Ball State University Athletics
Baseball Set To Close Regular Season at CMU
May 17, 2006 | Baseball
THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE BASEBALL: 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. The winner of the series will win the Mid-American Conference West Division.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS: Ball State took over first place in the Mid-American Conference West Division over the weekend with two victories over Northern Illinois and two Central Michigan losses . . . The Cardinals then defeated Big 10 opponent Indiana 5-3 on Tuesday for their 11th straight win . . . Ball State is 32-18 on the season and 15-7 in the MAC . . . 1B Brad Miller leads Ball State with 18 home runs and 65 RBI, while RF Justin Rogers owns a team-best .345 batting average . . . RHP Tyler Pritchard earned the victory in game two of the Northern Illinois series last weekend to improve his record to 6-2, the best among Ball State starters . . . LHP Kory Bucklew owns a team-best 1.53 ERA out of the bullpen, while starting LHP Ben Snyder has struck out a team-high 83 batters in 85.1 innings of work . . . The Cardinals have won three consecutive MAC series.
ABOUT CENTRAL MICHIGAN: The Chippewas enter Thursday's contest with a record of 32-20 (15-8 MAC), a half game back of Ball State . . . Central Michigan dropped both games of a rain-shortened weekend series with Western Michigan but rebounded to defeat Michigan State 6-4 on Tuesday . . . 1B Ben Humphrey had a home run and four RBI against the Spartans . . . He leads Central Michigan with 13 homers and 66 RBI on the season . . . The Chippewas have nine hitters who have had at least 45 at bats and are batting at least .300 . . . Josh Collmenter leads the pitching staff with six wins, while reliever Josh Ruhlman owns a team-best 2.25 ERA in 22 appearances out of the bullpen . . . Central Michigan leads the all-time series 72-40, but Ball State took two out of three from the Chippewas last year.
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.
CHASING HISTORY: Senior Brad Miller blasted his 18th home run 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 219 games, including 18 in 50 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 . . . Miller also has 65 RBI on the season and is four RBI short of tying Wood's career record of 221.
ROGERS HEATING UP: During Ball State's recent 11-game winning streak, RF Justin Rogers has been leading the Cardinal attack at the plate . . . Rogers is 20-for-36 from the plate during the stretch for a batting average of .556 . . . He also leads the team with a .630 on-base percentage during the streak . . . Rogers has raised his season batting average to a team-high .345.
HE'S NOT ALONE: Rogers is just one of four Cardinals hitting .400 or better during the winning streak . . . Kyle Dygert is hitting .452, Brad Miller .419, and Eric Earnhart .408. Two other players are hitting at least .300 during the streak: C.J. Webb (.326) and Matt Singleton (.300) . . . The Cardinals' team batting average over the past 11 games is .329 compared to their opponents' average of .279.
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 8th 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' 11-game winning streak, the team is averaging 9.2 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.
