Ball State University
Middle Tennessee State
Softball Defeats Middle Tennessee State
March 14, 2010 | Softball
Ball State's ace pitcher, Elizabeth Milian (Grand Blanc, Mich.) took the mound in the Cardinals' victory over the Blue Raiders to notch her eleventh win of the season; her overall record is now 11-1. Facing 28 batters, Milian pitched eight strike-outs and gave-up nine hits and two runs. The Blue Raiders tallied more hits on Milian than any other team this season.
"I think this week helped us see how good we are all the way through the line-up," Milian said. "I don't think some of the scores reflected the true battle that was going on in the games; but, there were battles and we came out on top nine times out of ten."
Middle Tennessee State took an early lead in the first inning when three batters doubled to leftfield out of Amanda Carpenter's (Santee, Calif.) reach in nearly identical plays. The first double hit was slugged by Kelsey Dortch, who was batted in by Natalie Ysais' double. Ysais was then batted in by the third and final double of the inning, hit by Jessi Couch.
The Ball State defense held the Blue Raiders to these two runs through the remainder of the game.
Not wasting time in their response, however, the Cardinals' offense posted a run in the bottom of the first when Ball State's lead-off batter, Lisa Rozanski (Tampa, Fla.), on base from a base hit bunt, stole home with Alicia Barkley at bat. Rozanski set the school record for number of career stolen bases in her first year at Ball State. She has 15 this season and 92 in her career as a Cardinal.
In the third inning with Ball State at bat, Carpenter singled to leftfield and Middle Tennesse's leftfielder made a fielding error on the play which caused Carpenter to advance to second base and sent Jessie Ware (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Amanda Montalto (Las Vegas, Nev.) across the plate to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. Carpenter, who moved to third base due to a wild pitch thrown to Jen Reifschneider (Wichita, Kan.) by the Blue Raiders' starting pitcher, Janele Robinson, ended up scoring an unearned run courtesy of a sacrifice bunt from Meredith Nash (Peculiar, Mo.). Due to fielder's choice, Nash reached first on the play.
Nash also tallied a run in the inning as did Rozanski. Both runs were caused by a throwing error by Middle Tennessee's third baseman. With five runs in the inning, the score after the third was Cardinals 6, Blue Raiders 2.
Ball State's seventh run was scored in the fourth inning when Ball State had runners on second and third. Finding themselves in a bind, the Blue Raiders sent in relief pitcher Lindsey Vander Lugt, but the damage was done. With Kate Wilczynski grounding out to second base, Carpenter crossed the plate giving Wilczynski her seventh RBI of the season.
While the Blue Raiders prevented the Cardinals from scoring in the fifth, Ball State notched its eighth and final run of the game in the sixth inning when the third baseman, Kristi Marquez, committed her third error of the game. The error occurred when Rozanski singled to Marquez whose fumble sent Nash, who was on first, across home plate.
"I like the way we responded to everything we saw on this trip," Ball State head coach Craig Nicholson said. "We leave Florida in a good position to expand on our season. Sitting at 15-5, I think we proved to ourselves that we can beat a lot of good teams and that we'll continue to do so this season."
The Cardinals resume play Friday, March 19 at 5 p.m. when they open the Demarini Invitational against No. 3 Missouri in Columbia, Mo. After facing the Tigers, Ball State takes on Northwestern at 7 p.m.
"Going into the games against Missouri and Northwestern, we'll be able to pick each other up no matter what's happening," Milian said. "We'll know that even if one player is having a bad day, there's a whole team of people to pick them up and finish the game strong."
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