The brooms were out and busy Sunday as Eastern Michigan University completed its sweep over the Ball State University baseball team.
The Cardinals lost the first game of the home series 8-3 on Friday, and finished with 6-3, 6-4 losses Saturday and Sunday respectively.
"It's very disappointing because we've been talking all along about having a chance with the teams in our division," coach Greg Beals said. "Losing all three games is a big blow."
The weekend match-up pitted the Mid-American Conference's first place team, Eastern Michigan, against the West Division's last place team, Ball State.
Following the sweep, the Cardinals fall to 4-11 in the MAC, 15-24 overall. Meanwhile, the Eagles improved to 12-1 in the MAC, and climbed above .500 to 16-15 overall.
"They're definitely on top of the league for a reason," first baseman Matt Stoeklen said.
Stoeklen was a bright spot for the Cardinals in the weekend. He hit .333 in the three games with home runs in games two and three. He also scored three of the team's 10 runs over the weekend and collected three RBI's.
Despite Stoeklen's productivity, Beals said the Cardinals' offense was a big part of the losses.
"We didn't make very good adjustments offensively," Beals said. "We went up and got beat by the same pitches over and over again all weekend. We're either thinking too much and not focusing on what we need to do or we're just missing when we get the pitch we want."
Although Ball State gave up 20 runs in the three games, Beals said the team pitched well Sunday.
"We thought we would need 10 runs in order to win [Sunday] with the infield as hard as it was, and the wind blowing out," Beals said. "To give up only six runs today ... We pitched up to our ability."
Richie Fralick was the starting pitcher on Sunday filling in for Tyler Pritchard. Beals said Pritchard has tendinitis in his arm and wasn't ready to pitch.
"It's a week to week thing with him," Beals said.
After the series' final game, Beals spoke to his team for about 15 minutes.
"I talked about the competitive spirit," Beals said. "Being a competitor is not just trying hard. You're expected to try hard. Being a great competitor is taking the information the game gives you and then playing with that."
The Cardinals are four games out of the final slot in the MAC Tournament, currently held by the University of Toledo, with 12 games remaining on their MAC schedule.
"We're down to 12 games and I think we need to go 10-2 to get into the tournament," Beals said.
Stoeklen said the whole season has been disappointing so far.
"Talent wise we are as good as it gets but we just haven't been able to put it together," Stoeklen said. "Maybe we can get on a roll, sneak in and do some damage in the tournament."
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