Ball State Baseball takes midweek game, prepares for Kent State
By Zach Piatt / March 27, 2019“Anything you can do” seemed to be what Ball State (16-9, 3-0 MAC) was humming in a 14-8 win against Valparaiso (5-16, 0-0 Valley) Wednesday.
“Anything you can do” seemed to be what Ball State (16-9, 3-0 MAC) was humming in a 14-8 win against Valparaiso (5-16, 0-0 Valley) Wednesday.
In his second at-bat of the bottom of the ninth inning, Blake Dunn doubled home Western Michigan’s (6-16, 0-3 MAC) 15th run of the game and its eighth of the inning. The only problem was Ball State (15-9, 3-0 MAC) scored 20.
Three times in the first four innings senior John Ricotta came up to bat with two outs and runners on base. Three times he came through with an RBI hit. Ricotta finished the game 4 for 5 with four runs driven in, and his performance at the plate highlighted Ball State’s (14-9, 2-0 MAC) 10-3 win over Western Michigan (6-15, 0-2 MAC) Saturday.
With wind gusts blowing upwards of 15 mph to right field, Friday was not an ideal day for pitchers as Ball State (13-9, 1-0 MAC) and Western Michigan (6-14, 0-1 MAC) squared off. Each team connected for a pair of home runs, and the Cardinals wound up on top, 8-5.
Ball State (13-9, 0-0 MAC) walked it off Wednesday after facing an 11-8 deficit in the ninth inning against Purdue Fort Wayne (4-15).
You might as well paint flames on Ross Messina’s bat at this point because in Ball State’s last 11 games, he’s been on fire. The junior transfer out of Seminole State College has batted .422 over that span with five multi-hit games and 12 RBIs.
Dayton (6-9-1, 0-0 A-10) would hold on to beat Ball State (9-9, 0-0 MAC), 5-4, with another pair of matchups between the two coming this weekend.
First pitch: home run. Junior Aaron Simpson led off the home half of Ball State’s (9-8, 0-0 MAC) Friday matchup with Purdue Fort Wayne (4-11, 0-0 Summit) in style. With the wind blowing out to center field, Simpson got the ball in the air and let Mother Nature do the rest.
South Carolina and Florida are hot spots when spring break comes around. That’s exactly where members of Ball State Baseball were the last two weeks, but they weren’t vacationing. They were playing ball.
It may not seem like it with temperatures in Muncie still dipping into the 20s, but Ball State’s spring break is here, and with spring comes baseball. The Cardinals already have seven games under their belt, and they’re making stops in South Carolina and Florida before coming back home after break. As their next game approaches, here’s a few things to keep in mind.
Big weekend for Cardinal athletics as gymnastics, softball and many more picked up big wins on the road and in Muncie. Here's your weekend recap.
Ball State kicked off the season at the Grand Canyon University Classic in Tempe, Arizona, last weekend, and while the Cardinals’ 1-3 showing wasn’t ideal, head coach Rich Maloney said their record could have just as easily been reversed.
Dirtbag. It’s not the most pleasant of words. In fact, its definition states just the opposite: “an unpleasant person.” Certainly not something you’d want to win an award for — that is, unless you play baseball at Ball State.
Seven frames cover the east wall of head coach Rich Maloney’s office in the Ball State Student Recreation and Wellness Center. They represent the start of something big.
Faith is something Ball State’s Will Baker has plenty of to go around, and those around him have taken notice.
Many athletes dream of making it to the big leagues after they graduate college, but few make it that far.
Baseball is known as America’s “national pastime,” and at Ball State, that pastime has been around since 1920.
Ball State baseball has been represented in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft for the third straight year.
Ball State baseball gave up a run in the first inning of Friday's Mid-American Conference Tournament elimination game against Central Michigan and had to play catch-up the rest of the way.
From the start of Thursday's Mid-American Conference Tournament game between Ball State baseball and Miami (Ohio), it had the look of a long day in the making for Ball State.
