Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends
5/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
• • • ON DECK: MAC Tournament • • •
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio
VA Memorial Stadium
Kent State (38-15)
First Round Opponent: Miami (28-23)
All-Time MAC Record: 41-24
Probable Starter
5/20: Miami (Matt Erwood) vs. Kent State (Brad Stillings), 9 a.m.
The First Pitch
Kent State will begin its quest for its seventh Mid-American Conference baseball tournament title Wednesday when they take on the Miami RedHawks bright and early at 9 a.m. in Chillicothe, Ohio. The winner of that game will take on the winner of Bowling Green-Central Michigan Thursday at 4 p.m. The loser takes on the loser of the BG-CMU game at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Flash Facts
• Kent State is 5-2 all-time in the MAC tournament against Miami, including a two-game sweep of the RedHawks on the final day of the 2001 MAC tournament.
• The Golden Flashes have won four straight against Miami in the MAC tournament after losing two of the first three with the RedHawks.
• Kent State leads the conference in tournament wins (41-24 record) and tournament championships (6). The Golden Flashes are tied for the second-most consecutive MAC Tournament appearances with four. Central Michigan has six consecutive appearances, but would have missed out of the tournament the last two seasons if not for the tournament expanding to eight teams.
• KSU is 10-6 all-time in its first games at the Mid-American Conference Tournament, including a 3-0 mark under head coach Scott Stricklin.
Follow the Action Live
Catch all the Kent State action from the 2009 Mid-American Conference Tournament for free through the Kent State ISP sports network. Ty Linder will be calling the action from (hopefully) sunny and warm Chillicothe with Matthew Lofton providing color. Broadcasts will begin 15 minutes before every game. Wednesday's broadcast is set to go live at 8:45 a.m. with the first pitch between Miami and Kent State at 9 a.m.
Go All-MACcess
The Mid-American Conference is excited to offer live streaming video of games from the 2009 MAC Baseball Tournament on MAC-Sports.com. All-MACcess, the official broadband video channel of the MAC, will offer fans every game of this year's tournament, concluding with the Championship game on Saturday. Two different subscription options will be available for tournament coverage. The All-Tournament pass, which includes every game offered live on All-MACcess, can be purchased for $14.95. Alternatively, any single game (PPV) can be purchased for $4.95. Don't miss a minute of the action sign up now! Go to www.mac-sports.com for more details.
The Coaches
Scott Stricklin is currently in his fifth year as head coach of the Kent State Golden Flashes. He has a career record of 178-101 and has two MAC regular season titles and a conference tournament title.
Miami is coached by Dan Simonds, who is currently in his fourth season at the helm for the Redhawks. His overall record is 109-106. Miami clinched a berth in the MAC Tournament for the third time in four year under Simonds.
Last Time They Met
In a way, it was a very fitting end for a group of senior playing their final home game of their Kent State baseball careers.
Down 11-5 entering the ninth, the Golden Flashes rallied with seven runs to beat the RedHawks 12-11. Every senior recorded a hit in the inning, including the game-winning single to right-center by fifth-year senior Greg Rohan. With runners at first and second with KSU down three, senior Brad Winter crushed a pitch to left field to tie the game. The senior class accounted for 15 of the 19 hits and 10 of the 12 runs in the game.
Tommy Nurre led the RedHawks with four hits in five at-bats, including two home runs.
Perfect Wednesdays
For the 2009 season, Kent State had a perfect 10-0 record on games played on Wednesday, including five wins where the Golden Flashes scored double-digit runs. Kent State is averaging 9.8 runs and 11.2 hits per game. The offense is batting .351 while the opposition is hitting only .272.
Included in the Wednesday wins are two dramatic victories over Big 10 foes in their ballparks. On April 1, Kent State came from behind to beat the Penn State Nittany Lions 4-3. With the score tied at three in the seventh, freshman David Lyon doubled and scored on a two-out single by sophomore Ben Klafczynski.
Against Ohio State, KSU and OSU were tied at seven going into the seventh when redshirt junior Jared Humphreys walked and senior Chris Tremblay and redshirt junior Cory Hindel singled.
Let's Meet Your Starting Pitchers
In Wednesday's first match-up, Kent State will send Brad Stillings to the mound to face Miami's fifth-year senior southpaw Matt Erwood. Stillings is 5-3 on the year with a 6.68 ERA and is fourth in the league with 64 strikeouts. Brown is 7-2 on the year with a 4.23 ERA.
Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up
While one loss, especially early, is usually detrimental for a team that wants to win a conference tournament. However, the Golden Flashes see things differently.
Kent State leads the conference with six tournament titles. Only once (2007) did Kent State actually win every game played (4-0). In 1993, Kent State actually lost the first game they played and faced elimination in every other contest. Kent State won its next four to claim the tournament championship. In 2001, the Golden Flashes went 5-1 while 1992, '93, 2002 and '04 they went 4-1.
Chafin MAC Freshman of the Year, Four Others All-conference
Freshman Andrew Chafin has been named the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year and All-MAC first team as relief pitcher, announced Tuesday (May 19) by the conference office.
Chafin is 4-1 this year with eight saves. He has a 1.26 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 35.2 innings pitched. One of his best outings of the year came against nationally-ranked Ohio State (April 15), where he threw the final 1.1 innings to preserve the Golden Flashes 8-7 win over the Buckeyes in Columbus. Chafin is tied for sixth in career and season saves with eight.
Fifth-year senior Greg Rohan (first base), redshirt junior Jared Humphreys (outfield), junior Jon Pokorny (relief pitcher) and freshman Jimmy Rider (second base) made second team All-MAC.
Dynamic Duo
A pair of Kent State senior players have shown success from the plate and in the field during their careers. Chris Tremblay is second with 14 career triples. He is also fourth with 774 at-bats, fourth in hits (244) and sixth in runs (169). Fifth-year senior Greg Rohan is fourth with 45 career home runs and fifth in both total bases (414) and RBI (172). Defensively, Tremblay is second in career assists (568) and Rohan is seventh in putouts (914).
Also in the Record Books
Freshman Andrew Chafin is already sixth in season and career saves (8) while defensively, senior Brad Winter is ninth in career putouts with 852. Junior Anthony Gallas is tied for eighth with 31 career home runs and eighth with 98 career walks. Junior Jon Pokorny is seventh with 64 career appearances on the mound.
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