This weekend we traveled to Mount Pleasant, Mich. to play Central Michigan University.

CMU is in first place going into this weekend, we had to be ready for a tough series.

The weather was miserable for Friday and Saturday’s games. But Sunday ended up being a beautiful day for a ball game.

The first game was a typical Friday night game - both teams’ best pitchers gutting it out to the very end. CMU's starter Josh Collment gave up nine hits over seven innings of work, but he only allowed one run. We hit some really good balls off of him, but the wind was blowing in so hard that they just died when the hit the outfield. Our starting pitcher Evan Smith struck out five over six inning of work, and only gave up two runs. But those two runs were the only runs that CMU would need as they would take the opening game of the series 2-1.

Saturday’s game was definitely one of the most exciting games that I have ever been a part of. For nine innings, both teams battled back and forth.

We were up 3-2 until the fourth inning when CMU's Ben Humphreys hit an absolute bomb to tie the game up. Neither team would score the rest of the game - until extra innings. In the 10th inning, Chris Trembay and Doug Sanders hit back-to-back doubles to put us up 4-3. We felt like we had all the momentum going into the bottom of inning.

But CMU answered right back as Humphreys led the inning off with a single. Then after an error and a sac-fly, they had runners on first and third with one out. CMU's Eric Cannon hit a ball to deep center field. It seemed like everyone in the stadium thought the game was over. But Jared Bartholomew took off on a dead sprint and made a over the head diving catch. Not only was it an amazing catch, it saved the game for us, it did allow the runner to tag up from third but that was the only damage done that inning.

With the score tied 4-4 in the 11th inning, we pilled on four more runs to seal the game. The final score was 8-4, this was a big win for us because we now had a chance to win the series.

After playing in one of the most exciting games of my career on Saturday, I ended up playing in one of the most gut-wrenching games on Sunday. We started off the game on the right foot. We scored two runs in the first inning. But after that, the game went downhill. CMU scored four in the third, then continued to pile it on throughout the rest of the game. We only had five hits the whole game, and we committed five errors.

CMU won 9-2 and won its 12th straight home series. Having five hits and committing five errors will cost you a game every time. After the game, the bus ride home was really quite, we were all really upset about the game and how we played. This type of loss can either make or break a team. I believe that a lot of the guys on the way home were thinking about how they could get better, to help the team get back on the right track.

Brad Winter

(photo courtesy of Kent State Media Relations Office)