Ball State University Athletics
Cards Ready For Two-Game Midweek Set At Wake Forest
March 12, 2007 | Baseball
Ball State (4-9) at
Wake Forest (11-5)
Tues., March 13 @ 3 p.m.
Wed., March 14 @ 3 p.m.
Hooks Stadium
Winston-Salem, N.C.
About Ball State
The Cardinals won one of three games over the weekend at Coastal Carolina's Myrtle Beach Hyundai Isuzu Classic . . . After falling 3-1 Friday to Georgia Southern and 5-0 Saturday to No. 17 Coast Carolina, Ball State rebounded with an 8-6 win Sunday over Bethune-Cookman . . . First baseman Matt Stoeklen led the Cardinals over the weekend with two home runs and five RBI, including a solo home run and a three-run double in the win over Bethune-Cookman . . . Stoeklen owns a team-best .324 batting average, followed by infielder Matt Gard at .304 and outfielder Ryan Chenoweth at .302 . . . Chenoweth tops Ball State with eight RBI and is tied with Stoeklen for the team lead with two home runs.
On The Mound
Richie Fralick is slated to make his first start of the season Tuesday . . . One of Ball State's top relief pitchers, the senior right-hander has started three career games . . . In three appearances so far in 2007, Fralick has allowed four earned runs in 7.0 innings . . . Wednesday starter Brad Piatt will be making his first collegiate start . . . The freshman right-hander owns a perfect 0.00 ERA through three appearances . . . Piatt has thrown 6.0 innings, striking out four and allowing seven hits.
Scouting Wake Forest
The Demon Deacons opened Atlantic Coast Conference play over the weekend by taking two out of three games from fourth-ranked Virginia . . . Wake Forest won the first game of the series 8-3 and the final game 7-6, dropping the middle contest 13-5 . . . The Demon Deacons have won eight of their past 10 games, all at home . . . Willy Fox, who had the game-winning single Sunday against Virginia, leads the team with a .361 batting average . . . Allan Dykstra is next at .339, followed by Evan Ocheltree at .333 and Brett Linnenkohl at .306 . . . Dykstra owns a team-best five home runs, and Fox leads the Demon Deacons with 17 RBI.
On The Mound
Tuesday starter Alex Wiesner has appeared in five games and started three without a decision . . . Wiesner has allowed 12 earned runs and 29 hits in 13.2 innings, while striking out seven batters . . . Wednesday starter Joel Ernst has appeared in six games and started one without a decision . . . Ernst has given up 10 runs on 22 hits in 17.2 innings, striking out eight.
The Series: Ball State trails 2-0 in the all-time series with Wake Forest . . . The Demon Deacons won the inaugural meeting 11-8 in 1993 and also won the most recent contest 15-11 in 2005 . . . Both games were played in Winston-Salem.
Three Of Five
With Ball State's 8-6 victory Sunday against Bethune-Cookman, the Cardinals have now won three of their last five games . . . Ball State won the last two games of its series with Austin Peay a weekend ago before dropping the first two games of the Myrtle Beach Hyundai Isuzu Classic . . . With those thee wins in five games, Ball State has improved to 4-9 on the season after starting 1-7.
Stoeklen Powering The Offense
Junior first baseman Matt Stoeklen led the Cardinals at the plate over the weekend with a .455 batting average (5-for-11) in Ball State's three games . . . Entering the weekend without an extra base hit on the season, Stoeklen logged two home runs and two doubles . . . His solo home run Friday against Georgia Southern scored the Cardinals' only run of the game . . . Sunday against Bethune-Cookman, Stoeklen drove in four runs, one on another solo home run and three on a seventh inning double that gave Ball State the lead . . . In the three games, he improved his batting average from .269 to a team-best .324.
DeGeeter Makes It Two In A Row
Senior pitcher Ryan DeGeeter earned his second straight win on the mound Sunday against Bethune-Cookman . . . The right-hander pitched 7.0 innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts . . . The previous Sunday at Austin Peay, DeGeeter also threw seven solid innings, allowing just one run - unearned - on three hits with seven strikeouts . . . He faced the minimum number of batters in six of his seven innings on his way to earning Mid-American Conference Male Scholar Athlete of the Week honors.
Don't Push The Panic Button Yet
The Cardinals' 4-9 start to the season is not drastically different from the start by Ball State's 2006 NCAA Regional team . . . Last year's Cardinals were 5-8 through 13 games and didn't reach .500 until late March . . . That team started to hit its stride when Mid-American Conference play started . . . Starting with the first MAC game March 24, the Cardinals won 26 of their final 36 games, including winning streaks of eight games and 11 games.
Ranked Opponents
In its first 13 games, Ball State has played three teams that have been ranked in one of the major college baseball polls . . . Three of those teams are currently ranked in the top 30 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper - Vanderbilt at No. 1, Oklahoma State at No. 22 and Coastal Carolina at No. 23 . . . The fourth team, Florida Atlantic, has been ranked by Collegiate Baseball but is not currently.
