Ball State's baseball team suffered an 11-6 loss at Middle Tennessee State Saturday in its opening series of the season.
With the loss, the Cardinals fall to 0-2 on the season, while Middle Tennessee State improved to 2-0. The two teams will complete the three-game series with a Sunday 1 p.m. (CT) game at MTSU.
Middle Tennessee jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after two innings, and added two in the bottom of the sixth to maintain a 5-0 advantage. The Cardinals rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh to tie the contest at 5-5, but the Blue Raiders managed a sixth run seventh to seal the victory.
Clay Manering suffered the loss after pitching only 2/3 of an inning and allowing one earned run. Nestor Bautista started the game and pitched five innings, allowing eight hits and five earned runs. Ball State used a total of six pitchers in the game, and allowed 11 hits, while striking out three.
Ryan Spaulding led the Cardinals with three hits and two runs-batted-in in four at-bats. Sean Godfrey and Cody Campbell tallied two hits apiece, while Brandon Estep managed a two RBI single in a pitch hitter appearance. Billy Wellman and Campbell drove in Ball State's other runs.
