Ball State University
Northern Illinois
Baseball Team Tallies 8-6 win at Northern Illinois Sunday
May 10, 2009 | Baseball
DeKALB, Ill. ? Ball State's baseball team put together two big offensive innings behind a pair of homeruns from Zach Dygert and Tim Issler, and a two-run double from T.J. Baumet, to record an 8-6 win at Northern Illinois Sunday afternoon.
The win gave the Cardinals a sweep of the three game series ? the first three game sweep over a Mid-American Conference opponent for Ball State this season. With the victory, Ball State improved to 24-21 overall and 12-10 in MAC action, and remained in second place in the MAC West.
With one three-game series remaining in the regular season at home against MAC West Division leader Toledo, the Cardinals need to win at least two of three to lay claim to the MAC West title.
Kolbrin Vitek started the game and went five innings, striking out five and allowing three runs to earn the win and improve to 4-2 on the year. Tom Mueller, Aaron Hammons and Morgan Coombs took over and combined to limit the Huskies to one run in the seventh inning. Coombs continued into the eighth and used a strong defense behind him to hold the Huskies scoreless in the eighth. The Huskies managed a two-run ninth inning homerun to close the gap to 8-6 before Coombs shut down NIU and tallied the save.
Dygert and Baumet managed two hits and two runs-batted-in apiece for the Carinals.
The Cardinals offense started early with a three-run first inning. After one out, Nate Fields lined a triple to right center, and a Kolbrin Vitek double down the leftfield line scored Fields to put Ball State ahead 1-0. Dygert smashed his eighth homerun of the season to dead centerfield and his two runs-batted-in gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
Ball State continued its scoring in the second inning when Baumet opened the inning with a single to left and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Issler. An infield RBI single by Cody Elliott plated Baumet and put the Cardinals ahead 4-0.
Northern Illinois was able to get on the scoreboard for the first time in the bottom of the third, but a potential big inning was cut short when Jeremy Hazelbaker covered a lot of ground in centerfield and tracked down a hard hit line drive. The Huskies were limited to one run and Ball State led 4-1 after three frames.
However, after blanking Ball State in the fourth, an NIU two-run homer closed the gap to 4-3 after four, and the Huskies kept the Ball State bats quiet again in the fifth and the sixth.
Issler provided Ball State's offense in the seventh inning with a line drive homerun over the leftfield fence, and his first HR of the season gave the Cardinals a 5-3 lead.
A two base fielding error on the potential third out in the bottom of the seventh, followed by back-to-back singles and a hit batter and the Huskies were within 5-4.
Ball State opened the top half of the eighth with Vitek walking in the leadoff spot. Dygert came to the plate and laced a single to left, advancing Vitek to third. Vitek was out trying to score on an infield hit, but Benbow walked and the Cardinals had bases loaded with one out and Baumet at the plate. Baumet lined a two-run double down the leftfield line and the Cardinals took a 7-4 lead in the game. A wild pitch scored Benbow and Ball State was up 8-4 after seven and a half innings.
The Cardinals will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., for a Tuesday doubleheader before hosting the division leading Rockets Thursday through Saturday at Ball Diamond in Muncie, Ind.
