Baseball Splits Two with Buffalo; Hosts Bulls Sunday

Saturday, March 28

Muncie, Ind.

12:00 PM

Ball State University

17-7, 0

Buffalo

5-13, 0

Buffalo

Ball State Cardinals

Baseball Splits Two with Buffalo; Hosts Bulls Sunday

March 28, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Ball State Athletics

After winning its 10th straight game in the first game of a doubleheader vs. Buffalo Saturday, Ball State's baseball team lost the second game to fall to 17-8 overall and 4-1 in the Mid-American Conference.

The Cardinals tallied a 6-4 win in the first game before suffering a 14-1 loss in the second game of the day. Ball State and Buffalo played a twinbill Saturday due to weather conditions Friday, and will complete the three-game series Sunday with a noon contest.

In the first game, Ball State fell behind 2-0 after one inning, but rallied for three scores in the third inning and never trailed again.

In the third inning, Scott Tyler singled and advanced to second on a groundout to the pitcher. He scored on a Matt Eppers single for Ball State's first run of the game. With runners on second and third and one out in the inning, Ryan Spaulding hit a single up the middle to score both runners and the Cardinals took their first lead of the game at 3-2.

After Buffalo tied it up in the fourth, Spaulding took the first pitch of the inning over the left field fence for his second home run of the season and gave the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.

In the sixth, Tyler led the inning off with a single and was replaced by Jarrett James as a pinch runner. Colin Brockhouse hit a ball to deep right field that bounced off the outfield fence and scored James from first to give Ball State a 5-4 advantage

Ball State added an insurance run in the eighth when Brandon Estep reached second on a Buffalo error with two outs. Brockhouse lined a single to right field to score Estep and Ball State's lead increased to 6-4.

Devin Wilburn earned the win to improve to 4-0 on the season after pitching 1.2 innings, allowing only two hits and striking out three. B.J. Butler pitched the final two frames and allowed only one hit, while striking out two to earn his fifth save of the season.

In the second contest, Ball State suffered the defeat after allowing Buffalo 10 runs in the ninth inning to seal the win in a game that was 4-1 through eight frames.

Scott Baker started on the mound and pitched six innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out eight, but suffered the loss to fall to 2-4 on the season.