The Save Machine
Junior closer Kyle Heyne has earned the save in three of Ball State's four wins . . . The right-hander threw the final 1.2 innings for the save Sunday against Bethune-Cookman . . . Heyne, who was named to the preseason watch list for the NCBWA Stopper of the Year award, saved 12 games a year ago . . . His save Sunday gave him 17 for his career, tying him for third with John Pettibone (2001-04) on Ball State's all-time career list.
First Go 'Round
In Ball State's first four weekends of play, 26 players have seen action for the Cardinals . . . Of those 26, 10 are freshmen, and 15 are playing their first games in a Ball State uniform . . . Of the 10 freshmen who have played, four of them have started at least nine of the team's 13 games.
Up Next
Following the two midweek games at Wake Forest, Ball State is scheduled to return to Muncie to host the Ball State Invitational . . . The Cardinals are slated to play their home opener Friday against Evansville before taking on Le Moyne on Saturday and Bowling Green on Sunday.
Cardinals Tabbed Second In MAC West
Ball State was picked to finish second in the Mid-American Conference West Division by the league's coaches . . . The Cardinals were picked in the preseason poll to finish behind Central Michigan in the West Division, which is exactly where last year's team ended the regular season . . . The 2006 Cardinals, however, defeated the division champion Chippewas on their way to winning the first MAC Tournament Championship in school history . . . Since the conference went to a divisional format in 1998, Ball State has never finished worse than second in the West, and the Cardinals have won the division six times . . . In 2006, Ball State finished the season 38-22 and 16-9 in the MAC.
WATCH Out For Rogers
Junior outfielder Justin Rogers has been placed on the 2007 Wallace Watch, a list of 148 student-athletes eligible for the Brooks Wallace Award, presented to the College Baseball Foundation's player of the year . . . Rogers returns as Ball State's leading hitter in 2007 after batting .347 as a sophomore on Ball State's 2006 NCAA Regional team . . . He logged 13 doubles, five home runs and 44 RBI last season on his way to earning All-MAC Second Team honors . . . Rogers hit .560 over the Cardinals' final 14 games, helping Ball State go 12-2 during that stretch to lock up a second place finish in the MAC West Division.
And Heyne, Too
Junior closer Kyle Heyne has been named to the preseason watch list for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association Stopper of the Year Award, given to the top relief pitcher in Division I baseball . . . Heyne ranked second in the MAC with 12 saves in 2006 and finished the season with a team-best 2.11 ERA . . . He led the Cardinals with 29 appearances and struck out 46 batters while walking only five in 42.2 innings of work . . . He earned the win in Ball State's 2006 MAC Tournament semifinal victory over Kent State and then earned the save in the championship game rematch with the Golden Flashes . . . He then picked up another save in the Cardinals' first round NCAA Regional win over Kentucky.
New Faces
Ball State welcomes 14 newcomers to its program for 2007 . . . Nine true freshmen and five transfers are new to the 2007 team . . . Of the 14 newcomers, 13 come from the state of Indiana . . . First baseman Matt Stoeklen, from Northglenn, Colo., is the only newcomer from outside the Hoosier State . . . Those newcomers join 20 returning players for Ball State, 14 of whom earned letters in 2006 . . . The pitching staff boasts the highest number of returning players with 11, including 2006 weekend starters Tyler Pritchard and Ryan DeGeeter and 2006 mid-week starter Jay Broughton.
Local Products
Of the 32 players on Ball State's roster, 22 are from the state of Indiana, including 13 of the 14 newcomers to the program this season . . . Of those 22, five are from the Muncie area . . . Senior second baseman Matt Gard played locally at Muncie Central High School, while freshman infielder Shannon McCormick played high school baseball at Burris in Muncie . . . Freshmen Kory Benbow and Nick Zimmerman were high school teammates at nearby Cowan High School, and freshman Jeremy Hazelbaker played nearby at Wapahani High School.
Among Best In 64-Team Era
Ball State ranks as one of the top 64 baseball programs in the nation since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999, according to Baseball America . . . In the magazine's ranking system, Ball State has accumulated 58 total points over the past eight seasons to rank 62nd since the expansion of the NCAA Tournament . . . The Cardinals own a .618 (283-175) winning percentage since 1999, and the program made its first NCAA Regional appearance in 2006 . . . Ball State has had three players named Baseball America All-Americans in the past eight years . . . During that time period, the Cardinals have had 10 players drafted in the first 10 rounds of the draft . . . Of those players, Larry Bigbie, Bryan Bullington, Brad Snyder and Justin Wechsler have each spent time on Major League Baseball rosters.
Beefing Up The Home Schedule
After playing just 17 home games in 2006, Ball State is slated to play 24 games at Ball Diamond in 2007 . . . In addition to playing 15-of-27 Mid-American Conference games in Muncie, the Cardinals will also play host to in-state, Big Ten foes Indiana and Purdue.
