When the weather cooled on Sunday, Ball State's bats heated up.
The Cardinals rapped 13 hits and built an early lead before holding off Northern Illinois 9-6, completing a weekend sweep of the Huskies at Ball Diamond and winning their fifth straight.
"It's huge," centerfielder Mike Sullivan said of the sweep. "Last weekend we lost a couple close games. I think everybody stepped up and did their job this weekend.
"Things seem to be clicking (on offense)," said the sophomore, who batted 2 for 4 in each of the three games to raise his team-high batting average to .410. "We'd been hitting decent, but it was just sporadic. Now we're getting key hits."
With the three victories, Ball State improved to 14-10 overall and 4-2 in the Mid-American Conference, moving up to second behind Eastern Michigan (3-0). For that reason coach, Greg Beals also deemed the win "huge."
"If we don't win today, then we're back to .500," he said. "At 4-2 we're pretty well-established."
In Friday's 3-2 win, all of BSU's key hits came in the ninth. Northern lefty Joe Piekarz shutout the Cards through eight innings, but then ran into trouble trying to finish them off.
Brad Miller lined a double to left field to start things off. Kyle Dygert's RBI single scored him, and Lucas Fry followed with another single. Piekarz caught Kiel Holman's popped up bunt attempt, but Northern closer Trevor Wohlgemuth replaced him and promptly uncorked a wild pitch to pinch hitter Kenny Bargfeldt.
Wohlgemuth eventually walked Bargfeldt, forced in the tying run by hitting Jason Bucholtz, then gave BSU the victory by walking Sullivan on four pitches.
"I told our guys we were lucky to win that game," Beals said.
Mike Johnston allowed just one run over seven innings for the Cards before giving way to Jeff Michael, who gave up NIU's second run with a wild pitch but then recorded the win. Johnston (4.00 ERA) said he didn't feel any added pressure trying to keep up with Piekarz's effort.
"I just kept focused on keeping my team in the game," the senior southpaw said. "I was throwing strikes (early on), but I wasn't putting them where I wanted. As the game progressed, I started getting my release point down."
The Huskies (12-14 overall, 0-3 MAC) staked an early lead on Rob Marconi's sole home run off Joe Ness (4-1, 3.92 ERA), but the Cards struck back big in the third.
After a trio of singles off Northern's Zach Minor loaded the bases, Marc Franz drew a walk to tie the game. Fry then fouled off several pitches the opposite way before finally punching one into the wind and over the right-field wall for a grand slam.
Ness yielded RBI singles to Greg Larson in the fifth and Scott Simon in the sixth. But the bullpen crew of Erik Morrison, Michael Hale and John Pettibone held on to give him the win. Franz homered in the eighth to produce the final of 6-3.
The bullpen came up big again on Sunday, after Ball State went ahead 7-2 in the first three innings.
Larson homered in the fourth off BSU starter Andrew Anderson, Jeremy Busch's bases-loaded single in the fifth made it 7-5. Anderson walked Larson to reload the bases. But Michael came in, induced Tug Gillingham into a pop out and fielded Mike Brown's bouncer up the middle to begin a 1-2-3 double play.
"Jeff Michael did a great job for us; that was a big double play," Beals said. "His performance was the difference. When things started getting out of hand for us, he came in and shut things down.
Michael (2-0, 3.18 ERA) pitched 3 1/3 innings of shutout ball for the win, and Pettibone (3.52) again threw a perfect ninth inning for his fourth save.
"It makes it easier from a game-management standpoint, to have guys like that," Beals said of his bullpen. "They're very vital to our success."
Notes:
- Franz stroked seven hits in the series, including four on Sunday, to raise his average to .387. The junior third baseman batted .410 a year ago.
- Miller is hitting .633 since Spring Break, including his four-homer game on March 24, putting his average at .350.
- Northern's Scott Simon came in averaging .417 with a MAC-best 37 RBI, but Ball State pitchers limited him to 3-of-12 hitting and one RBI. The Cards have a team ERA of 3.77.
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