It seemed for the first eight innings against Xavier Wednesday that the Ball State baseball team had recovered from its sloppy 16-13 loss against Findlay just one day earlier.
Then the ninth inning arrived and with it an Xavier offense that had been lacking for much of the season as the Musketeers put up four runs to take the lead and eventual 5-3 victory.
"We gave one away. That's the bottom line," BSU head coach Greg Beals said. "Xavier came and fought back and showed a lot of character, but that was something good for our guys to see."
Neither squad came out strong offensively in a game that was dominantly a pitcher's duel. Freshman starter Ryan DeGeeter, who had 42 strikes on 60 pitches, threw five strong innings, giving up no runs on three hits and striking out five.
The start leaves DeGeeter's 3-0 record intact but moves his ERA down to 1.59, which leads the rotation.
Ball State's offense threatened in the fourth inning off Xavier's reliever J.T. Schultz, putting runners on first and third with one out and bringing in a run off senior Kiel Holman's sacrifice bunt.
BSU kept the 1-0 lead until the eighth inning when Xavier rallied with two outs, collecting a double followed by a single that scored the Musketeer on second.
"I feel gratified because we've been going through a very difficult time," Xavier head coach John Morrey said. "We've lost a lot of close games, and we've really struggled with the bats so it was really gratifying to see the kids keep playing hard."
The Cards responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the eighth. Sophomore Brad Miller started the rally with a single and advanced to third on classmate Kyle Dygert's double. Miller's hit continued his hitting streak to eleven games, tied with junior Marc Franz as the team leader.
Holman was intentionally walked to load the bases for sophomore pinch hitter Brian Meyer, who hit into a fielder's choice that scored Miller and got Holman out at second. Before Meyer could get tagged out in a stolen base attempt, Dygert scored from third giving Ball State a two run lead.
With closer John Pettibone, who had four saves in 12 appearances and a 3.58 ERA on the season heading into the game, coming out of the bullpen a victory seemed in reach of the Cardinals. The Musketeers came up big, though, scoring four runs off five hits and handing Pettibone (0-3, 5.51 ERA) his third loss of the season.
Beals believes it is necessary for the team to get back to the same level it was at during the three-game sweep of Mid-American Conference opponent Northern Illinois, which preceded the team's consecutive losses to Findlay and Xavier.
"Hopefully we can separate the mid-week non-conference stuff and get refocused and be ready to play conference," Beals said. "It's disappointing to lose non-conference games, but our goals are based on how we do conference wise. Our guys need to separate what happened this week and not let it affect their confidence."
The Cardinals, who are 4-2 in the MAC, resume conference play Friday when they begin a three game series against Akron.
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