Going into their series against Marshall, the Ball State baseball team was trying to stay alive in the Mid-American Conference race. Sunday, however, all those hopes ended as Marshall beat Ball State 8-2 in their final home game of the season at Ball Diamond and took the series 2-1.
"We came into this series hoping for a sweep," head coach Greg Beals said. "[We were] thinking that if we did sweep that we would still have an outside chance of winning the conference overall. "
The Cardinals had the same amount of runs and hits in their series against Marshall as the Herd did in game three. Marshall had 15 hits in the game, while Ball State had only five.
Marshall got off to a good start by scoring three runs in the first. The Cards got two runs in the first when junior Marc Franz drove in two runs off a double to right-center field, but nothing else came across the plate for them.
Brian Chrisman got the win for Marshall after throwing 119 pitches in 7.2 innings and giving up only five hits and two runs.
"They pitched the ball really well to us and we didn't swing the bats well enough to win games," Beals said about the series.
Senior Andrew Anderson took the loss for Ball State after pitching the first 4.2 innings and giving up 12 hits. Senior John Pettibone pitched a perfect ninth inning after relieving freshman pitcher Ryan DeGetter.
"Give Marshall some credit," Beals said. "They were solid, they played a lot better than a bottom-tier team."
In game one, Marshall got off to a good start by scoring four runs in the first inning. The Cards fought back in the second with sophomore Kyle Dygert's two-run homer.
The game was stopped due to rain and continued on Saturday, when Marshall was able to add runs in the fifth and eighth innings. Ball State wasn't able to get enough hits to get back in it, losing 6-2.
In the second game Ball State got the first run when sophomore Brad Miller drove in sophomore Mike Sullivan with a single to center field. Marshall would get their first two runs in the third and one more off of a Roddy Stieger solo home run in the top of the ninth to give the Herd a 3-1 lead.
After Marshall's Chris Koutsavlis pitched eight innings allowing only three hits and one run, Chris Meadows took over in the ninth.
Franz and Miller both singled to start the inning. Franz was able to score when Meadows committed a throwing error. Junior Jason Bucholtz grounded out to shortstop, which allowed Miller to tie the game up and send it to extra frames.
Pettibone entered the game in the top of the tenth for Michael Hale with two outs and men on first and second. Pettibone hit Rich Russel with a pitch, loading the bases, but struck out Glevenyak to get the Cards out of the inning.
Franz singled in the bottom of the tenth to drive in Mike Sullivan and win the game 4-3.
"It was rough on us," Franz said. "They came out and played loose with nothing to lose and they just played better than us."
The Cardinals finished their MAC schedule with a 14-10 record and will await a possible tournament berth. They will now look to get back on track with a game against Wright State and a series against University of Miami (Fla.).
Beals said the Wright State game, which will be played on Tuesday, will be a day for everyone to get some playing time.
"It's going to be big for us," Franz said. "[Wright State is] a very beatable team and we hope to win a good game there."
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