ROCHESTER, Mich. – Oakland is back on the diamond to host Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan in a rescheduled match up at the OU Baseball Field for back-to-back midweeks Tuesday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 22 at 3 p.m. ET. Neal Ruhl will be on the call on ESPN+ for Tuesday's game.
The Golden Grizzlies dropped all three games of its weekend series against Youngstown State at Oakland Baseball Field, falling in Friday's doubleheader before closing the series with a 6–4 loss on Saturday. Despite strong offensive stretches throughout the weekend, the Golden Grizzlies were unable to overcome early deficits and timely Penguins hitting.
Oakland opened the series with a high-scoring 13–12 setback in game one of Friday's doubleheader, rallying with a five-run sixth inning and finishing with 14 hits and two home runs. Sophomore Aidan Schuck paced the offense with three hits and two RBIs, while redshirt-sophomore Lucas Day added a home run and three RBIs and fifth-year Kyle Revere drove in three runs. In game two, the Golden Grizzlies plated runs in the fifth and seventh innings but were unable to keep pace with a surging Youngstown State lineup that used two home runs and seven doubles to secure a 16–2 victory.
In Saturday's series finale, Oakland struck first with a run in the opening inning and added two more in the fifth, but Youngstown State responded with four runs across the second and third innings to take control en route to a 6–4 win. Day led the offense with a three-hit performance and scored a run, while graduate senior Carter Hain recorded two hits, including a pair of doubles and an RBI. Sophomore Aidan Schuck added two hits and a run scored, and freshman Ben Green delivered a strong outing on the mound with a career-high seven strikeouts over 5.0 innings.
OU topped both in-state Big Ten opponents in midweeks this season for the first time since 2016. The Golden Grizzlies beat Michigan in an exciting comeback, 7-6, on March 24 before taking care of Michigan State in East Lansing, 11-9, on April 9.
The Golden Grizzlies are fourth in the Horizon League with a team batting average of .258, as fifth-year Kyle Revere leads OU with a .3216 average and five home runs in 136 plate appearances. From the mound, freshman Ben Green leads the Oakland starters with a 4.50 ERA in six starts, drawing up 27 strikeouts and a win.
SCOUTING THE CHIPPEWAS
The Central Michigan baseball team has posted a 16–20 overall record and 9–12 Mid-American Conference mark so far in the 2026 season. The Chips took non-conference series wins over West Georgia and Belmont before being swept at Louisville and falling in in-state midweeks against Michigan State and Michigan. CMU is led offensively by Bryson Webb and Harrison Bowman and Hayden Bailey from the mound, sporting a 4.41 ERA and 38 strikeouts. Central Michigan holds the upperhand in the all-time series at 46-11, both the Chippewas and Golden Grizzlies winning a game in the home and home midweek meetings last season.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Eastern Michigan set an 11-26 (6-15 MAC) overall record this season and opened the year with a demanding nonconference slate that included road series at Little Rock, Vanderbilt, Austin Peay, and Notre Dame. In MAC play, they won the series against Akron and swept Central Michigan so far in the year. Under interim head coach Trevor Beerman, the Eagles are held by TJ Williams and John Carmichael. The Golden Grizzlies fall in all-time meetings with Eastern Michigan 41-17, last meeting in 2022.
How to Follow Oakland Baseball: For complete information on Oakland Baseball, follow the team on X at @OaklandBSB and head coach Brian Nelson at @CoachNelly11. The team is also on Instagram.
