For the first time in the school's history, the Ball State University baseball team is heading to the NCAA Regionals. It has been a long time coming for the team, considering it has won the Mid-American Conference West division six times in the past nine years, but has failed to win the post-season tournament.
This year's team, however, finally broke through, winning the tournament in grandiose style. On Saturday, the Cardinals defeated Kent State University 7-4 to claim its first ever conference championship. Kent State, the No. 1 seed entering the tournament, was beaten twice by Ball State , also losing to Ball State 5-4 on Friday.
The Cardinals went 4-0 in the conference tournament, making them the first team to pull off that feat since Miami University swept the competition in 2000.
Ball State moves on to play the No. 13 University of Kentucky Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Regionals. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start on Friday.
Coach Greg Beals said it was the leadership of the ten seniors that made the difference last weekend.
"They've been around the block a couple times," he said. "That experience served us awfully well. The key is that the guys kept themselves loose and relaxed, which let them play to their ability."
"Unbelievable" is the word BSU third baseman C.J. Webb used to describe the past few days.
"I tell everybody I was actually more excited to beat Kent State the first time in the tournament, because when we got to 3-0, we knew that team had to beat us twice," Webb said. "I knew from that point on we wouldn't lose. I knew we were going to win that."
Senior first baseman Brad Miller said the squad worked hard to finally capture the elusive conference championship.
"It's definitely a great accomplishment," Miller said. "There was excitement through the whole team. Everyone works so hard. Just to finally get over the hump, it feels great."
Ball State is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since becoming a Division I program in 1973. The Cardinals have made two previous post-season appearances, playing in what was called the NCAA District 4 Playoffs. In 1965 the team lost both of its playoff games, but in 1969 Ball State won two games before being eliminated by Southern Illinois University.
Ball State's first visit to the NCAA Tournament in its current format won't be an easy one. Kentucky, the University of Notre Dame and the College of Charleston are the other three teams in the regional, being played at Lexington, Kent. All three of those teams currently rank in the Top 25 of the Baseball America poll. Kentucky is 13th, Notre Dame is 15th, and the College of Charleston is 23rd.
Left-hander Ben Snyder will be the starting pitcher for Ball State in their match up with Kentucky. Snyder is 7-5 with a 4.71 ERA, striking out 99 batters in 101.1 innings of work.
"They got some solid pitching," Snyder said. "I think they're a team we can hang with. We're definitely the caliber of team to where we can compete in this regional. Hopefully I can get us going in the right direction."
The Cardinals have come a long way since March 25, when they were 7-11. Since then, the team has won 30 of its last 39 games, including 16 of the last 18. Beals said the team started playing better when he and his squad put the fun back into the game.
"It's real easy to say what's wrong," Beals said. "We needed to figure out what we were going to do to fix it. I felt like we needed to start having fun playing the game again. The expectations were keeping us from playing up to our ability. In order to prove it, we needed to go about the game a little differently."
Beals said Kentucky is loaded with power hitters, but he thinks the Cardinals can take advantage of an average pitching staff.
"They're going to swing the bats real well," he said. "That's the strength of their team. Their pitching is solid, but nothing spectacular. They are a power-hitting club. They're going to swing for the fences a little bit against us. If we just keep playing the way we're playing, we're going to be a tough opponent for anybody."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
