Ball State University Athletics
March 14: Baseball Weekly Release
March 14, 2006 | Baseball
March 14: Baseball Weekly Release (PDF)
This week in Ball State Baseball: The Cardinals travel to Louisville, Ky., for a four-game series with the University of Louisville Cardinals . . . Friday's first pitch is slated for 3 p.m., followed by a doubleheader beginning at noon on Saturday, and a 1 p.m. game on Sunday.
About the Cardinals: Ball State enters the week with a 5-8 record after winning three of five games last week . . . C Matt Singleton hit .400 (6-for-15) with a team-high five RBI in that span . . . INF Matt Gard drove in four RBI while compiling a .417 batting average (5-for-12) and OF Chris Pestle knocked three runs home (.308, 4-for-13) . . . LHP Ben Snyder and RHP Ryan DeGeeter both went 1-0 with 1.29 ERAs on the week . . . Snyder, who made one start and one relief appearance, pitched 7.0 innings with nine strikeouts . . . DeGeeter went 7.0 innings in one start and struck out eight batters . . . RHP Tyler Pritchard went 0-1 and posted a 2.57 ERA in two appearances . . . Pritchard went 7.0 innings with three strikeouts . . . For the season, Singleton (.255) and OF Mike Sullivan (.263) lead the team with eight RBI each . . . Sullivan also has a team-high four extra base hits, all doubles . . . Ball State is batting .233 as a team . . . Snyder leads BSU with 31 strikeouts in 25.2 innings pitched, followed by DeGeeter with 18 strikeouts in 20.0 IP . . . DeGeeter leads the regular three-man starting rotation with a 1.35 ERA . . . The BSU pitching staff has a combined 3.52 ERA . . . Ball State is 3-6 on the road this season and 2-2 at neutral sites.
About Louisville: The Cardinals enter the week with a 5-11 record, after dropping a three-game series to the University of Georgia last weekend . . . U of L plays at Evansville Tuesday at 7 p.m., before hosting BSU . . . Louisville is batting .272 as a team, while opponents are hitting .297 against the Cardinals . . . OF Daniel Burton has a team-high .369 batting average, with 24 hits in 65 at bats . . . C Derrick Alfonso (.340) and 1B Jorge Castillo (.315) are also batting above the .300 mark . . . The U of L pitching staff has compiled a 6.62 ERA, including two shutouts, through 16 games . . . The Cardinals are 4-4 at home this season and 1-7 on the road.
The Series: Ball State and Louisville have met 11 times, with U of L owning a 6-5 series edge . . . Louisville won the last meeting 9-1 (March 13, 2004), with BSU earning a 10-5 victory a day earlier.
BSU Baseball All-Time: The Cardinals own a 1,272-1,191-14 (.516) all-time record . . . Ball State began play in 1920, compiling a 2-3 record under Orville Sink . . . In 85 years of competition -- no games were played in 1944 due to the war -- BSU has compiled a winning record 39 times . . . With a 38-18 record last season, the Cardinals have finished .500 or better in each of the last 10 seasons.
Head Coach Greg Beals: Greg Beals is currently in his fourth season as the head coach of the Ball State baseball team . . . In three-plus seasons with the Cardinals, Beals has compiled a 107-75 (.588) overall record and a 48-25 (.658) Mid-American Conference mark . . . In 2003, Beals became the most successful first-year head coach in school history by guiding the Cardinals to a 36-21 overall record . . . Beals is also the first BSU head coach to win the MAC West Division title in his first season, with a 17-10 MAC ledger . . . In addition, he is just the third coach to post a winning record in his first year at BSU . . . Beals earned his first head coaching win March 1, 2003, with a 4-3 win over Evansville . . . His first MAC win was a 24-2 victory over Central Michigan, March 28, 2003 . . . His 100th career victory came May 21, 2005, with an 8-0 shutout in the second game of a doubleheader with Wright State . . . Beals is just the eighth head coach in Ball State baseball history, ranking sixth in overall wins and third in MAC victories . . . Pat Quinn, BSU Associate A.D. and baseball sport supervisor, holds the record for career overall wins (323), while current University of Michigan head coach Rich Maloney owns the MAC win mark (149).
MAC Preseason Poll: Ball State was picked to finish second in the MAC West Division preseason coaches poll (released Feb. 1), behind last year's divisional runner-up Central Michigan . . . Miami is the favorite to win the East Division and the postseason Tournament.
Awards: Redshirt-sophomore Kyle Heyne earned Ball State's first individual honor of 2006 -- and his first career individual accolade -- after being named the MAC West Pitcher of the Week (Feb. 20) . . . In five innings of relief work at UAB, Heyne posted a career-best six strikeouts, while allowing just one hit, no walks and zero earned runs.
