Ball State University
Northern Illinois
Baseball Defeats NIU 10-6 to Remain Second in the MAC West
May 08, 2009 | Baseball
DeKALB, Ill. ? On a beautiful 75 degree day, the Ball State University baseball team put together two big innings and improved to 10-10 in the Mid-American Conference with a 10-6 victory over the Northern Illinois Huskies at McKinzie Field Friday afternoon.
The Cardinals, who improved to 22-21 overall, remain in second place in the MAC West Division with five regular season games remaining in the 2009 season. Eastern Michigan tallied a 14-4 win at Toledo, which entered the weekend in the top spot of the MAC West Division. The Rockets, who will come to Ball State for a three-game series next weekend, fell to 13-9 in league play, while EMU improved to 10-12 in the MAC. A Central Michigan 18-4 win at Western Michigan improved the Chippewas to 10-12 in league play on the season.
Brad Piatt improved to 5-2 on the season after limiting the Huskies to only two hits in the first two innings and holding the Huskies scoreless till the sixth inning.
Ball State put together two big offensive innings ? scoring five in the second and four in the sixth ? and received quality relief pitching from Tom Mueller and Morgan Coombs to register the victory. Mueller came on in the sixth with NIU rallying, but stopped the bleeding with the Cardinals holding a 9-6 lead. He closed out the sixth and held the Huskies scoreless in the seventh and eighth. Coombs came on in the ninth and shut down the Huskies in the final frame.
Nate Fields was 3-for-6 on the day with his first homerun of the season plus scored two runs and tallied four runs batted in. Five Cardinals -- Jeremy Hazelbaker, Kolbrin Vitek, Zach Dygert, Ian Nielsen and Aaron Etchison -- tallied two hits apiece.
After a Ball State error extended the bottom of the first for Northern Illinois, the Huskies capitalized with a two run homer to give NIU an early 2-0 lead.
The Cardinals wasted little time getting back into the game when the bottom half of the order started a Ball State rally which ended with the Cardinals leading 5-2 after one and half frames. Batting seventh for the Cardinals, T.J. Baumet ripped a single and scored on a Cody Elliott grounder that was mishandled by the second baseman. A Fields' bases loaded double cleared the bases and Ball State led 4-2. Dygert hit his 14th double of the year to score Fields, and after one and half innings, the Cardinals led 5-2.
Ball State was able to load the bases in the top of the fifth, but a line drive by Elliott with two outs was caught by a diving NIU centerfielder to end the inning.
With a 5-2 lead heading into the sixth inning, Fields smacked his first home run of the season on a walk-off HR to leftfield and the Cardinals led 6-2. A Vitek single, followed by a Dygert walk and a Nielsen line drive single to right loaded the bases with one out. After the second out of the inning, Baumet walked to score Vitek and give Ball State a 7-2 lead. Etchison line a single up the middle to score Baumet and Nielsen and the Cardinals led 9-2 after six and a half.
The Huskies battled back in the bottom of the sixth with four runs on five hits to pull within 9-6 after six innings.
Ball State's offense added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a Dygert RBI single scoring Hazelbaker, who was walked to open the inning.
The Cardinals will face Northern Illinois in the second game of the three game series Saturday at 1 p.m. (CT). The series finale is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. (CT).
