Ball State University Athletics
Baseball Travels To Notre Dame Tuesday Night
March 22, 2010 | Baseball
LIVE VIDEO (Courtesy of Notre Dame)
What's On Tap . . .
Ball State heads to Notre Dame Tuesday evening for its final tune up before opening Mid-American Conference play this weekend ... Tuesday's contest marks the Cardinals' 20th straight road game to open the 2010 season ... Ball State enters the game with a 6-13 overall record and is coming off of a 5-1 victory at No. 7 Louisville Saturday afternoon ... The Cardinals are led by eighth-year head coach Greg Beals ... Notre Dame enters the game with a 7-11 overall record and has dropped four straight games, including all three games this past weekend at home against Michigan State ... The Fighting Irish are led by fourth-year head coach Dave Schrage.
Series History . . .
Tuesday's game marks the 31st meeting all-time between Ball State and Notre Dame ... The Cardinals trail the all-time series by an 18-12 margin, including a 12-10 mark all-time in South Bend ... Ball State and Notre Dame have met for nine straight seasons dating back to 2001 ... During that span, the Cardinals are are 3-6 against the Irish with all nine games coming on the road.
Last season, Ball State suffered a hard fought 5-4 loss at Notre Dame ... The Fighting Irish rallied for three runs in their last two innings to claim the come-from-behind victory ... Right-hander Kolbrin Vitek gave the Cardinals a strong start as he worked five innings and allowed just one earned run ... Vitek limited the Irish to five hits and struck out seven batters in the no decision ... Left fielder Kory Benbow provided the offensive firepower for the Cardinals are hit tallied a three-run home run ... Notre Dame reliever Will Hudgins (1-0) picked up the win in relief for the Irish as he threw 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball as he did not allow a hit.
Last Time Out . . .
Ball State tallied its second victory of the season against a nationally ranked opponent Saturday afternoon as the Cardinals defeated No. 7 Louisville 5-1 in the weekend series finale ... The victory improved the Cardinals to 2-6 this season against nationally ranked foes as BSU defeated No. 15 Arkansas in the opening weekend ... Three Cardinal pitchers combined to hold Louisville to a season-low one run and only seven hits ... Right-handed reliever Perci Garner earned the victory in relief as he tossed 4.0 innings and only allowed one run ... Garner struck out six batters, including all three in the seventh inning, while only allowing two hits to improve to 1-0 on the season ... Junior Kolbrin Vitek turned in a solid start as he worked 4.0 scoreless innings in the start and limited Louisville to three hits, while notching four strikeouts.
Junior shortstop T.J. Baumet paced the Cardinals' 12-hit attack as he notched three hits in the leadoff position ... Freshman Blake Beemer and sophomore Tim Issler each posted two hits in the victory.
Tough Schedule . . .
The Cardinals have played one of the toughest schedules so far this season, according to Boydsworld.com in its Iterative Strength Ratings (ISR) ... Ball State has the 27th toughest schedule in the nation (as of March 22) ... The Cardinals have the highest rated schedule of any team in the Mid-American Conference and is the only MAC team rated in the top 50.
Below is a list of current strength of schedules for MAC teams:
27. Ball State
56. Bowling Green
58. Miami
85. Kent State
89. Northern Illinois
104. Eastern Michigan
139. Toledo
159. Akron
182. Western Michigan
193. Ohio
215. Central Michigan
254. Buffalo
Dygert Named To Watch List . . .
Senior catcher Zach Dygert has been named to the 2010 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award delivered by Papa John's Pizza ... The Johnny Bench Award is awarded awarded annually to the nation's top collegiate catcher based on athletic ability, sportsmanship, team leadership and character.
Dygert, a 48th round draft pick by the Washington Nationals last season, is a two-time All-Mid-American Conference selection. He finished last season fourth on the team with a .350 batting average as he tallied 69 hits. He was second on the team with 58 RBI and also scored 42 runs ... This season, he is second on the team with 13 RBI and three home runs during the first 16 games of the year. He recorded a big eighth inning home run this season to lead the Cardinals to an upset victory over No. 15 Arkansas in the first weekend of the year.
Dygert is one of four catchers from the MAC on the 2010 Johnny Bench Watch List. He is joined by Toledo's Aaron Dudley, Bowling Green's Tyler Elkins and Akron's John Turk.
Tuesday's Starters . . .
Ball State will use multiple pitchers Tuesday evening in its final tune up before opening conference play ... The Cardinals will send right-hander Brad Piatt to the hill against the Irish ... Piatt will be making his fifth start of the season ... He has a 0-2 record with a 7.98 ERA in 14.2 innings of work ... He worked 4.0 innings Friday at No. 7 Louisville and allowed five runs on six hits.
Notre Dame will counter with right-hander Ryan Sharpley ... Sharpley will be making his first start of the season and third appearance of the year Tuesday afternoon ... He has a 6.75 ERA in 4.0 innings of work ... He has not pitched since March 12 vs. Pacific when he worked 1.2 innings and allowed one run on three hits.
Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State enters Tuesday's game with a 6-13 overall record ... The Cardinals are batting .275 this season and have scored 103 runs in 19 games ... On the mound, Ball State owns a 5.55 ERA and is holding opponents to a .291 batting average ... The Cardinals have recorded 111 strikeouts and issued 86 walks.
Junior second baseman Kolbrin Vitek leads the team with a .392 batting average ... Vitek also leads the team with 31 hits, 23 runs scored, 18 RBI, seven doubles, six stolen bases and four home runs ... Sophomore first baseman Ian Nielsen is second on the team with a .304 batting average and is tied for second with 24 hits ... Freshman third baseman Stephen Claypool is third on the team with a .293 batting average ... Claypool is tied for third with junior shortstop T.J. Baumet.
