2024 Mid-American Conference Baseball Week 2 Recap

Western Michigan sweeps a four game series against Pepperdine, and every MAC baseball fan should get to know DJ Newman.

The news broke this week that the MAC is going to add UMass as a full member in the 2025-26 academic year and if another program isn’t added between now and then, MAC baseball will be a 12-team league! The move is a football-motivated decision but basketball killed the merger almost a decade ago. The pain of being a football independent has convinced UMass to rejoin the MAC.

UMass’ addition is great news for MAC baseball as a whole, but that’s well into the future; that’s two years away and not nearly as pressing as the results on the diamond from this past week. Conference matchups start in week four and two weeks are already in the books. This coming weekend is the last tune-up week before every game matters a little bit more.

Western Michigan has found its stride early and Kent State has work to do.

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Week 2 Non-Conference Standings

What a weekend for the Broncos!

The Western Michigan bats stayed hot and the pitchers, especially the bullpen, held Pepperdine to a max of four runs in a four-game sweep. Through two series against Big Ten Michigan and Pepperdine, the Broncos lead the way in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging, weighted on-base average, strikeout rate and runs per game. It’s a small sample size but they are off to a hot start.

The most surprising stats for them are their bullpen stats. Their pitching struggled as a unit last season but the starting pitcher’s game plan was to get as deep as possible. Hayden Burg and DJ Thompson were the first two out of the pen, but it got thin after they were used for the weekend. So far this season, WMU leads in both bullpen earned run average and walks plus hits per inning pitched. I’d be surprised if that held on all season, but their bullpen improvement is a major reason why they are 6-2.

More shocking than Western Michigan leading the way early is Kent State in last place. I have zero doubt that they will be at the top of the standings when MAC play starts, but 1-5 is not good. UNC Wilmington was an NCAA Tournament team last season and Louisiana Tech isn’t a slouch in Conference USA, a two-bid conference last season. Opponents aside, they haven’t hit well and the starters and getting scored on early. Their average score so far has been 3.7 to 8.0 and their average loss is by more than six runs a game. Their chances of becoming At-Large bid zero now, but that was a long shot anyway.

Toledo has been an incredible half-team so far this season. The Rockets have the best team ERA and the second-best WHIP, but the offense is last in every quality category except batting average. They’ve averaged three runs per game and have three wins. Virginia Tech transfer Grant Umberger has been incredible for the Rockets in his two starts. He’s allowed less than a base runner an inning in 11 innings. The offense has some returning pieces that will recover, but without Jeron Williams in the lineup, there hasn’t been an instant spark.

Bowling Green has taken steps forward from the end of last season and has the second-best offense with pitchers performing like MAC Tournament pitchers. They haven’t won a series yet but their underlying data is good. The series win will either have to wait a week or will shock absolutely everyone. The have #8 Tennessee this week.

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Early trends through two weeks of baseball

MAC baseball teams have started the season much better than they did a year ago. Through the first two weeks of last season, the MAC had combined to go 21-53. That’s 10.5 wins per week across 11 teams. The 2024 combined record of 29-49 is much better. No conclusions can be drawn from that at this point except that there have been more wins this season.

The offensive stats are slightly better year over year but it hasn’t shown up in the runs per game. The batting average and on-base percentage are up about 20 points, but the slugging percentage is about the same from last season. The 0.1 runs per game increase illustrates the importance of slugging percentage. First base can be scoring position on a double and station-to-station baseball makes it hard to score.

That being said, 26 times this week one of the teams playing (either the MAC team or their opponent) scored ten runs or more. Western Michigan is averaging an impossible ten runs per game, a pace they cannot maintain.

A weird factor playing into all of this is an epidemic of batters hit by pitches. In 2,502 at-bats in 2023 through Week 2, 93 MAC hitters had been hit by the pitch. In 2,607 at-bats this year 120 batters have been hit. It’s free base runners that are going to hurt pitchers more often than not, but it’s happened much more frequently this season. Is there beef with MAC batters? Are they crowding the plate? Do pitchers have no control this year? Akron leads the way with 20 batters hit through seven games.

