Ball State University
Miami
Softball Drops First Conference Game To Miami
April 03, 2010 | Softball
This loss marks just the third time in twenty games that the Cardinals have come up shorthanded and the only other team to shutout Ball State has been Southern Illinois who posted a 1-0 win over the Cardinals in the Phyliss Rafter Memorial in Kennesaw, Ga. Feb. 21.
The Miami offense has now kept its opponents scoreless for three consecutive games and its' defense has collected 25 runs. Even Ball State's ace Elizabeth Milian (Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc), who is now 14-2 this season and struck out eight Redhawks in the game, couldn't stop the power of the Miami batters. Milian gave up her third and fourth homerun of the season to the Redhawks' eager bats, the second of which was slugged in the bottom of the seventh inning and brought in four runners for Miami.
The ace's earned run average remains under one this season at 0.98.
Showing promise for Ball State in the first inning, Milian caught Miami's Meghan Mawn looking and the Cardinals' infield took care of the other two outs to hold the Redhawks at zero in the first. Then at bat for Ball State, the lead batter, Lisa Rozanski, was hit by a pitch and sent to first base. The next three Cardinals, Alicia Barkley (Oklahoma City, Okla./Putnam City), Alyssa Collins (Fortville, Ind./Mt. Vernon) and Jessie Ware (Phoenix, Ariz./Hamilton), all reached first on a fielder's choice, but their predecessors were consecutively thrown out at second.
With Miami at bat in the second inning and two outs posted, Shannon Tillett notched Miami's first home run of the game. Milian stuck out the next batter, Jenna McGivney, to end the inning.
Throughout Ball State's next six innings at bat, the Cardinals collected six hits off Miami's ace Jessica Simpson, who is now 7-7 this season, but were unable to capitalize on any of their offensive drives. Three of these hits were doubles by Amanda Montalto (Las Vegas, Nev./Palo Verde), Kate Wilczynski (Tucson, Ariz./Canyon Del Oro) and Alyssa Freiling (Bixby, Okla./Sequoyah), and one was a triple compliments of Barkley. Eight Cardinals were left stranded in the game, however, and five were struck out by Simpson.
Miami punctuated their 5-0 win with a four run home run in the seventh inning by Mawn.
Ball State will seek redemption against Miami in game two of the weekend series, Easter Sunday at 1 p.m. at the BSU Softball Complex in Muncie, Ind. Live stats will be available on www.ballstatesports.com and updates will be provided courtesy of @BallStSoftball on Twitter.
