Ball State University Athletics
Baseball Battles Tennessee Wednesday Night
March 07, 2012 | Baseball
What's On Tap . . .
The Cardinals continue their 20-game road swing to open the 2012 season with their first midweek contest of the year as Ball State travels to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on Southeastern Conference foe Tennessee ... First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Wednesday's game is the first ever meeting between the Cardinals and the Volunteers ... Ball State enters the game with a 2-6 record after dropping two out of three at Missouri on the weekend while Tennessee enters with an 8-3 record ... The Volunteers posted a 1-2 record at the Houston College Classic, defeating No. 16 Texas while falling to Houston and No. 4 Rice.
Cardinals Versus The SEC . . .
Wednesday's game marks the 20th meeting all-time between Ball State and a member of the Southeastern Conference ... The Cardinals are 7-12 all-time against SEC foes, including taking one game in a three-game series at Arkansas in 2010 ... Ball State posted a 5-2 Saturday victory over the Razorbacks while dropping 9-3 and 10-2 contests ... The Cardinals are 1-7 all-time against Vanderbilt, 4-3 against Kentucky, including a victory in the 2006 NCAA Regional, and 1-0 against Georgia.
Digital Guide Available Online . . .
The 2012 Ball State baseball digital guide is available online at www.ballstatesports.com on the baseball home page ... The interactive guide provides student-athlete and coach bios, program history and videos on the 2012 season.
Probable Starters . . .
Ball State will send sophomore left-hander Nestor Bautista to the hill Wednesday night while Tennessee will counter with right-hander Carter Watson.
Bautista will be making his fourth start of the season after making three starts on Saturdays to open the year ... He has an 0-2 record with an 11.88 ERA in 8.1 innings ... He has posted two rough starts lasting 1.1 innings against USC Upstate allowing seven runs and not getting an out against Missouri while allowing five runs ... He has also posted one impressive start working 7.0 shutout innings of two-hit baseball at UAB when he struck out seven and did not allow a base runner for the first 5.1 innings.
Watson will be making his sixth appearance of the season and second start of the year Wednesday night ... He has a 0-0 record with a 1.29 ERA in 14.0 innings while striking out 12 batters and walking five ... He made his only other start against Middle Tennessee and struck out four batters in 4.0 innings of work.
Coaching Comparison . . .
Ball State head coach Alex Marconi enters his second season at the helm ... Marconi posted a 15-35 record last year after working for five years as an assistant coach for BSU under former head coach Greg Beals (Ohio State).
Tennessee is led by first-year head coach Dave Serrano who came to Knoxville after four years as the head coach at Cal State Fullerton ... Serrano owns a 297-142-1 record in seven seasons as a Division I head coach.
Recapping Last Weekend . . .
Ball State opened the three-game series at Big 12 foe Missouri with a 5-2 victory before dropping games two and three by a combined 24-7 margin ... Senior right-hander Cal Bowling picked up the Cardinals' lone victory as he tossed his fifth career complete game, limiting the Tigers to two runs on five hits as he retired 19 of the final 20 batters.
Junior Wes Winkle posted three hits in two starts on the weekend, including driving in a pair of runs ... Freshman Elbert Devarie recorded a .364 batting average while making three starts on the weekend.
Going Both Ways . . .
Sophomore pitcher T.J. Weir has taken on the challenge of playing in the field on an everyday basis and pitching in the weekend rotation ... Weir is the Cardinals' starting shortstop and is their Sunday starter in the rotation.
Weir leads the Cardinals with a .310 batting average with nine hits and a .tema-high .394 on-base percentage ... He also has worked 9.1 innings on the mound with a 7.71 ERA while striking out 10 batters.
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.
Cal Bowling 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.
Looking Ahead . .
The Cardinals will head over to Murfreesboro, Tenn., this weekend for a three-game series against Middle Tennessee.
