Baseball Travels To Middle Tennessee For Three Games

March 09, 2012 | Baseball

By: Ball State Athletics

What's On Tap . . .
Ball State continues its 20-game road trip to begin the 2012 season as it travels to Murfreesboro, Tenn., for a three-game series against Middle Tennessee ... The Cardinals and Blue Raiders will play Friday at 3 p.m. (CT), Saturday at 2 p.m. (CT) and Sunday at 1 p.m. (CT) at Reese Smith Jr. Field.

Ball State and Middle Tennessee have played two times prior to this weekend's series with the teams splitting a rain-shortened two-game series in 2005 ... The Cardinals took game one 7-4 before falling in game two 11-2.

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 Starting Pitchers. . .
Ball State will use a different weekend rotation for the first time this season as senior right-hander Cal Bowling will take the hill Friday, junior right-hander Chris Marangon will make his first start of the year Saturday and sophomore right-hander T.J. Weir will take the hill Sunday ... Middle Tennessee will counter with junior right-hander Hunter Adkins, freshman left-hander Jonathan Frebis and junior right-hander Johnathan Sisco.

Bowling will be making his fourth start of the season and brings a 1-0 record with a 2.28 ERA ... He has worked a team-high 23.2 innings while striking out 20 and only walking three batters ... Last weekend, he tossed his fifth career complete game against Big 12 foe Missouri Friday night as he limited the Tigers to just two runs on five hits while striking out seven ... He retired 19 of the final 20 batters he faced in the victory.

Marangon, a junior college transfer, will be making his first start of the season after making three appearances out of the bullpen ... He has a 1.00 ERA in 9.0 innings of work ... He tossed 3.2 innings against Missouri last weekend and allowed one run on three hits.

Weir will be making his third start of the season on the mound and has started nine games at shortstop ... He has an 0-2 record with a 7.71 ERA in 9.1 innings of work while striking out 10 and walking five ... Last weekend, he allowed five runs on six hits in 3.1 innings of work against Missouri.

Adkins will be making his fourth start of the season ... He owns a 2-0 record with a 2.08 ERA in 17.1 innings as he has struck out 14 while walking seven ... Last weekend, he picked up a victory over Louisiana Tech working 5.1 innings allowing three runs on four hits while striking out eight.

Frebis will be making his fourth start of the year and owns a 1-1 record with a 2.70 ERA ... He has worked 13.1 innings and struck out 12 while walking seven ... He got the loss last weekend as he only lasted 2.1 innings against Louisiana Tech while allowing three runs on seven hits.

Sisco will be making his fourth start of the season and he owns a 2-0 record with a 1.35 ERA ... He has worked a team-high 20.0 innings and as struck out 16 while walking six ... He tossed a complete game three-hitter last weekend against Louisiana Tech.

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).

Middle Tennessee is coached by 25-year head coach Steve Peterson while entered the 2012 season with 760 wins and nine NCAA Regional appearances.

Looking Back . . .
Ball State came close to pulling off the midweek upset Wednesday night as the Cardinals dropped a hard fought 9-7 decision at Tennessee ... The Cardinals had the game-tying run on second base and the go ahead run on first base with no outs in the ninth inning but could not get the pivotal hit.

Junior Blake Beemer and sophomore Cody Campbell each posted three hits in the loss for the Cardinals ... Beemer reached base five times on the night with three singles and a pair of walks while Campbell posted a home run and two singles.

Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State enters the weekend with a 2-7 overall record with all nine games coming on the road ... The Cardinals are batting .230 as a team while allowing opponents to hit .279.

Sophomore shortstop T.J. Weir leads the Cardinals with a .324 batting average and 11 hits ... Junior Blake Beemer also owns a .324 batting average and is coming off a three-hit contest ... Senior second baseman Mitch Widau leads the team with six RBI while sophomore Cody Campbell has driven in five.

In the bullpen, Chris Marangon has been the best reliever for the Cardinals allowing just one run in 9.0 innings ... Jacob Brewer has worked 3.2 shutout innings and Miles Moeller leads the team with four appearances ... Moeller owns a 5.06 ERA in 5.1 innings of work.
Scouting The Blue Raiders . . .
Middle Tennessee enters the weekend with an 8-5 record after splitting a pair of games at Southern Illinois ... The Blue Raiders have already swept Mid-American Conference foe Ohio this season ... Middle Tennessee is batting .248 as a team while limiting opponents to a .227 batting average.

Justin Guidry leads the team with a .327 batting average and 17 hits ... Guidry has driven in six runs while scoring seven ... Johnny Thomas leads the team with 14 RBI and 12 runs scored as he has hit four home runs and four doubles ... Ryan Ford leads the team with eight stolen bases as MTSU is 27-of-30 on the base paths.

In the bullpen, Joey McClung owns a 0.84 ERA in five appearances ... McClung has posted two saves and has a 1-0 record in 10.2 innings ... Paul Mittura leads the team with six appearances and has a 2-0 record with a 1.00 ERA in 9.0 innings.