Ball State University Athletics
Cardinals Earn Win Over Xavier
April 18, 2006 | Baseball
The Musketeers, who lost eight of their previous nine contests, defeated cross-town rival Cincinnati 11-10 Monday evening before falling to the Cardinals.
Ball State scored one run to open the first inning. Senior center fielder Mike Sullivan (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) singled to second base in the Cardinals' first at bat, extending his hitting streak to 14 games to tie for a BSU season-high. Senior first baseman Brad Miller (Muncie, Ind./Central) drove him in on a single down the left field line, knocking in his team-leading 39th RBI.
Senior left fielder Chris Pestle (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) drove a single to right field in the second inning and then advanced to second on a passed ball. Senior catcher Jon Byerly (Merrillville, Ind./Merrillville) knocked an RBI single to right center, scoring Pestle to give Ball State a 2-0 lead.
In the fifth, Xavier's Sean Brewer doubled to right center to drive in Adam Lipski and cut the lead in half at 2-1. After the walk of Steve Brown, Sean Farrell singled to left field to score Brewer and knot the game at two apiece.
Redshirt-sophomore right fielder Justin Rogers (St. Paris, Ohio/Graham) began the eighth inning with a single to shortstop. He was replaced by senior pinch runner Brian Meyer (Archbold, Ohio/Archbold), who advanced to third on senior third baseman C.J. Webb's (Mascoutah, Ill./Mascoutah) double to right center. Meyer scored on a wild pitch to give BSU a 3-2 lead.
Brewer doubled to left field in the bottom of the ninth, but the Cardinals locked down on defense for the win.
Senior Jeff Michael (Elkhart, Ind./Concord) pitched one inning for the win. Michael allowed one hit while striking out one batter for his first win of the season (1-0). Redshirt-sophomore Kyle Heyne (Coldwater, Ohio/Coldwater) picked up his seventh save of the year in one inning of work, while notching a strikeout and allowing one hit.
The Musketeers stranded three runners in the first two innings and left 13 on for the game, while BSU left nine runners on for the contest.
The Cardinals travel to Ypsilanti, Mich., to face Eastern Michigan (16-16, 7-5 MAC) in a Mid-American Conference weekend series beginning Friday at 6 p.m.
