With two outs in the top of the first inning Sunday, Bowling Green State University's Emily Gouge hit a ball high into the air above the pitcher's mound.
Ball State University's pitcher Tiffany Garofano ran to the third base side to get out of the way as the Cardinals' infielders looked up and moved in on the ball as it drifted right of the mound. However, none of the Cardinals hauled to ball in, allowing it to drop in the middle of the infield and a run to score.
"No one really called it at first and by the time someone did it was too late obviously," Amanda Pick, who plays first base, said. "So we all just kind of looked up in the air and no one really followed through on it."
After the misplayed ball, Garofano proceeded to walk the next batter to load the bases and then walk the following batter to make the score 2-0. The junior then allowed a grand slam, making the score 6-0.
Ball State (23-19, 4-4 Mid-American Conference) could not overcome the deficit and lost the game 8-4, its second loss in two days to Bowling Green (4-18, 4-2 MAC).
"Six runs is a lot to overcome, but we had an opportunity to do it," Ball State coach Craig Nicholson said. "You just have to do a lot of things right when you give up six runs in the first inning."
Despite the early miscue, Nicholson said, he though Ball State played well against Bowling Green Sunday. However, the team did not play well in Saturday's 3-0 loss, he said.
"[Saturday] I wasn't really impressed with the way we played," the coach said. "We were flat."
The Falcons held the Cardinals to five hits Saturday, none of which came in the first three innings.
Ball State picked up two wins prior to the losses to Bowling Green, as it beat the University of Toledo (7-14, 1-5 MAC) 4-2 and 12-3 in doubleheader Friday.
The Cardinals capitalized on the Rockets' miscues Friday, including scoring two unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth of the first game and scoring eight runs in the second inning of game two, six of which were unearned, to take an 8-0 lead.
"Friday we played pretty well," Nicholson said. "It's just still searching to get consistent. It's kind of like we played four games, one really good game, two OK games and one game where we just didn't show up."
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