In the bullpen, right-handers Heath Riley and Seth Hobbs lead the team with eight appearances each ... Riley owns a 5.40 ERA in 8.1 innings while Hobbs has a 5.19 ERA in 8.2 innings of work ... Right-hander Perci Garner has appeared in six games and has tallied 26 strikeouts in 18.0 innings ... Garner leads the Mid-American Conference in strikeouts per game at 13.00 ... Closer Aaron Hammons has appeared in three games after missing the first three weekends due to an injury.
Scouting Notre Dame . . .
Notre Dame enters Tuesday's game with a 7-11 overall record and has dropped four straight games, including all three last weekend at home against Michigan State ... The Fighting Irish own a .288 batting average and have scored 100 runs in 18 games ... On the mound, Notre Dame has a 5.04 ERA and opponents are batting .278 against ... The Irish have tallied 113 strikeouts while issuing 71 walks.
Casey Martin leads the team with a .421 batting average ... Martin also leads the team with 24 hits, 16 RBI and three home runs ... David Mills is second on the team with a .352 batting average while Ryan Connolly is second on the team with 10 RBI ... Connolly also leads the team with 12 runs scored and has a .33 batting average.
In the bullpen, Joe Spano leads the team with 10 appearances and has a 3.52 ERA in 7.2 innings of work ... Steven Mazur leads the team with two saves and has a 2.79 ERA in 9.2 innings of work.
Cardinals Tabbed Favorites . . .
Ball State earned their Mid-American Conference record seventh MAC West Division title in 2009 after closing the year with five straight wins to chase down Toledo for the division title ... The Cardinals have now won seven of the 13 MAC West Division titles since divisional play began in 1998 ... Only Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan have won MAC West titles with both teams claiming three each.
Ball State enters the 2010 season as the preseason favorite to claim the MAC West Division and MAC Tournament titles, as chosen by the league's head coaches in the preseason poll ... The Cardinals received a league-high 72 points to claim the MAC West Division's top spot and were chosen by five coaches to claim their second MAC Tournament title in program history.
Road Warriors . . .
Ball State opens the 2010 season with 23 straight games away from home, including all of its games in the months of February and March ... The Cardinals will play 18 true road games and five games in neutral sites to open the season ... Ball State will not open the home portion of the 2010 schedule until April 2 when it hosts Miami in its second Mid-American Conference series of the year ... The Cardinals will play a total of 40 road games this season, while only playing 16 games at Ball Diamond.
Weekly Honors . . .
Junior second baseman Kolbrin Vitek was named the Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week (March 1), marking his second straight weekly honor from the league to open the season ... Vitek, a preseason All-America selection, paced the Cardinals' attack at UAB as he posted a .389 batting average (7-of-18) and a .944 slugging percentage in the four-game series ... He tallied three home runs on the weekend while scoring a team-high six runs and driving in four runs.
Senior right-hander Morgan Coombs was named the Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Week and the inaugural CollegeBaseball360.com National Primetime Pitcher of the week (Feb. 22) after leading the Cardinals to a 5-2 victory over nationally ranked Arkansas ... Coombs tossed 5.0 strong innings of relief Saturday afternoon ... He did not allow an earned run during the outing as he limited Arkansas to just four hits ... He struck out a career-high eight batters in his first stint as a middle reliever after leading the Cardinals with six saves last year.
Vitek was also named the MAC West Player of the Week for his performance against No. 15 Arkansas ... Vitek, a preseason All-America selection, posted a .500 batting average (7-of-14) in the three-game series against the nationally ranked Razorbacks ... He tallied a season-high four hits in the Cardinals' 5-2 victory over Arkansas as he scored three runs and drove in a run ... This is the fourth MAC weekly honor of his career.
Vitek Earns Preseason Honors . . .
Junior second baseman Kolbrin Vitek has been tabbed as one of the top players in not only the Mid-American Conference but in the country as he has received preseason All-America honors by three different publications ... Vitek was named Second Team All-America by Baseball America, Louisville Slugger and Ping! Baseball.
Vitek earned First Team All-MAC honors at the utility position last season as he played third base and was one of the Cardinals' weekend starters ... He finished second on the team and sixth in the MAC with a .389 batting average ... He also led the MAC in doubles (25), was second in RBI (67), third in slugging percentage (.736), third in total bases (153) and was fourth on the mound in opponent batting average (.268).
Vitek led the conference in MAC games with a .455 average and a .828 slugging percentage against conference foes as he drove in 30 runs ... He also posted a 4-3 record with a 5.65 ERA in 11 starts this season as part of the weekend rotation ... He set the Ball State single-season record for walks per nine innings at 1.41 as he only allowed nine free passes in 57.1 innings.
Vitek continued his strong play over the summer as he was picked as Baseball America's top prospect in the Great Lakes League (GLSCL) ... He won the league's first Triple Crown in 23 years as he hit .400, tallied six home runs and drove in 38 runs ... He also stole 10 bases and was named the GLSCL All-Star Game Most Valuable Player.
Dygert Named Team Captain . . .
Senior catcher Zach Dygert has been named the 2010 team captain by head coach Greg Beals ... Dygert posted a .350 batting average last spring and was second on the team with 58 RBI when he earned First Team All-Mid-American Conference accolades ... He was selected in the 48th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft by the Washington Nationals ... Collegebaseballinsider.com rated Dygert as the best fielding catcher in the MAC for the third straight season in its preseason publication.
Looking Ahead . . .
Ball State opens Mid-American Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Ohio ... The Cardinals and Bobcats open MAC play Friday afternoon with a 6 p.m. start at Wren Field.
