Ball State University Athletics
Baseball Plays UNC Wilmington And College of Charleston This Week
March 09, 2010 | Baseball
LIVE VIDEO vs. UNC Wilmington (FREE)
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What's On Tap . . .
Ball State continues its spring break trip with a pair of midweek contests at UNC Wilmington Tuesday and at College of Charleston Wednesday ... The Cardinals are in the midst of play nine games in 10 days and Wednesday's game will mark their sixth straight day of playing on the trip ... Ball State enters the midweek games with a 3-8 overall record as it is 1-3 so far on the trip ... The Cardinals are coming off of back-to-back one-run losses against No. 8 Coastal Carolina ... BSU is led by eighth-year head coach Greg Beals ... UNC Wilmington enters Tuesday's game with a 4-6 overall record and posted a 1-3 mark last weekend ... The Seahawks are 0-2 this season against teams from the Mid-American Conference with two losses to Akron ... UNC Wilmington is led by veteran coach Mark Scalf ... College of Charleston enters the week with a 9-3 overall record and will host MAC foe Toledo Tuesday afternoon before facing the Cardinals ... The Cougars posted a 1-2 record against Alabama last weekend, including a 7-6 victory ... College of Charleston is receiving votes in the national polls and are led by second-year head coach Monte Lee.
Series History . . .
Tuesday's game marks the fifth meeting all-time between Ball State and UNC Wilmington ... The Cardinals trail the all-time series 1-3 against the Seahawks, with all four games coming in Wilmington ... The two teams last met for a doubleheader March 2, 2001 with UNCW taking home both games by 4-2 and 6-4 margins ... Ball State's lone victory in the series came March 7, 1999 with a 12-5 victory.
Wednesday's game marks the third meeting all-time between Ball State and College of Charleston ... The Cardinals are 0-2 all-time against the Cougars and will be making their second trip to Charleston ... The two teams met during the 2006 NCAA Regional in Lexington, Ky., with the Cougars posting an 11-0 victory (6/13/06) ... College of Charleston also claimed an 8-0 victory at home in 1994.
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.
This Week's Starters . . .
Ball State will send a pair of right-handers to the mound this week with senior Brad Piatt taking the hill Tuesday against UNC Wilmington and sophomore Cal Bowling getting the call Wednesday at College of Charleston ... UNC Wilmington will counter with right-hander Daniel Cooper Tuesday afternoon while the College of Charleston will throw right-hander Matt Pegler Wednesday.
Piatt will be making his third start of the season Tuesday night and his first start since February 26 (at UAB) ... He owns a 0-1 record with an 8.10 ERA in 6.2 innings ... He has walked seven batters while posting five strikeouts ... In his last outing, he worked 3.2 innings and allowed four runs on five hits against the Blazers ... Bowling will be making his four start of the season and his second start of the road trip Wednesday afternoon ... He owns an 0-2 record with a 5.27 ERA in 13.2 innings as he has struck out nine batters and issued seven walks ... In his last outing against Pittsburgh (March 5), he allowed five runs on seven hits while working 5.0 innings in the loss.
Cooper will be making his fourth appearance and third start of the season Tuesday afternoon ... He has an 0-1 record with a 3.55 ERA in 12.2 innings as he has struck out 11 batters and has not walked a batter so far this season ... He tossed 1.1 innings Saturday in relief against Stony Brook in his last outing.
Pegler will be making his fourth appearance and second straight start Wednesday afternoon ... He owns an 0-0 record with a 7.71 ERA in 7.0 innings of work ... In his last start, he allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings against Holy Cross.
Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State enters the week with a 3-8 overall record and has dropped two straight one-run games at nationally ranked Coastal Carolina ... The Cardinals have scored 52 runs in 11 games this season and are batting .265 on the year ... On the mound, Ball State owns a 5.23 ERA.
Junior second baseman Kolbrin Vitek leads the team offensively as he has a .391 batting average and is slugging .761 on the year ... Vitek leads the team with 11 RBI and 14 runs scored while notching a team-high four home runs ... Sophomore first baseman Ian Nielsen is second on the team with a .319 batting average and is tied for the team lead with four doubles ... Senior catcher Zach Dygert is second on the team with 10 RBI and owns a .308 batting average.
In the bullpen, right-hander Seth Hobbs leads the team with five appearances and has a 3.38 ERA in 5.1 innings pitched ... Freshman left-hander Jon Cisna has made three appearances and owns a 3.00 ERA in 9.0 innings pitched ... Michael Sandman has made two appearances this season and has tossed 4.0 scoreless innings ... The Cardinals have been without their closer, Aaron Hammons so far this season due to an injury.
Scouting The Seahawks . . .
UNC Wilmington enters Tuesday's game with a 4-6 overall record ... The Seahawks have scored 57 runs in 10 games and are batting .277 on the year ... On the mound, UNCW owns a 4.94 ERA as a team and has posted 78 strikeouts.
Hunter Ridge leads the Seahawks in batting with a .455 average in nine games ... Michael Rooney is second on the team with a .333 average and leads the team with 13 hits, 11 runs scored and three stolen bases ... Robbie Monday leads the team with nine RBI and a .700 slugging percentage.
In the bullpen, Bryan Booth leads the team with five appearances and has a 5.40 ERA in 3.1 innings ... He is tied with Jesse Haney for the team lead with one save apiece ... Haney is second o the team with four appearances and has a 13.50 ERA in 3.1 innings.
Scouting The Cougars . . .
The College of Charleston enters the week with a 9-3 overall record and is receiving votes in some national polls ... The Cougars will host Toledo Tuesday before facing the Cardinals ... Charleston has scored 97 runs in 12 games this season and is batting .311 on the year ... On the mound, the Cougars own a 5.50 ERA as a team with 104 strikeouts.
Cole Rakar leads the team offensively with a .409 batting average, 18 hits and seven stolen bases ... Jose Rodriguez leads the team with 15 RBI as he has a .326 batting average ... Baker Knox owns a .355 batting average and leads the team with 15 runs scored.
In the bullpen, Tom Schiller leads the team with six appearances and owns a 3.86 ERA in 14.0 innings ... Owen Brittle leads the team with two saves and has appeared in five games with a 3.18 ERA in 5.2 innings ... Heath Hembree has appeared in five games and has a 4.05 ERA in 6.2 innings with one save.
Vitek Honored By MAC . . .
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 ... On the season, he is leading the team and fourth in the MAC with a .438 batting average as he leads the conference with 14 hits in his first seven games ... He also tossed 5.0 innings of one-run baseball Sunday as he limited the Blazers to just five hits.
Coombs & Vitek Honored . . .
Senior right-hander Morgan Coombs was named the Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Week and the 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.
Junior second baseman Kolbrin Vitek was 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 returns to Coastal Carolina for the Caravelle Resort Classic where it faces Michigan, Lipscomb and Illinois.
