BASEBALL Cards bowl over Falcons in sweep

Ball State out-powers Bowling Green with offense to take wins

An offense firing on all cylinders produced a three-game sweep over Bowling Green for the Ball State baseball team this weekend.

Ball State (12-9 overall, 3-0 MAC) had no trouble at the plate against the Falcons throughout the weekend with 38 hits over the three-game series that ended in an 8-7, 9-4, and 8-2 sweep by the Cards.

"Bowling Green came in hot, and we knew they were coming in hot. We just had to play our best game, and I'm real proud of how the guys went out and played this weekend," coach Greg Beals said.

In the opener, Ball State held a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh when the Cardinals exploded with five. With the bases loaded, Eric Earnhart hit a two-run double and was followed with Matt Singleton's RBI single. Two batters later, Jason Bucholtz brought in another run with a single, and Singleton later scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Brad Miller.

The Cardinals seemingly had the game under wraps when they entered the seventh inning with a seven-run lead, but the Falcons made things interesting by scoring six. After scoring a run, the Falcons managed to get the bases loaded and Nolan Reimold hit a two-run double. Andy Hudak followed with an RBI single, and two Ball State errors gave Bowling Green two more runs, bringing them to within one run.

"Pitching wasn't very good, defense wasn't very good. They got a couple of big hits and it ends up being a big inning," Beals said. "We had one bad inning of baseball this weekend. Fortunately, it didn't make a difference in a win or loss in any game."

In game two of the doubleheader, Ball State jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second inning, but Bowling Green battled back with three runs on Reimold's three-run home run in the third. Chris Pestle's solo home run the following inning tied it, and Ball State took the lead for good in the fifth, 6-4. The Cardinals broke away the following inning with three more runs scored by Kyle Dygert, Jon Dollinger and Singleton.

Dygert and Pestle each had four hits in three games, and Earnhart went five-for-eight in two games, including three in the first game of the series.

"The bottom of our lineup is as good as a lot of team's top of their lineup," Beals said. "If the bottom of the lineup is getting on base, that usually means you're going to score runs, 'cause the top of the lineup is going to do what their supposed to do and drive in runs."

Ball State jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first two innings on Sunday, but the Falcons broke through the following inning with two runs on a two-run home run by Reimold. The home run was his second of the weekend and ninth for the season.

The Cardinals immediately responded with three more runs in the next two innings and held on the rest of the way.

"I'm pleased with the sweep. To sweep a team with their caliber is not easy to do," Beals said. "We've had some ups and downs in the early part of the season. We're starting to build some confidence and we're starting to play baseball the way we can."


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