While the 10-game win streak was snapped for the Ball State University baseball team, a different streak was extended.
In its first two series of the Mid-American Conference, Ball State played Sunday's game with a chance to get a sweep, but this weekend the Cardinals were on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Having lost 18-12, 18-16 on Friday and Saturday, respectively, the Cardinals (19-11, 7-2 MAC) took the field Sunday trying to avoid being swept at home by Bowling Green State University. Ball State was successful in its sweep defense as it won 9-7 Sunday.
Freshman Kolbrin Vitek started for the Cardinals on the mound and got the victory. The Cardinals have yet to lose a game in which Vitek was the starting pitcher, as they have won eight-straight games with Vitek on the mound.
On Sunday he went 6 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run and striking out seven batters. He improved to 5-0 on the year with the win.
Ball State coach Greg Beals said Vitek was the difference between Friday and Saturday's loses to Sunday's win.
"I think the biggest difference was the way we pitched," he said. "We got great starting pitching [Sunday]. Kolbrin Vitek was able to use all four of his pitches and throw them for strikes. That makes it a lot tougher on the opposing offense."
With a hard wind blowing out on Friday and Saturday, the Falcons scored 36 combined runs, something that was Vitek said was on his mind prior to Sunday's game.
"I definitely was thinking about that because watching them if you leave the ball up [in the strike zone] to them, they are definitely going to drive it, but I was also taking the wind into factor," he said. "The [first] two days it has been blowing out and [Sunday] it was blowing in so I knew I had that on my side today."
Also on Vitek's side was the bats of his teammates. They gave him run support as they scored eight of their nine runs while Vitek was in the game.
Leading the way all weekend offensively was outfielder Kory Benbow. In the three games he got eight hits in 11 at-bats and had an on-base percentage of .786 while scoring seven runs.
In the Cardinals one midweek game, Benbow had two hits, a grand slam and a team season-high seven RBIs.
"Definitely I've been seeing the ball well out there," he said. "That seven RBI day with a home run kind of got things rolling. I got a hit Friday and it rolled right into Saturday and [Sunday]."
Ball State had nine errors in the weekend, causing 10 of the Falcons' runs to go unearned.
"We're going to talk about this all year long I think; we are going to talk about our defense and our ability to make plays," Beals said. "We hurt ourselves [Sunday]. Kolbrin should have been out of the seventh inning and had a great outing but we commit two errors and have six unearned runs in that inning."
Despite the defensive woes and the lost series, Beals said, he still likes where his team is at in the MAC.
"When you look at the season as a whole 7-2 is pretty good," he said. "Even though we lost the series this weekend we were able to win [Sunday] to salvage that solid record, and at the end of the year, it doesn't matter if you win or lose a series, it matters what your record is."
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