When Eastern Illinois University came up to bat in the eighth inning of game two Tuesday with a runner at second, it used a bunt to sacrifice the runner to third base.
Ball State University pitcher Elizabeth Milian then retired the Panthers' next two batters to strand the runner at third. When the Cardinals got their chance at the plate, they did not bunt, and it paid off.
Alyssa Collins lined a ball into right field to score Lisa Rozanski from second base and give Ball State a 3-2 win in the second game of the doubleheader.
"She was trying to hit the ball to the right side," coach Craig Nicholson said. "So we figured even if she hits the ball to the right side and gets out that we're going to move the runner to third with Lisa at second. We had the luxury of having the right part of the order up to be able to swing away."
The Cardinals' (31-25, 6-8 Mid-American Conference) win in game two came after a 3-2 loss in eight innings of the first game of the doubleheader. Ball State used a sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning of the first game to move Kamilah Holle to third but failed to get her across the plate.
The Panthers (16-21, 8-6 Ohio Valley Conference) also used a sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning of the first game. They scored the runner with the next at bat on an error by Kathryn Wilczynski at third base.
In the second game, Nicholson said, Ball State had three shots with the middle of the lineup, so he thought it would be good for the team to take them.
"You could bunt there and move the runner, and then you'd have to get another hit," he said. "I just felt like we have our fastest kid on our team at second base, let's take three hacks with our two, three, four hitters and see if we can't get her in."
Collins, who was 0-for-7 on the day prior to the eighth-inning hit, said she was really glad she drove in the winning run after struggling the rest of the day.
"I've been struggling at the plate," the right fielder said. "I was actually talking to Allie [Pennock] and Lisa [Rozanski] in the outfield, before I hit it that I had been struggling. So it felt good to come through, get a hit, hit Lisa in."
Like Collins, most of the Ball State batters failed to get a hit in the first game. Eastern Illinois' Kathleen Jacoby limited the Cardinals to two hits in the first game, one by Abby Gross and one by Milian. However, the pitcher walked three and the Panthers' defense also committed three errors to allow some more base runners.
"We've got to do better than two hits, and that's the bottom line," Nicholson said. "We had some runners on base, but you're not going to win very many games with two hits."
Nicholson said he thought the team began to play better after the fifth inning of the first game. The Cardinals collected their two runs in the sixth inning of game one with RBIs by Alicia Barkley and Gross and then had seven hits in the second game.
With the two extra-inning games, four of Ball State's last six games have gone into extra innings.
"It's probably an anomaly more than it is something that is going to happen on a regular basis, but four out of six seems to be a little of a pattern," Nicholson said.
Ball State now travels to Ohio State University (27-20,5-11 Big Ten) Wednesday for another non-conference doubleheader, beginning at 5 p.m.
Collins said every team has its off days like Ball State did Tuesday, and the team just has to build off the positives and play better the rest of the week.
"Things happen sometimes, and it doesn't always go our way," she said. "We've just got to keep pushing through. I'd rather it be this game that we play off than a MAC game later in the week.
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