The No. 6 seed Eastern Michigan Eagles picked up a win in the opening round of the 2012 MAC Baseball Tournament, defeating the in-state rival Chips from Central Michigan by one run on Wednesday afternoon in Avon. Neil Butara and Jordan Glover combined in a dandy pitching performance for EMU, holding the CMU to just three runs on four hits. Glover came on in relief during the seventh inning, and allowed two batters Butara had put on base to score and cut the lead to just one. But he pitched a scoreless 8th inning and gave way to Joe Battistelli who cleaned up for the save, striking out two of the three batters he face.
On offense, it was the top of the order for EMU, as No. 2 hitter Tucker Rubino and No. 3 hitter Brent Ohrman each knocked in a pair for all the offense they would need. Rubino's sac fly in the top of the 7th brought home Jamie Simpson for what proved to be the winning run. Ohrman opened the scoring in the top of the 3rd, singling home Simpson and John Rubino for the early 2-0 lead. Central Michigan pitcher Zach Cooper went the distance for his club, but was the tough-luck loser. Central drops into the losers' bracket and will face the loser of Miami and Toldeo this afternoon, while Eastern will get the winner on Thursday.
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