The Ball State softball team traveled to Dayton on Tuesday and rallied for an 8-5 win in 11 innings. The Cards scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the score at 5-5, then added three more runs in the 11th.
The second game of the scheduled doubleheader was cancelled before due to lack of daylight.
The Cardinals (5-12) struggled early on, only scoring one run in the first and fifth innings. Head coach Terri Laux said the team shouldn't have had to get a come-from-behind win.
"It's nice to get the win," she said. "But it took us seven innings to start playing and start hitting."
Kelli Jeziorski led off the seventh with a single. Abby Gross followed with a double, advancing Jeriorski to third. Katie Pilger then picked up an RBI grounding out to second. Sarah McGregor followed with a home run, plating the game-tying runs.
The Cards and Flyers went scoreless over the next three innings. Ball State broke open the game in the 11th as Amanda Pick blasted a two-run homer. McGregor then drove in the final run on a single.
"If we could have done the same thing in the middle of the game as we did in the seventh and 11th innings, then I would have been happy," Laux said.
Amy Brownfield (2-1) picked up the win in the circle for the Cards. She threw eight scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and striking out five. Brownfield has thrown a team-leading 33 2/3 innings.
"Amy has been our workhorse," Laux said. "She did a great job on the mound. She just needs to keep doing what she's been doing and helping us out."
Although the Cardinals escaped with a win, Laux said she was not pleased with a lot of things.
"Dayton is a team that we should have dominated," Laux said. "We made some defensive errors that cost us. A lot of our struggles have to do with our approach to the game."
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