Ball State University
Miami
Cardinals Drop First Game Of Weekend Series At Miami
March 30, 2007 | Baseball
OXFORD, Ohio - The Ball State baseball team hit a rough stretch in the middle innings Friday night on the way to a 12-4 loss at Miami.
After taking a 4-3 lead in the fourth inning, the Cardinals surrendered seven runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth as Miami took control of the game.
Ball State (11-14, 2-2 MAC) and Miami (14-9, 4-0 MAC) will play the second game of their three-game weekend series Saturday at 5 p.m.
The Cardinals picked up seven hits in Friday night's contest, all seven recorded by different players. Kory Benbow provided one of the biggest highlights of the evening for Ball State when he blasted a second inning home run to left field to give Ball State a 1-0 lead.
With the homer, Benbow extended his hitting streak to eight games, and the freshman right fielder has now hit six home runs in Ball State's past eight games.
After Miami took the lead with a three-run second inning, the Cardinals regained the advantage with three runs of their own in the fourth. Eric Earnhart brought one run home with an RBI double, and Ryan Chenoweth followed with a double to score two more runs.
But it was the seven-run Miami fifth inning that proved to be decisive. The RedHawks sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning as Miami picked up six hits and had the help of two walks, two wild pitches and a Ball State error.
Jordan Petraitis, who led off the big fifth inning with a triple, had three hits in the game, as did Jeff Carroll. Three other RedHawks had two hits each. On the mound, John Ely earned the win for Miami after allowing four runs on seven hits in 8.0 innings.
