Solid bullpen pitching and an errorless defense helped the Ball State University baseball team take two of three in its Mid-American Conference openers at Akron.
"Some days, you're not always going to get hits, but something you can count on every day you come to the ballpark is defense," said Ryan DeGeeter, who won Sunday's game. "We showed we're capable of playing championship defense. The guys coming out of our bullpen showed our pitching depth, which should serve us well throughout the rest of the MAC season."
Akron won game one, 3-2, behind starting pitcher Ross Liersemann's complete game and 13 strikeouts. Ball State won the final two games, 11-5 and 4-2.
"On Friday, we ran into a very good pitcher," coach Greg Beals said. "We had the lead for a while, but just couldn't get anything more than the two runs off him, and I've got to give him the credit for that more so than the fact that we didn't hit. We hit the ball hard, we just weren't able to get multiple hits together and score off them."
The bats came alive for Ball State in Saturday's game. The Cardinals connected for 12 hits in an 11-5 win. Earnhart, Singleton and Justin Rogers all had two hits apiece, and six other Cardinals each added a hit.
Akron again took an early lead in the first inning when Scott Gunn drove a first-pitch home run over the right field wall. But Ball State responded in the second with six runs.
Back-to-back RBI singles by Earnhart and Singleton gave Ball State its first two runs of the inning. The Zips' miscues allowed the Cardinals to score their next four runs. Shortstop Ryne Romick mishandled a Sullivan grounder, allowing Matt Gard to score. Then three wild pitches by pitcher Tom Farmer allowed Earnhart, Singleton and Sullivan to score.
"Their Saturday starter has a very good arm and throws very hard, but at times has control issues," Beals said. "We had the bases loaded, he lost control of it there for a little bit and we were able to take advantage of it."
After Akron cut their deficit to four in the second, Dygert drove a two-run single into left field, scoring Singleton and Sullivan, giving the Cardinals an 8-2 advantage.
Ahead 8-3 after Akron scored in the fifth, first baseman Brad Miller's two-run double down the right field line preceded his scoring Ball State's final run in the eighth.
In game three, Ball State got off to a quick start when Miller drilled a two-run home run in the first inning.
The Zips tied the game in the second inning, but the Cardinals responded with the game-winning run in the fourth when Rogers' single hit first baseman Doug McNulty's glove to drive in Dygert.
"That was a line drive," Beals said. "That was hit extremely hard, and it nicked his glove as he tried to catch it. But it was one of those plays where they were awfully close to making a great play."
Dygert added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a fielder's choice out made by Rogers.
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