MT. PLEASANT, Mich. - The Davenport baseball team and Central Michigan met for the first time since 2019 when the Panthers won 26-19. Today's result was not as favorable as the Chippewas beat DU for the third time in four tries with a 14-4, seven-inning victory at Theunissen Stadium. The Panthers played their only NCAA Division I opponent this season and are now 25-11 overall, while CMU is now 15-22.
The Chippewas opened up a 6-0 lead in the second inning, but two errors by the Panthers helped to extend the inning. The first error was a throwing error off a single that allowed a runner to advance just one base. The other one was more hurtful as a dropped pop-up led to four more runs in the inning. With the Chippewas holding a 3-0 lead with two outs, Mikey Murphy hit his fourth home run of the season which was a three-run momentum swinger for a 6-0 advantage.
Davenport got their first run in the top of the third as
Chase Kemp singled to lead off the inning and advanced to third on a one-out double by
Sam Clay.
Coltrane Rubner drove him home with a groundout to second base. Central Michigan got that run back in the bottom of the third and then DU scored twice in the top of the fourth.
Xander Reisbig hit his sixth home run of the season to lead off the inning. He has now homered in three of his last four games.
Dylan Pawenski walked and scored with one out as Kemp doubled to left center to make it 7-3.
CMU increased their lead to 11-3 in the bottom half of the fourth. The big hit was a two-run home run by Cayden Smith (his fifth of the season) which made it 11-3. Central Michigan added three more runs in the fifth as Cole Prout had a two-RBI double with no outs and Nathan Ball had a RBI single with two outs for the 14-3 lead.
Davenport finished the scoring in the top of the sixth as Pawenski hit his eighth home run of the season to left center. Clay had a strong game going 3-for-4 at the plate in the leadoff spot. Kemp went 2-for-3 with a run scored and a RBI. Pawenski scored twice and also drew a walk. The Chippewas only walked two batters and struck out four. Hayden Bailey got the win going six innings and did allow four earned runs on seven hits.
Conor Gausselin got the start for DU and took the loss. He lasted two innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits with a strikeout.
The Panthers are back in action on Thursday, Apr. 17 as they host Saginaw Valley State in their final GLIAC home series of the season. DU is atop the conference at 11-1, while the Cardinals are 7-5 in league play and occupy fourth place.
