An Indiana State University baseball team that was 10-games-under .500 coming into Tuesday's game gave the Ball State University baseball team all it could handle.
After the first five innings saw a total of two runs scored between the two teams, there was an offensive explosion. In the next three innings a total of 24 runs were scored and with a scoreless ninth, the game went into extra innings.
It lasted one extra inning as Ball State outfielder Ryan Chenoweth led off the bottom half of the inning with a walk-off bomb over the center field wall, clinching a 14-13 victory. The win improved the Cardinals' record to 20-11.
Ball State coach Greg Beals said nothing tops a walk-off to seal the deal on a win.
"There's no better feeling in all of baseball to have a true walk off; game over," he said. "Whether it's a home run or a base hit to score the run leaving the [opposing] team on the field ... like that is the greatest feeling in the game."
In addition to Chenoweth's home run, four others were hit out of the park with three coming off of shortstop Dean Anna's bat.
Anna raked in six RBIs on the day. In the 10 games the Cardinals have played this month, Anna has gotten 20 hits in 41 at-bats, scored 24 runs, collected 15 RBIs and hit seven of his season's eight home runs. The transfer from John A. Logan College said he has never been this scorching hot.
"No, I haven't [ever been this hot]," he said. "I'm just getting good counts to hit in and just taking good swings at the ball."
Despite getting the victory, Beals said, he wasn't overly happy with the way his team played.
He said he felt his team was slow in the early portions of the game. He said his players weren't swinging at the good pitches, and even when they did get into a good count, they weren't swinging the bat well enough to get a hit.
"For me, there were two games within the game," he said. "... Those first four innings or so, I wasn't real pleased with the quality of our at-bats, but then those last four or five innings we really turned it on and hit the ball well."
In what has become a trend for the Cardinals, they haven't played to their full potential until they are forced to in order to avoid defeat, Beals said.
"It's kind of like we got our backs against the wall and decided OK we got to start playing now," Beals said. "It's good we've got the ability to do that. It's bad we wait until we are in that situation to turn it on."
The Cardinals don't get Wednesday off like they did last week. Instead they travel to in-state rival Indiana University. While it won't hurt the Cardinals in the Mid-American Conference standings if they lose, Beals said the Indiana game is about pride.
"The MAC is where our goals are, and that is what we prepare for and work for all year long," he said. "However, these midweek games against teams like Indiana State [Tuesday] and certainly against Indiana, those are about pride: pride in your institution, pride in that fact we believe we are the best team in Indiana. If you believe that, you've got to go out and prove it on the field."
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