Baseball Defeats Purdue 8-2 for Ninth Straight Win

Wednesday, March 25

Muncie, Ind.

3:00 PM

Ball State University

16-7

Purdue

9-15

Purdue

Ball State Cardinals

March 25, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Ball State Athletics

On the strength of a strong pitching performance from Trevor Henderson and a pair of early home runs, Ball State's baseball team tallied an 8-2 victory over Purdue.

The victory was the third of the season for the Cardinals over a team from the Big Ten Conference. Ball State has already defeated nationally ranked Illinois and Rutgers from the Big Ten.

Ryan Spaulding's first home run of the season just left of dead center field in the first inning gave the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead. In the second stanza, Matt Eppers hit the first home run of his career – a two-run shot that gave Ball State a 3-0 advantage.

With a 3-1 lead through 3.5 innings, Ball State's Alex Call hit a high hopper up the middle for an infield single that scored Spaulding with two outs in the inning. Jarett Rindfleisch followed that up with a single up the middle to score Eppers and it was a 5-1 lead for the Cardinals.

Ball State added another run in the fifth after Eppers singled and stole his 10^th straight base of the season and scored on an Alex Maloney single to left to give the Cardinals a 6-1 advantage.

The Cardinals added two more runs in the eighth to improve to 16-7 on the season and win their ninth straight contest.

Henderson, who pitched the longest outing of his career, lasted 5.2 innings, allowing only one earned run on two hits, while striking out five.

Eppers was 2-for-3 on the day with two runs-batted-in and scored three runs. Spaulding was 1-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored.

Ball State will return to Mid-American Conference action Friday through Sunday with games vs. Buffalo. First pitch at Ball Diamond in the First Merchants Ballpark Complex is Friday at 3 p.m., while games are scheduled for 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.