It's always a big week for the Cardinals when it plays the Boilermakers. But having to follow up Purdue with Mid-American Conference East Division leader Miami may be an even bigger challenge.
Purdue (24-12) boasts an offense that can score with Ball State (24-11), but they both do so in different ways. The Cardinals own the MAC's best offense with a power oriented approach while Purdue has topped the Big Ten in both batting average, on base percentage and stolen bases.
Coach Craig Nicholson said he hopes Ball State's 11-0 complete win Sunday against Akron will translate into momentum for this week.
"We got four tough games this week," Nicholson said. "With Purdue, it's an opportunity for us to go get some big wins against quality opposition and help ourselves a little bit RPI wise."
Unlike Akron, Nicholson said he sees Purdue as a team that's hard to limit on the base paths. Purdue is a team that will run with or without the lead, but Nicholson said he still thinks getting a lead is key.
"I really believe that's the way you shut down a team that wants to run is to get ahead of them early and make them really value every out on the bases," Nicholson said. "The thing with Purdue is that's their offense and I think they'll still try even if you get an early lead."
Walks and defense will become key to keep Purdue base runners off base and limiting extra bases on hits into the outfield.
Miami presents a different challenge for Ball State. It will be a matchup of the best offense against the best pitching as Miami has two of the top three MAC pitchers in ERA. The Cardinals need to pitch well and play excellent defense against the Redhawks, Nicholson said.
"Their pitching is capable of limiting what we do offensively," he said. "We got to make sure we capitalize on mistakes."
Miami has given up only 76 runs on the season while Ball State has scored a league-best 214 runs. But senior pitchers Kim Mazzapica and Audrey Workman have pitched well for Ball State all season. Mazzapica said shutting down the Redhawk offense is important knowing how good Miami's pitching has been this year.
"You kind of just want to go out there and throw out as many zeroes as you can knowing that," Mazzapica said. "We've hit them well in past years and I think we'll still hit well."
The first game of the Purdue doubleheader begins at 3 p.m. today. Ball State then travels to Miami for a two game series Saturday and Sunday.
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