Ball State University Athletics
Ball State Baseball Takes MAC West Lead Into Final Week Of Regular Season
May 15, 2006 | Baseball
THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE BASEBALL: Ball State travels to Bloomington, Ind., Tuesday for a 3 p.m. match-up with Indiana, the final non-conference game of the season . . . The game with Indiana can be heard live on 91.3 WCRD or on the Internet at www.wcrd.net or www.ballstatesports.com . . . The Cardinals will conclude their regular season with a three-game series at Central Michigan beginning Thursday . . . Thursday's game is scheduled to start at 3 p.m., while the Friday and Saturday games will begin at 1 p.m.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS: With two weekend victories and two Central Michigan losses, the Cardinals have taken over first place in the Mid-American Conference West Division . . . Ball State enters the contest with Indiana riding a season-best 10-game winning streak . . . The Cardinals defeated non-conference opponents Indiana State and Cincinnati last week before taking both games of a rain-shortened series at Northern Illinois over the weekend . . . 1B Brad Miller leads Ball State with 18 home runs and 65 RBI, while RF Justin Rogers owns a team-best .337 batting average . . . RHP Tyler Pritchard earned the victory in game two of the Northern Illinois series to improve his record to 6-2, the best among Ball State starters . . . LHP Kory Bucklew owns a team-best 1.57 ERA out of the bullpen, while starting LHP Ben Snyder has struck out a team-high 83 batters in 85.1 innings of work.
ABOUT INDIANA: The Hoosiers had a doubleheader scheduled Monday with Illinois . . . Indiana entered the week with a 20-29 record (9-17 Big Ten) . . . The Hoosiers split a Sunday doubleheader with the Illini, taking game one 4-3 and dropping game two 9-6 . . . Earlier in the week, they defeated Valparaiso 13-11 . . . IF Keith Haas entered the week with a team-leading .364 batting average . . . He is one of four Indiana batters hitting above .300 . . . Among pitchers with at least 10 appearances, Doug Fleenor entered the week with the team's best ERA at 3.10, while Joe Vicini owns the team's most wins with five . . . The all-time series is tied at 22, but Ball State has won the past two, including a 17-4 victory last year at Ball Diamond.
A GRAND INNING: Brad Miller hit grand slams in back-to-back games on the road last week . . . Both of the four-run bombs came in the second inning . . . On Wednesday at Cincinnati, Miller drilled a grand slam as part of an eight-run second inning that propelled the Cardinals to a 13-9 victory . . . In the first game of a doubleheader Saturday at Northern Illinois, Miller went deep with the bases loaded again . . . That blast came as part of a seven-run second inning in Ball State's 10-3 victory over the Huskies.
MILLER TAKES ALL: Senior Brad Miller owns 18 home runs on the year, three more than the entire Indiana team . . . Indiana OF Jay Brant leads the Hoosiers with five home runs . . . Miller blasted his 18th of the season on a grand slam Saturday at Northern Illinois . . . The MAC leader in HR's, Miller has amassed 47 career home runs through 218 games, including 18 in 49 games this season . . . Miller is just three long balls away from tying Matt Wood (1998-01) for the BSU career mark at 49 and five away from tying Thomas Howard (1984-86) for the single-season record of 23, which was set in 1986.
ROGERS HEATING UP: During Ball State's recent winning streak, RF Justin Rogers has been leading the Cardinal attack at the plate . . . Rogers is 17-for-31 from the plate during the stretch for a batting average of .548 . . . He also leads the team with a .634 on-base percentage during the streak . . . Rogers has raised his season batting average to a team-high .337.
HE'S NOT ALONE: Rogers is just one of four Cardinals hitting .400 or better during the winning streak . . . Brad Miller is hitting .436, Kyle Dygert .414 and Eric Earnhart .409. Three other players are hitting at least .300: C.J. Webb (.341), Mike Sullivan (.310) and Matt Singleton (.300) . . . The Cardinals' team batting average over the past 10 games is .334 compared to their opponents' average of .281.
RUN, RUN, RUN: Senior Mike Sullivan scored three runs last week to raise his career total to 189, just six runs shy of setting a new BSU career record for runs scored . . . Jeremy Ridley (1997-00) currently owns the mark with 194 career runs . . . Sullivan has scored 48 runs this season, nine shy of his personal-best of 57 last season in 56 games.
GOLDEN GLOVES: As a team, Ball State owns a .976 fielding percentage, the best in the Mid-American Conference . . . In the most recent NCAA rankings, the Cardinals' fielding percentage placed them 10th in the nation . . . C Matt Singleton leads the Ball State starters with a .997 fielding percentage, and 1B Brad Miller is close behind at .994 . . . Three other regulars (3B C.J. Webb, 2B Kyle Dygert and LF Chris Pestle) own fielding percentages above .980.
OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION: During the Cardinals' 10-game winning streak, the team is averaging 9.6 runs per game . . . Last week, Ball State put up nine runs against Indiana State, 13 against Cincinnati and 14 in two games against Northern Illinois . . . In Ball State's three-game sweep of Toledo May 5-7 - - the club's second MAC home sweep of the season - - the offense exploded for 36 total runs . . . The 36 runs are the most in a league series for the Cardinals this season, topping the previous mark of 28 vs. Miami . . . BSU also recorded at least 10 hits in each game, marking the first time this season BSU has reached double-figure hits in all three games of a MAC series.
