The Ball State University baseball team allowed three total runs in the final two games of a three-game weekend series against Austin Peay State University, picking up victories in each game.
The Cardinals scored 14 runs in those two games and went 2-1 during the weekend. Starting pitchers Tyler Pritchard and Ryan DeGeeter led the Cardinals.
Coach Greg Beals said Pritchard and DeGeeter are two great pitchers who pitched to their strengths this weekend.
In Saturday's game, a 10-1 Ball State victory, Pritchard allowed one run, giving up five hits while striking out six batters in six innings of work.
The Cardinals won Sunday's game 4-2 behind DeGeeter's pitching performance. He did not allow an earned run in seven innings, scattering three hits and striking out seven batters.
DeGeeter said the biggest reason he pitched well was because he had good control on his pitches.
"I had all three of my pitches working today, which is a first this season," DeGeeter said. "Alex Schmid did a great job catching today. He threw a guy out trying to steal and that really is a momentum boost."
Part of the reason the Cardinals were allowing 8.7 runs prior to this weekend was because of the defense behind the pitchers, Beals said. The Cardinals had five errors this weekend including three on Sunday. However, Beals said the team made some big defensive plays this weekend.
"I think we're going to continue to make some errors," Beals said. "We made some special plays this weekend, whereas before we didn't make any plays that weren't ordinary. Our defense is going to get better and better."
Beals said the Cardinals bullpen was crucial to the team's successful weekend.
"The bullpen is what we thought our strength was going to be all along," Beals said. "We need them to stay consistent."
The bullpen pitched eight strong innings throughout three games against the Governors. They allowed eight hits, struck out eight and allowed one run.
In Sunday's game, Kyle Heyne relieved DeGeeter in the eighth inning and went on to close out the game, picking up the save.
"Kyle did a good job of coming in and closing things out for us," DeGeeter said. "I felt safe knowing he was coming out of the pen to close things out."
DeGeeter said it helped that he was able to pitch with an early lead.
The Cardinals did a good job of picking up hits all weekend. They had at least 10 hits in all three games including a season-high 16 on Saturday. However, in the first game, which they lost 4-3, the Cardinals left nine runners on base.
"We had plenty of opportunities to win on Friday," Beals said. "We out hit them but we couldn't get the big hit when we needed it."
Friday's loss dropped the Cardinals to 1-7, but Beals said after the game the team got together and talked things out in order to turn things around.
"We had a great pow-wow after that first game," he said. "We're learning how to compete better. We're still finding our identity. We're getting more comfortable in the box. We really worked on our two-strike approach last week, and we did a lot better this weekend on two strikes."
With the two wins the Cardinals are 3-7 with a chance to start a long win streak like they did last year when they made it to the NCAA Regionals by winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
"It was a big win, big series for us," DeGeeter said.
The Cardinals will have a chance to push the win streak to five games next weekend when they play in the Myrtle Beach Hyundai-Izuzu Classic in South Carolina.
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