Defense has been a struggle for the Ball State University baseball team for much of the last two years but on Wednesday strong fielding played a big role in its 5-2 victory against Indiana University.
The Cardinals (21-11) committed zero errors for the fourth time this season and turned numerous double plays getting pitchers out of bad situations unscathed.
"The thing that was great about this game was how great our defense was," coach Greg Beals said. "We've talked about defense being our Achilles heel, but we turned five double plays today ... defense is the reason why we won."
The pitching was also effective on Wednesday for the Cardinals. They allowed two runs, more than four less than their season average, and shut out the Hoosiers in each of the last seven innings.
Brenden Stines started on the mound for Ball State. He went five innings with two earned runs.
"I knew I didn't have my best stuff so I had to really battle," Stines said. "I took it one pitch at a time ... I'm not totally pleased but five innings, two runs I'll take that to get myself back on the right track."
Stines has been a weekend starter for the Cardinals the past two seasons but was demoted after giving up 14 earned runs in 11 1/3 in his three starts since Mid-American Conference play began.
Beals said he was pleased with what he saw in Stines against Indiana.
"I felt like as a whole Brenden's outing was a good outing," he said. "... He did a good job really trying to work on the things we want him to work on."
Stines will start next Tuesday's midweek game against Xavier University. After that, Beals said, he hopes Stines will be able to work his way back into the weekend rotation.
Both shortstop Dean Anna and catcher Zach Dygert homered for Ball State, and four of the team's seven hits went for extra bases.
Dygert got the day off on Tuesday against Indiana State University, making him fresh for the Hoosiers.
"Catching is a very demanding position," he said. "Days off are required, you can't perform your best every single day. It's necessary to play at level I want to play at."
Anna on the other hand is the one Cardinal to start all 32 games this season. The junior college transfer in his first year at Ball State hit four home runs in two games, almost half his season total of nine.
With the win the Cardinals were at least partially successful in one of their goals this season.
"It's something that is very important to our program," Beals said. "Reason being is we talk a lot about Ball State being the best baseball team in Indiana and you have to prove that on the field."
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