Ball State University Athletics
BSU 11, Akron 5
March 25, 2006 | Baseball
Akron's Scott Gunn put a run on the board in the bottom of the first as he nailed a first-pitch home run over the right field wall for his second of the season, but BSU struck back with six runs in the second.
Junior shortstop Eric Earnhart (Urbana, Ohio/Urbana) started things off with an RBI single through the left side, driving in redshirt-sophomore right fielder Justin Rogers (St. Paris, Ohio/Graham). Senior catcher Matt Singleton (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead) drove in senior left fielder Chris Pestle (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) with a single to center. Thanks to Akron shortstop Ryne Romick's mishandling of senior center fielder Mike Sullivan's (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) grounder, junior DH Matt Gard (Muncie, Ind./Central) was able to cross the plate. Earnhart, Singleton and Sullivan all scored on wild pitches occurring during senior second baseman Kyle Dygert's (Angola, Ind./Angola) at bat.
The Zips added a second run in the bottom of the second inning as Marcus Geiselman drove in Doug McNulty with a single to left field.
In the top of the fourth, Dygert singled to shallow left field driving in Singleton and Sullivan for two more runs, increasing the Cardinals' lead to 8-2.
In the bottom of the fifth, Akron added a run on a sac fly by Vince Chiera, driving in Brian Kimutis and moving the score to 8-3.
The Cardinals added three more runs in the eighth as senior first baseman Brad Miller (Muncie, Ind./Central) doubled down the right field line to score Singleton and Sullivan. Miller later scored on Rogers' single down the left field line.
The Zips fought back with two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but didn't have enough to catch Ball State.
Sophomore Tyler Pritchard (Lebanon, Ohio/Lebanon) made his fifth start and pitched five innings, surrendering six hits, three earned runs and three walks, while striking out two batters on the way to improving his season record to 2-1 with the win.
Junior Richie Fralick (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) entered in the bottom of the sixth and pitched four innings of relief, giving up three hits, two earned runs and one walk, while fanning two for his first save of the year.
Akron pitcher Tom Farmer took the loss after giving up nine hits, seven earned runs and five walks, while posting seven strikeouts in seven innings.
The Cardinals and Zips wrap up their series tomorrow at 1 p.m.
