Ball State's softball team continued its season-long struggleover the weekend, as Mid-American Conference rival Bowling Greenswept the three-game series at home.
The Cardinals (12-27 overall, 5-6 in the MAC) lost twice onSaturday, 3-2 and 6-2, then fell 4-2 on Sunday, stumbling to fourthplace in the MAC West Division.
In the first game on Saturday, the Cardinals struck first withtwo runs in three innings. Bowling Green scored in the sixth,coming to within one run, and won the game in the seventh onKristen Anderson's two-run single.
Ball State stranded 11 runners, including seven in scoringposition. Coach Terri Laux said she isn't sure why leaving runnerson base is still a problem this late in the season.
"We've had that problem all year," she said. "We have to be ableto score as many runs as we can."
Clark had three of the Cardinals eight hits, and Sarah McGregoradded two. Quincy Duran took the loss, allowing three runs on sevenhits.
"We were in that game until the bottom of the seventh," Lauxsaid. "We couldn't get the hits to score anybody."
The Cardinals fared worse in the second game. The game wasscoreless until the fourth inning, when the Falcons erupted for sixruns. Ball State was one out away from ending the inning withoutblemish when Bowling Green scored on back-to-back singles, a doubleand Lindsay Heimrich's inside-the-park home run.
Ball State couldn't find any offense as it collected only threehits to the Falcons' 10. Randi Freese took the loss as she gave upsix runs on eight hits. Nicki Hellem relieved her in the fourthafter Heimrich's blast.
Laux called the weekend's pitching adequate.
"It wasn't exactly what we needed to get the job done, but Ilook at all three facets of the game," she said.
Burdine started Sunday's game by scoring off Clark's sacrificefly. Bowling Green responded in the third with three runs,including a scoring slide by Gina Rango that avoided Clark's tag atthe plate.
Shortstop Taylor Yancey, who was questionable heading into theweekend with a bruised leg, scored in the fourth to close thedeficit to within one. The Cardinals found themselves in positionto win the game in the seventh. Burdine and Crystal Newton hitback-to-back singles, but the Falcons ended the game with threestraight outs.
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