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Quick Notes:

• Akron couldn’t find the same magic they had last week and got swept by The Citadel in a three-game set. Game two was technically a one run game, but the Zips scored six runs in the top of the ninth and left the bases loaded to lose 11-12.
• Ball State beat Illinois and got the MAC another Big Ten win, but I think that tells us where Illinois is right now. The Cardinals dropped a close one to Cincinnati and got ten-runned by Coastal Carolina.
• DJ Newman was impressive again for Bowling Green in game one on the mound and at the plate. The Falcons were walked off in game two and one bad inning gave Memphis the series win.
• Central Michigan won two bullpen day games in the midweek against Stephen F. Austin, and then ran into the Dallas Baptist buzzsaw. They showed why they are NCAA Regional regulars and scored 40 runs in three games.
• Eastern Michigan couldn’t pull out a win in a tight rubber match game against Southern Indiana. They lost 3-1 and all three runs were unearned. Logan Hugo hits a home run to plate the only run.
• Louisiana Tech starting pitching shut down the Kent State bats, especially in game two and three. The Flashes’ starting pitchers got jumped early and they could never recover.
• Miami bounced back from a tough series against South Carolina with a series win over Middle Tennessee and should have swept. They gave up seven runs in the bottom of the seventh in an 8-3 loss.
• Northern Illinois had their hands full with #2 LSU and split a two-game series with Northwestern State. The Husky bullpen didn’t give up a run in the final game of the weekend against LSU for a small moral victory.
• Ohio just couldn’t get a lead against Campbell and were swept. Campbell was a 46-15 team last year and made the regional final of the Columbia Regional hosted by South Carolina.
• Toledo got excellent pitching in three games against Winthrop and split the four-game series. Starting pitchers Noah Johnson, Grant Umberger and RJ Shunck will be names to watch during the MAC schedule.
• The Broncos have gotten a runner on base in 12 consecutive innings. Their on-base percentage over the four-game sweep of Pepperdine was an insane 0.514. Their pitchers put in excellent work with the comfort of endless run support. It gets tougher next week for the Broncos.

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Notable Performances

DJ Newman is the Shohei Ohtani of the MAC. He finished the 2023 season on an absolute tear and is back at it again. He is the Falcons’ game-one starter and holds the DH spot, batting first the rest of the games. This week, his performance gets him on the list as a pitcher after seven innings without allowing a run and 11 strikeouts. He’s been hot at the plate this season slashing .423 / .500 / .692. He’s a pitcher with two home runs and an OPS that starts with one. Oh, and his season ERA is 3.60 with 14.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

Nick Chittum gets the rare complete-game loss for the Eagles. His eight innings with four strikeouts and no earned runs was unfortunately only good for a loss. RJ Shunck didn’t go deep into his game, but one hit in four innings with eight strikeouts in a win is fantastic for Toledo. Nolan Vlcek converted a long save for the Broncos, Bryce Hellgeth appeared three times this week and was excellent each time, and Benny Roebuck had the only good outing that any Kent State pitcher had. It gave the Flashes an opportunity to come back, but the effort ultimately fell short.

Northern Illinois catcher Colin Summerhill is the league’s best catcher for the second straight week. When he’s behind the plate he has hit .450 / .522 / 1.150 in 20 at-bats. His four home runs has him tied with Ohio’s AJ Rausch for the MAC lead.

Western Michigan’s Cade Sullivan has 19 hits in 34 at-bats. He is incredibly hot through eight games. He’s drawn eight walks and hit two dingers with 13 runs batted in. There’s no way he keeps that pace this season, but that puts him in MAC Player of the Year territory for a while.

Logan Hugo reached base eight times and stole three bases against Southern Indiana. He leads the MAC with five stolen bases.

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Tough week three schedule for MAC teams

Akron heads to Durham, North Carolina to play the #12 ranked Duke Blue Devils, Bowling Green is playing #8 Tennessee and Central Michigan plays Oklahoma State. The Cowboys hosted an NCAA Regional last season despite not being ranked so far this season.

If the MAC can get any wins in those series it would be a big deal. A series win would be huge. Baseball is weird and anything can happen in one game but taking two of three or splitting four with a ranked opponent could be a step in changing the perception of MAC baseball.

On top of those three series, Miami plays a midweek game with Horizon League favorite Wright State, Northern Illinois plays Cincinnati who is coached by Central Michigan’s former coach Jordan Bischel and Western Michigan plays a three-game series in South Carolina against three power conference teams. Ball State beat Michigan State and multiple MAC teams have beat Illinois, but Florida State is a quality ball club.

The MAC will have their hands full this weekend.

MAC play starts in two weeks and that means there will be limited opportunities to watch MAC baseball from that point on. This is the best chance to get your eyeballs on your favorite team. ESPN+ is your best friend, but ACCNx and SEC+ are where the best stuff is going to be.

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Series Scores: