hit by a pitch in the ensuing at-bat, sophomore Nate Jones (Battle Creek, Mich.-Lakeview) popped an RBI single to right-center, giving Eastern its first run of the game and tying the game, 1-1.
Trailing once again, 2-1, in the fourth inning, the Eagles maintained their momentum at the dish. Senior Cameron Cruz (Chandler Ariz.-Hamilton (Mesa C.C.)) began the inning with a double down the left-field line, advancing to third when freshman Taylor Hopkins (Mason, Ohio-Archbishop Moeller) laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt. Taking advantage of the scoring opportunity, sophomore Jared Kauffman (Springboro, Ohio- Bishop Fenwick) knocked an RBI single, tying the game at two apiece. The Eagles regained the lead in the next at-bat when Rensel laced an RBI single to left, scoring Kauffman and putting Eastern ahead, 3-2. An RBI double off the bat of Owings pushed the Eagles ahead, 4-2, through four innings and EMU never looked back.
In total, the EMU offense scored five runs on 11 hits from seven different players, overpowering Toledo pitching for the second consecutive day in the win.
On the bump, sophomore Holden Cook (Oklahoma City, Okla.-Casady (Murray State)) made his seventh start of the season for the Green and White. Dialed-in from his first pitch, the righty blanked Toledo through the first two innings. In all, Cook tossed 3.2 innings, allowing two runs on five hits in his 90-pitch effort.
On in relief, House delivered an excellent performance, going 4.1 innings for Eastern. Coming on in the fourth, the right-hander pitched the Eagles out of a bases-loaded jam, limiting Toledo's damage to just one run. House remained in control through the rest of his effort, blanking the Rockets in all but the sixth inning, where they scored a single run to edge back within one, 4-3.
Following the sixth inning blemish, House finished his outing with two consecutive 1-2-3 innings, retiring Toledo in order in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. In all, House allowed just one run on three hits while striking out a career-high six. With his performance, House earned his first win of his EMU career.
Entering the game to close-out the Rockets in the ninth, redshirt junior Caleb Hester (Coloma, Mich.-Coloma) tossed a near-perfect inning, giving up one hit and picking up one strikeout to register his second save of the season.
With the win, Eastern has now won two Mid-American Conference series in 2019, taking 2-of-3 from Bowling Green State University, April 5-7, before taking the first two games of its series with Toledo, April 26-27. Both series wins have come at Oestrike Stadium.
The Eagles return to the diamond in search of a series-sweep over Toledo, tomorrow, April 28. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. Be sure to follow @EMU_Baseball on Twitter, and EMUEagles.com for the latest updates regarding possible schedule changes.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: House, Thomas (1-3)
L: S.-P., Layne (2-5)
S: Hester, Caleb (2)
Batting:
2B: MEYERS, Chris 1 ; MOHNICKEY, Mark 1
RBI: BOSS, Brad 2 ; SERVELLO, John 1
SH: SCHWARTZENBERGER, Z. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: MEYERS, Chris 1 ; EITNIEAR, Thomas 1 ; MOHNICKEY, Mark 1
Batting:
2B: Owings, Zachary 1 ; Cruz, Cameron 1
3B: Hopkins, Taylor 1
RBI: Owings, Zachary 1 ; Jones, Nick 1 ; Kauffman, Jared 1 ; Rensel Jr., John 2
SH: Hopkins, Taylor 1
SF: Rensel Jr., John 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Timko, Jeff 1 ; Cruz, Cameron 1 ; Hopkins, Taylor 1 ; Kauffman, Jared 1 ; Rensel Jr., John 1
SB: Timko, Jeff 1 ; Jones, Nick 1 ; Kauffman, Jared 1 ; Rensel Jr., John 1
CS: Owings, Zachary 1
HBP: Owings, Zachary 1
