Ball State University Athletics
Meyer Lifts Baseball Over Kent State And Into MAC Championship Game
May 26, 2006 | Baseball
Entering Friday's Mid-American Conference Tournament game against Kent State, Ball State senior Brian Meyer had a .149 batting average. Through nine innings Friday, he was 0-for-3.
But none of that mattered when Meyer stepped to the plate with the go-ahead run on third base in the top of the 11th inning.
Meyer took an 0-2 pitch from Kent State reliever Dominique Rodgers and roped it past a drawn-in infield and into left field to score Kyle Dygert and give the Cardinals a 5-4 lead.
When Ball State reliever Kyle Heyne retired the side in order in the bottom of the 11th, the Cardinals had earned a spot in Saturday's MAC championship game.
The Cardinals (36-20) will face off at 3:30 p.m. against Kent State again. The Golden Flashes defeated Miami to advance out of the loser's bracket. Kent State must beat Ball State twice to win the title. If necessary, a final game would be played Sunday at noon.
"I ended up getting in a good count, so I ended up getting a good pitch," Meyer said of his game-winning hit. "I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, just something out over the plate I could drive into the outfield."
Meyer, who played right field, started just his 12th game of the season Friday when Justin Rogers, the usual starting right fielder, was moved into the designated hitter spot.
And if not for Rogers, Meyer never would have had a chance for his late inning heroics.
Ball State scored a run in both of the first two innings, but the Cardinal bats went silent over the next five as Kent State built a 4-2 lead. Rogers changed that with one swing of the bat in the eighth inning.
With two outs and Matt Singleton, who led off the inning with a bunt single, standing at second base, Rogers ripped a pitch deep over the right field fence to tie the game 4-4.
"Rogers got into a 3-0 count, and we gave him the green light to swing away," Ball State coach Greg Beals said. "He got a good pitch, and the key was he executed and really got all of it."
Heyne earned the win for Ball State after entering the game in the ninth and holding the Golden Flashes hitless over the final three innings. Ryan DeGeeter started the game for the Cardinals, allowing four runs in 6.1 innings before giving way to Kory Bucklew who took the team through the eighth.
Dygert got the Cardinals started in the 11th inning with a one-out single, and Chris Pestle followed with a double to move Dygert to third base and into scoring position for Meyer.
Third-seeded Ball State survived two rain delays to knock off the tournament's No. 1 seed. The first delay came after just two batters had come to the plate in the top of the first inning and lasted one hour. The second stopped play with Kent State leading 3-2 in the fifth inning.
