For the fifth straight game the Ball State University baseball team lost. Last night the loss was to the University of Notre Dame to the tune of 7-3.
Both teams had eight hits, but the Irish had five more runners reach base. The reason was walks, players hit by a pitch and errors.
"We committed two errors, hit four guys and walked eight guys," coach Greg Beals said. "If you're playing against any team that has any quality at all, it's going to be tough to beat them when you give them that many free opportunities."
The Cardinals left 11 runners on base in Tuesday night's game, something all too common for the team.
"That's been our problem all year," third baseman Matt Gard said. "We've out-hit teams and then lost the game. We're not getting that big two-out hit."
Gard collected three hits and a walk, reaching base all four times he went to the plate.
"He stayed in his game plan well, and when he got a good pitch to hit he capitalized," Beals said.
Gard said he has been seeing the ball better lately, allowing him to get better contact on the ball. Gard came through with two timely hits that gave him two of the team's three RBIs in the game. Timely hits have been a problem for the Cardinals this season, Gard said.
"We've been in about every game," Gard said. "We're just that one hit away and that one big pitch away. That's what we got to do is make that big pitch and make that big hit."
While the Cardinals gave up seven runs, Beals said the pitching went as the coaching staff wanted.
"We wanted to give Jay Broughton a start and everybody else in our bullpen an inning of work so they are ready for the weekend," Beals said.
Six Cardinals pitched in Tuesday's game, with the longest outing being Broughton, who pitched the first 2 1/3 innings, allowing three runs. Adam Quinn relieved Broughton in the third inning, allowing two more runners to cross home plate. Josh Vollmer took the mound for the fourth and fifth inning, allowing two more runs. Brad Piatt, Aaron Hammons, and Luke Behning each pitched one inning to close out the game, allowing zero runs.
Beals said with a couple hits in key situations the team would have been able to score four or five more runs and perhaps would have won the game.
That is just one problem the team needs to fix, Beals said.
"There's a whole number of things," Beals said. "We're really not that far away but we need to get a little better in a lot of different areas."
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