The Kent State baseball team traveled to Ypsilanti, Michigan, to take on the Eastern Michigan Eagles in a series that had a ton at stake. For Kent, the series was an opportunity to earn a share of the conference title if not outright win it. For Eastern Michigan, they entered in 6th, fighting with the directional Michigans for the last spot in the tournament.

After blowing Thursday’s game in extra innings, the Flashes would use their typical display of offense to claim the last two games of the series and earn a share of the MAC Regular Season championship.

Thursday

Sophomore Jacob Bean would earn Thursday’s start, looking to set the tone for the weekend and keep pace with Ball State and Miami atop the standings.

He pitched solidly, allowing just two runs in five-and-a-third innings of action, striking out four.

Kent would jump ahead when freshman utility man Sawyer Solitaria led off the second with a home run the opposite way to right center. Eastern Michigan would tie it up on a double from John Hale.

Kent would regain the lead in the fourth when senior outfielder Jake Casey homered to right field, the first of two from the slugging lefty. They would later add runs in the fifth and sixth to make it a 4-1 ballgame.

Eastern Michigan would storm back in the seventh with four runs that would make it a 6-5 Eagles lead, the big damage being done on a single and an error that gave the Eagles extra outs to play with.

After trading runs in the eighth, Casey would tie the game up with a two-out, two-run homer that scored fellow teammate Hayden Jatczak.

The game would remain in a stalemate until the twelfth inning, where Solitaria and freshman center fielder Micah Rienstra-Kiracofe carried the load with run-scoring hits. Kiracofe would also add a stolen base before scoring on the resulting throwing error.

In the bottom half of the inning, Eastern Michigan would immediately say, “We’re not going down without a fight,” leading off the inning with a home run, and later scratching and clawing their way back into the game to knock closer Peyton Cariaco out of the game.

Redshirt sophomore Jordan Kolenda would get two outs to keep the lead at one, but would give up a two-out walk-off home run to Cooper Vance, losing the game 12-11.

Kolenda took the loss, with Cal Rutherford earning the win.

Miami winning that day put the Flashes in as close to a must-win scenario as you could get.

Friday

The Flashes entered Friday desperately needing a win to keep pace in the standings and have a chance at an outright title.

Gavin Jones would be the starter at the task of getting the Flashes the win. He delivered six innings of a four-run ball, striking out five.

Junior shortstop Luke Matthews would start the scoring in the first by scoring on a wild pitch. Casey would continue his strong weekend, doubling in two runners in the third before Jatczak homered to make it 4-0 in the fifth.

Eastern Michigan would claw its way ahead by the seventh inning, being led by two home runs from Logan Hugo, one of which was an inside-the-park home run.

In the ninth inning, with the Flashes’ regular season dreams fading away, heroics would once again occur. Sophomore designated hitter Dom Kibler would tie the game up with a walk before junior catcher Brody Williams gave the Flashes the lead with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-5.

Senior southpaw Eric Chalus, who has been pitching in big-time relief spots recently, shut the door in the ninth to earn the win for the Flashes.

Chalus picked up his sixth win of the season with Tyler Kappa taking the loss.

The Miami loss to Ball State set up a critical rubber match between the Flashes and Eagles for the following day.

Saturday

Saturday was the most critical of days. Multiple scenarios were in play, including a scenario where Kent would win the outright regular season title of the Mid-American Conference. Kent would also earn a guaranteed share of the title if Ball State had won, no matter if Kent won or lost, earning a one seed in that scenario due to tiebreakers. They would share a title with Miami and be the second seed if both teams won. In addition to the battle at the top, opponent Eastern Michigan was in a dogfight for the last conference tournament bid, putting even more at stake in this regular season finale rubber match. 

Redshirt junior Rocco Bernadina was tasked with pitching the Flashes to a possible conference title. Bernadina dominated, allowing just a hit and a run in three and two-thirds innings, striking out six.

Harrison Travis would punish the one mistake Bernadina would make for a homer to put the Eagles ahead 1–0

The Flashes would take control of the entire ballgame after that.

Williams would hit his seventh home run of the season to tie it up at 1 in the second. Matthews would score and give the Flashes the lead on a double play ball that prevented an even bigger third inning from occurring, as the bases were loaded with no outs.

In the fourth, Jatczak would drive in two runners with a single before an error would completely blow things open with two more runners scoring for the Flashes, making it 6-1.

Walks and sac flies were how the Flashes scored in the fifth and the sixth, tallying three runs in the two frames

In the Seventh, the Flashes would put the dagger in the game and a foot in the door of a conference title and dogpile. Jatczak clubbed his fourteenth home run of the season, Casey scored on a wild pitch and Kiracofe would come around to score on a single and make it 13-1

The Eagles would tack on a run in vain, but the game was over, and Kent celebrated a share of the conference title with a 13-2 win. Miami would win a wacky 26-16 game against Ball State to share the conference title with the Flashes. 

As for the game, Brody Krzysiak picked up the win with the loss being saddled to Niko Kreuzer.

Kent would finish its regular season with a record of 37-16 overall and 23-7 in conference play.

The Notables

On March 21, Kent State sat at 8-11 after a loss to Bowling Green. Since that day, the team has gone 29-5 en route to earning a share of the MAC Regular Season title. 

Casey has been a huge part of that surge, slugging 11 home runs since that date, including two this weekend. His overall season slashline of .355/.498/.756 was good enough to earn first team all All-MAC honors.

Chalus has also been a part of the improved pitching staff. Originally the number two weekend starter, he settled into a relief role, pitching to a 3.38 ERA in 16 innings over his last four appearances.

Jatczak, the MAC Player of the Year, tore the cover off the ball this regular season, driving in 78 runs, leading the conference by nearly double digits. He and Casey also went 1-2 in terms of individual leaders of runs scored.

As a team, the Flashes led the conference in slugging and batting average by a wide margin and also led in on-base percentage. Nationally, they are top 10 in doubles with 126, top five in runs with 516, and second in triples with 28. 

Up Next

Kent State will travel to Avon Lake for the Mid-American Conference Tournament. They’ll play as the second seed at the tournament after losing out on a tiebreaker to co-champion Miami. Their first game is scheduled for May 22 at 6 p.m. against the second lowest seed remaining after first round play has concluded.

Jake Bean should be in line to get the ball to start the tournament after having a stellar regular season, but pitching depth will be needed at the backend as the tournament goes deeper.

Stone O’Bryant is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].