Ball State split its home doubleheader Friday with Mid-American Conference West Division leader Western Michigan. With the split, Ball State moves its record to 33-20 on the season and stays a half game back of Western Michigan in the MAC West Division.
Coach Craig Nicholson said Ball State's approach and mindset was really the same for both games, it was just good hitting by Western Michigan.
"I don't think there was a real difference in mindset," Nicholson said. "We pitched a few of their hitters a little bit different in game two, but they did a good job of swinging the bats and getting themselves back in ball games. You got to give them a little bit of credit."
In Game 1 of the doubleheader, Ball State got off to a hot start.
In the bottom of the first inning, freshman first baseman Taylor Rager drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in the first run of the game. Senior shortstop Alicia Barkley made the score 2-0 after scoring off of an illegal pitch by junior pitcher Meredith Whitney.
Western Michigan cut the lead in half in the top of the second inning when junior designated hitter Kayla Houston hit a solo home run to left center.
In the bottom of the second inning, Ball State continued its hot streak, adding five more runs to its total. Barkley made the score 3-1 when she hit an RBI double to left center to drive in senior right fielder Alyssa Collins.
Freshman designated hitter Jennifer Gilbert followed a walk to junior catcher Amanda Montalto and a strike out by Rager with a three-home run to right field, driving in Barkley and Montalto. Sophomore left fielder Amanda Carpenter added a solo home run to center field to make the score 7-1 and ending the scoring for Ball State in the inning.
In the top of the third inning, Western Michigan cut the lead to 7-3. Junior third baseman Gracie Barstad drove in senior shortstop Michelle Bendewald off of a fielder's choice and junior left fielder Courtney Rousseau hit an RBI single to the shortstop to drive in Whitney.
In the top of the fourth inning, Western Michigan took an 8-7 lead off of back-to-back-to-back home runs by Bendewald, whose home run was a two-run shot, senior right fielder Lexi Jager, and junior first baseman Tara Buchanan. Freshman catcher Allie Carlson added an RBI single to center field to cap off the scoring for the Broncos.
After holding Ball State scoreless in the bottom half of the fourth inning, Western Michigan added three more runs to make the score 11-7. Whitney and Jager hit RBI doubles to right center and left while Barstad added an RBI single to center field to bring in Jager.
Ball State cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fifth inning after Collins hit an RBI single to right field and Barkley hit a sacrifice fly to center field.
Holding Western Michigan to no runs in the top of the sixth inning, Ball State cut the deficit to 11-10 when senior center fielder Lisa Rozanski hit an RBI double to left center, driving in Carpenter.
After allowing no runs in the seventh inning, Ball State came up to the plate down only one run. After a groundout to freshman second baseman Christina Pigozzi by Rager, Gilbert and Carpenter came up to the plate with a chance to win the game for Ball State. However, both Gilbert and Carpenter struck out swinging to end the hopes of a Cardinals comeback.
Junior catcher Amanda Montalto said she credits Ball State's game one loss to a lack of patience at the plate.
"Their pitcher (Whitney) might not have looked like it from an outsider perspective, but she couldn't hit her spots" Montalto said. " I mean, she walked me four times. If we would've stayed more disciplined at the plate, we could've won that game."
Ball State proved it could be more patient at the plate in game two of the doubleheader, defeating Western Michigan in six innings by a final score of 12-4. In the game, Ball State hit .469 with 15 hits, three walks, and three home runs. Leading the way for Ball State was freshman designated hitter Jennifer Gilbert.
Gilbert hit two two-run home runs for the game, one to left field in the bottom of the third and another to center field in the bottom of the sixth. She added an RBI single to center field in the bottom of the fourth inning to give her a grand total of five RBIs for the game.
Montalto added a two-run home run of her own in the bottom of the first inning to tie the game at 2-2.
Gilbert said despite the fact Ball State loses full control of its destiny due to the series split with Western Michigan, they are not going to worry about it too much going forward.
"We're not going to be complacent with ourselves at all," Gilbert said. "We're just going to come out and give it our all from the very first inning."
Ball State returns to action Saturday, when it plays division foe Northern Illinois. First pitch is at 2 p.m.
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