With just two more series and two solo games remaining in Ball State Baseball's regular season, the team is attempting to fight its way up the Mid-American Conference (MAC) standings.
This weekend, headed into a three-game series against conference opponent Northern Illinois University, (NIU) the Cardinals sat in fifth place in the MAC. Coming out of it, with two wins and one loss, they advance into fourth place.
This puts the team — for now — into contention for the MAC Baseball tournament.
On the road to start play Friday night, Ball State came in with an away record of 11-11.
It became clear the team looked to improve this.
In a low-scoring game, which only had a total of seven runs, the Cardinals walked away with a 4-3 victory, collecting ten hits in the process.
Ball State opened the scoring in the second inning courtesy of RBIs from seniors Clay Jacobs and Nick Gregory. Star MAC pitcher junior Merritt Beeker picked up nine strikeouts across five innings of play, holding the Huskies to three runs before being relieved.
Saturday's game was the polar opposite of what occurred the day before. Over double the amount of runs were scored and the Cardinals hit 50 percent of what they did in the previous game.
The Huskies opened the scoring and continued to rack up runs early.
Through the first five innings, NIU built up a 9-0 lead.
It wasn't until inning seven that Ball State put itself on the board with a run, something that was immediately followed by three unanswered NIU runs. Ball State would tack on two more, but ultimately lose 12-3.
Sunday's game became the tiebreaker of the series, with both teams looking to start to close out MAC play strong.
The Cardinals again flipped its previous game on its head and came out showcasing something previously unseen in the series, a huge offensive presence.
Much like its opponent the night before, Ball State picked up nine runs through the first four innings, however, NIU matched them, scoring 10 in the same timeframe.
Ball State answered in inning six with two runs courtesy of RBIs from junior Hunter Dobbins and senior Decker Scheffler, putting them up by one.
The Huskies would go on to be shut out for the last five innings of the game.
Scheffler created two more RBI opportunities in innings seven and nine to secure the win for the Cardinals, 13-10.
Ball State returns home to face Butler May 7 at 3 p.m. before remaining at home to start yet another MAC series against Central Michigan May 10.
Contact Trinity Rea via email at trinity.rea@bsu.edu or on X @thetrinityrea.
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