The Ball State University baseball team will look to get back to the type baseball that enabled them to win 10 straight games prior to last weekend's two losses.
In the Cardinals path today is Indiana State University. The Sycamores will come to Ball Diamond sporting a 10-20 record and will look to snap a three-game losing streak.
Meanwhile the Cardinals will try for win No. 20 on the season, which would match last season's win total with 21 games left in the regular season.
Coach Greg Beals said he won't be sending out a lineup full of bench players like he has done in previous midweek games this season.
"We're going to run out a solid lineup," he said. "It's going to be a good week of baseball for us especially with coming off a little bit tougher of a weekend we need to get right back into the swing of things. ... You're going to see a lot of regulars out there [today] so we can start getting things rolling again."
The Cardinals lead the Mid-American Conference in runs scored with 302. They have scored 72 more runs than the next closest team, which is a larger margin than the gap between second place to 11th place in runs scored.
What has been a problem for Ball State dating back to last season is fielding. The Cardinals are tied for the most double plays turned in the conference with 29, but they have the third most errors and the second-worst fielding percentage. Beals addressed the issue after Sunday's game, in which two seventh inning errors led to six unearned runs.
"Defense is the thing; that's what frustrating," he said. "You're going to pitch the ball good some days and you're not going to pitch so good some days that is the nature of the game, but you need to be able to play consistent defense."
Beals said the team has struggled on hard hit ground balls and he will have the team work on fielding them prior to today's game.
"We've taken plenty of ground balls [in practice] where they know it's coming to them, and it gets hit to them at a [slow] pace," he said. "We need to do a little more with balls being hit hard off the bat in practice."
Following Tuesday's game, Ball State will play a road game against Indiana University on Wednesday. While the Sycamores aren't on the level of Indiana in baseball, outfielder Kory Benbow said, the team looks at every game against a team in this state as a must win.
"It's definitely a big game, all the instate games are," he said. "... It's bragging rights for who's the best in the state. We lost one to Notre Dame. We don't want to lose anymore."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
