Snapping a six-game losing streak, the Ball State University baseball team defeated Northern Illinois University 2-1 Sunday in ten innings. The win was the second in the last 15 games for the Cardinals.
The victory enabled the Cardinals to avoid being swept in the weekend three-game home series after losing the first two games of the series 7-3 and 4-3, respectively.
"Getting swept is bad, but getting swept at home is even worse," Ball State starting pitcher Brad Piatt said. "This is where we play everyday."
Piatt said his performance in Sunday's game, which he dedicated to his mother for Mother's Day, was by far the best of the season for him. He pitched seven innings, striking out eight and allowed one run on four hits.
"The story of the game was our pitching," coach Greg Beals said. "Piatt took the ball out on Sunday for seven strong innings, and struck a lot of guys."
Ball State was down for most of the game before mounting a comeback. In the third inning Huskie left fielder Jeff Thomas hit a ball deep allowing catcher Matt Behren to tag up and score from third base. The run put the Huskies up 1-0, and that was the score in the bottom of the eighth inning when Cardinal right fielder Ryan Chenoweth stepped up to the plate.
With a swing of the bat Chenoweth knotted the game at one, powering a fastball thrown by Huskie Mark Badgley. Chenoweth belted the ball over the left field wall.
"I was looking for a fastball because he struck me out with one earlier," Chenoweth said. "He left it up a little bit, and I made good contact with it."
With neither team scoring in the ninth inning the game went into extra innings. The Cardinals only needed one extra inning before ending the game with a deep sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Matt Gard.
"Things we've been doing all year to help out the other team they did for us [Sunday]," Beals said. "They committed an error there in the last inning to put the game winning run in scoring position."
With Sunday's win the Cardinals are 6-18 in the Mid-American Conference and 17-33 overall. With their record the Cardinals will not be playing in the MAC Tournament at season's end. However, Beals said knowing there will be no postseason for the team this year hasn't affected the team's motivation.
"You got to come out and try to get better every game to build momentum for next year," Beals said.
The Cardinals' next game will be at IPFW Tuesday. It's their last non-conference game of the season.
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