CMU to take on Florida Friday in regional opener
The Central Michigan baseball team is headed to Gainesville, Fla. this week for the NCAA Regional where it will take on host Florida on Friday, June 3 (6:30 p.m.).
The Chippewas are 42-17 and seeded fourth in the regional after winning the Mid-american Conference Tournament on Sunday with an 11-7 victory over host Ball State.
Ticket information will be available Tuesday morning.
The Gators (39-22) are the No. 1 seed in the four-team, double-elimination regional. Liberty and Oklahoma round out the regional field.
The Chippewas are in the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season. In 2019, they went 1-2 in the regional at Starkville, Miss., and in 2021 finished 2-2 in the South Bend, Ind. regional. In both cases, CMU defeated teams from Power 5 conferences, Miami (Fla.) in 2019 and Michigan in 2021.
Those kinds of wins have helped CMU earn respect, both in its own clubhouse and perhaps across the college baseball world.
“The message has always been the same: ‘We're going down to compete, we're going down to win,'” fourthyear CMU coach Jordan Bischel said. “When you deliver, maybe it's a little bit more believable. We've beaten some really good teams. We won't approach it any different than our conference tournament or a nonconference game in the middle of the week.
“But I think in terms of guys believing they can have success? I wouldn't doubt it's a little bit different.”
CMU came through the elimination bracket to claim its second straight MAC Tournament crown on Sunday. The Chippewas opened the tournament with an 11-10 walk-off win over Toledo, rallying from a 6-1 deficit, and then fell to Ball State, 9-7.
Facing the daunting task of winning three games in two days in order to claim the title, the Chippewas went to work on Saturday morning, rallying from a 6-1 deficit — for the second time in the tournament — to beat Toledo, 10-7. They then handed Ball State its first loss of the tourney, 12-3, to set up Sunday's showdown.
CMU came back from 5-1 and 6-2 deficits to defeat the Cardinals.
Florida, was the Southeastern Conference Tournament runner-up, bowing to No. 1-ranked Tennessee in the title game. The Gators are the No. 13
overall seed in the 64-team tournament.
“Florida shows up with the No. 1 recruiting class, it seems like, every year,” Bischel said. “They’re going to be an incredible team, but we do feel like if we play good baseball we’ve got a shot to beat anybody. We’re going to play hard, we’re going to play with energy, we’re going to have fun and see where that leads us.”
Oklahoma (37-20) won the Big 12 Tournament after finishing tied for second during the regular season. Liberty (37-21) finished third in the Atlantic Sun Conference and fell to Kennesaw State in the ASUN Tournament title game.
It’s been a remarkable four-year run under Bischel, who was named to head the program in June, 2018. The Chippewas have captured four MAC titles in that span — two regular season and two tournament and are a combined 131-49 in his three full (2019, ’21, ’22) at the helm. The 2020 season was cancelled because of COVID after a 11-6.
The 131 wins are the most successful threeyear run in program history, surpassing the 130 the Chippewas posted from 1986-88.
“It’s easy to play for Coach B when you’re having fun and that’s one thing he’s preached the whole time he’s been here, have fun,” said pitcher Jordan Patty, a fifth-year senior and one of the few on the roster who preceded Bischel and his staff. “It’s not a job, it’s a game. They just let us play, they let us have fun, and that’s one thing that’s helped turned this program around.”