Ball State University Athletics
Baseball Travels To UAB For Three-Game Series
February 23, 2012 | Baseball
What's On Tap . . .
The Cardinals continue their 20-game road swing to open the 2012 season this weekend as they travel to Birmingham, Ala., for a three-game series against UAB at Young Memorial Field ... Ball State opened the season with a 1-1 record last weekend with a win over Dayton and a loss at USC Upstate before having its Sunday game rained out ... The victory over the Flyers marked the Cardinals' first season-opening win since the 2005 season when they defeated Middle Tennessee.
UAB opened the season taking one out of three at No. 16 Clemson before knocking off Alabama State Tuesday night.
Cal Bowling Picks Up MAC Weekly Honor . . .
Senior right-hander Cal Bowling was named the Mid-American Conference West Division Pitcher of the Week Tuesday for his efforts in the Cardinals' season-opening victory over Dayton ... Bowling worked 6.2 innings in his second season as the Cardinals' Friday starter and held the Flyers to just two earned runs and nine hits ... He struck out five batters while only walking one in the no decision despite leaving the game with a 3-1 lead ... This is the second MAC weekly honor of his career as he picked up the accolades last season after tossing a complete game shutout at Miami.
Series History . . .
Ball State and UAB have met 17 times prior to this weekend with all 17 games coming in Birmingham ... The Cardinals trail the all-time series by a 10-7 margin, including dropping three out of four last visit in 2010 ... In that series, the Cardinals took game one by a 9-5 margin before dropping game two 6-0, game three 10-9 in 10 innings and game four 6-5.
Probable Starters . . .
Ball State will send out the weekend rotation of senior right-hander Cal Bowling Friday, sophomore left-hander Nestor Bautista Saturday and sophomore right-hander T.J. Weir Sunday ... UAB will counter with right-hander Dillon Napoleon Friday and right-hander Ben Bullard Saturday ... The Blazers have not named a Sunday starter.
Bowling enters the weekend with an 0-0 record and a 2.70 ERA after working 6.2 innings last weekend against Dayton ... He allowed just two earned runs on nine hits while striking out five batters ... Last season, Bowling posted a 5-5 record with a 3.41 ERA in a team-high 89.2 innings as the Friday starter.
Bautista picked up the Cardinals' lone loss last weekend as he lasted just 1.1 innings against USC Upstate and allowed seven runs on six hits ... Last season, he made 14 appearances with five starts and posted an 0-5 record in 27.2 innings.
Weir will be making his first appearance on the hill Sunday ... He is the Cardinals' starting shortstop on days in which he does not pitch ... He made 12 appearances last season, including one start, while posting a 6.75 ERA in 20.0 innings.
Napoleon was named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week Monday after defeating No. 16 Clemson in the season opener ... He limited the Tigers to just four hits over 7.0 innings and only allowed one run.
Bullard will be making his second start of the season after picking up the loss last weekend against No. 16 Clemson ... He allowed five runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings of work Saturday.
Cardinals Name Captains . . .
Second-year head coach Alex Marconi announced that senior right-hander Cal Bowling and junior right fielder Blake Beemer were chosen as team captains this year ... Bowling is the Cardinals' top starting pitcher with a team-high 14 starts last season and a team-high 89.2 innings ... Beemer played in 48 games last year with 43 starts as he recorded a .273 batting average with 21 runs scored.
Did You Know? . . .
Junior right fielder Blake Beemer appeared in his 100th career game last weekend in the season opener against Dayton ... Beemer has seen action 101 games during his first two years, including 90 career starts.
Senior Mitch Widau, a former walk-on, will play in his 100th career game this weekend ... Widau has played in 98 career games with 81 starts.
Summer Honors . . .
Sophomore outfielder Sean Godfrey was named to Baseball America's Top Prospect list for the 20 different summer college leagues and Team USA this summer ... Godfrey ranked as the ninth best prospect in the Cal Ripken League playing for the Southern Maryland Nationals ... He led his team and finished sixth in the league with a .357 batting average in 39 games over the summer ... He was tied for the league-lead in triples (3), second in the league in stolen bases (20), fifth in hits (51), fifth in doubles (9) and sixth in runs scored (28) ... He was named to the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League (CRCBL) All-Star Team as a starter and notched two hits in the game.
Sophomore left-hander Nestor Bautista was named the Most Valuable Player for his summer league team, the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters in the prestigious 16-team collegiate Northwoods League ... Bautista was chosen after a two-day online fan ballot of over 1,600 votes as he received 50.9% of the tally ... He made 13 starts for the Rafters and pitched a 69.2 innings, ranking second on the team ... He struck out 46 batters while posting a solid 3.75 ERA on the year ... He produced six quality starts (at least six innings pitched, allowing three earned runs or less) and he allowed more than three earned runs in only two of his 13 starts.
Looking Ahead . .
The Cardinals head to Columbia, Mo., next weekend for a three-game series with Big 12 member Missouri.
