Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
3-2
Elon
4-1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Runs R | Hits H | Errors E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ball State Cardinals | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 16 | 0 |
| Elon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 4 |
Baseball Wins Third Straight with Victory over Elon
February 22, 2015 | Baseball
In Saturday's second game of the day, the Ball State baseball team scored early and often and raced out to a 9-1 lead after three innings before completing the contest with an 18-8 victory over Elon.
The Cardinals rallied for 18 runs on 16 hits to improve to 3-2 on the year. Ball State will face Elon Sunday at 11 a.m. to complete its weekend of baseball in Aiken, S.C.
Despite a day of outstanding offense, it was a relief pitching performance from Devin Wilburn that may have been the highlight of the second game. Wilburn, who also pitched in the first game of the day for the Cardinals, made another appearance and got the Cardinals out of a sixth inning jam by striking out two batters. In 2.2 innings pitched, he struck out eight of the 12 batters he faced to quiet any late-inning rally chances from the Phoenix and earn the pitching victory.
Ball State started the day's scoring with three runs in the first thanks to a two RBI double by Sean Kennedy. The second inning saw the Cardinals' lead increase to 5-0 on the strength of a double by Jarett Rindfleisch that plated two runners.
Four more runs in the top of the third built the Cardinals' lead to 9-1 in the contest. The four-run inning was led by a RBI doubles from Matt Eppers and Ryan Spaulding and a two-RBI single to right center field from Alex Call. Call extended his streak to 46 games of reaching base safely for the Cardinals.
Ball State kept the offense going in the fifth inning and added three more to increase its lead to 12-1 before Elon tallied seven in the bottom of the fifth with the help of a grand slam to close the gap to 12-8.
The Cardinals offense in the fifth was led by an Elbert Devarie RBI double and a pair of groundouts that knocked in runs for Ball State. Matt Eppers' singled and scored on an Elon error to give Ball State a 13-8 advantage through six. Kennedy added an RBI single in the seventh to increase the lead to 14-8, and Caleb Stayton added another run after scoring on a wild pitch.
Devarie put an exclamation point on the late-inning scoring with a solo home run to move the Cardinals lead to 16-8. It completed a 3-for-5 hitting performance in the second game for Devarie with two RBI and four runs scored.
Ball State would add two more in the ninth to stretch its lead to 18-8 and seal the victory.
Trevor Henderson started the day on the mound for Ball State and went 4.2 innings, allowing five earned runs and striking out six. Collin Brockhouse came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth before David Current came on to get the Cardinals out of Elon's big inning and Wilburn and Trevor Simon finished the game.
Kennedy was 3-for-6 with three RBI, while Eppers was 3-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Wilburn, Devin (1-0)
L: Stalzer (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Spaulding, Ryan 1 ; Devarie, Elbert 1 ; Rindfleisch, Jarett 1 ; Kennedy, Sean 1 ; Eppers, Matt 2
HR: Devarie, Elbert 1
RBI: Spaulding, Ryan 1 ; James, Jarrett 1 ; Devarie, Elbert 2 ; Call, Alex 3 ; Rindfleisch, Jarett 3 ; Kennedy, Sean 3 ; Estep, Brandon 1 ; Eppers, Matt 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Spaulding, Ryan 3 ; Devarie, Elbert 4 ; Call, Alex 2 ; Rindfleisch, Jarett 2 ; Stayton, Caleb 1 ; Hollowell, Nick 1 ; Kennedy, Sean 1 ; Maloney, Alex 1 ; Eppers, Matt 3
SB: Spaulding, Ryan 1 ; Eppers, Matt 1
HBP: Stayton, Caleb 1 ; Maloney, Alex 1
Batting:
2B: Zammarelli 1
3B: Bower 1
HR: Guba 1
RBI: King 2 ; Zammarelli 2 ; Guba 4
SF: King 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bower 2 ; Cooper 1 ; Jones 1 ; Zammarelli 1 ; Lynch 1 ; Moore 1 ; Guba 1
HBP: Jones 1 ; Tomko 1 ; Moore 1 ; Shumate 1
