Ball State University
Charleston Southern
Baseball Defeats Charleston Southern 7-2 Tuesday
March 11, 2008 | Baseball
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Ball State baseball team broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning Tuesday and led the rest of the way in a 7-2 victory over Charleston Southern.
Cardinals' starter Kolbrin Vitek controlled the Charleston Southern hitters in his third collegiate start. Vitek scattered seven hits and allowed one run over 6.0 innings. The freshman struck out a career-high nine batters and walked just one on the way to earning his second win of the season.
Shortstop Dean Anna, center fielder Wayne Bond Jr., catcher Zach Dygert and right fielder Ryan Chenoweth each logged two hits at the plate to lead the Cardinals offensively. Five different Cardinals recorded an RBI in the win.
Ball State (6-6) and Charleston Southern (5-8) will meet again Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the second game of their two-game midweek series.
In Tuesday's game, the Cardinals put two runs on the board in the top of the fourth inning to take the lead. Bond led off the inning with a double and later advanced to third base on a flyout from designated hitter Matt Stoeklen. Bond then came home to score on a balk. Ball State plated another run in the inning when left fielder Kory Benbow singled to bring home first baseman Justin Rogers, who had reach earlier in the inning on a walk.
Ball State then padded its lead with four runs on six hits in the sixth inning. Anna led off the inning with his first home run of the season to give the Cardinals a three-run lead. Ball State then tacked on three more runs with two outs. The Cardinals scored on RBI singles from second baseman Jeremy Hazelbaker and Dygert, while Benbow also scored from third base on a double steal.
Charleston Southern managed one run in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI single from left fielder Steve Antolik, but Vitek pitched out of a jam to keep the Buccaneers from doing further damage. A Ball State error loaded the bases with one out, but Vitek struck out the next batter and then induced a groundout to end the inning.
Reliever Heath Riley then entered for Ball State and shut Charleston Southern down for 2.0 innings, allowing just one hit.
Ball State added an insurance run in the eighth on an RBI double from Chenoweth to extend its lead to 7-1. Charleston Southern scored a run in the ninth and threatened for more, but Tom Mueller came out of the Ball State bullpen to record two outs and secure the win.
Charleston Southern second baseman Kory Morian and first baseman Nick Chinners led the Buccaneers with two hits each.
Charleston Southern coach Jason Murray was coaching against his old team. Murray was a letterwinner at Ball State in 1996 and 1997 and still owns one of the top five single-season doubles totals in school history.
