Baseball Posts 8-7 Win over Maine in Florida

Tuesday, March 3

Port Charlotte, Florida

4:00 PM

Ball State University

6-5

Maine

3-9

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Maine	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	0	2	7	14	1
Ball State Cardinals	0	3	0	3	0	0	0	2	X	8	10	1

March 04, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Ball State Athletics

Ball State's baseball team improved to 6-5 on the season with an 8-7 victory over Maine in Port Charlotte, Fla., Tuesday afternoon.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 6-1 advantage after four innings, but a four-run seventh inning by Maine closed the gap to 6-5 and Ball State battled to the finish and claimed the win thanks to two runs in the eighth and a pitching save by Scott Baker.

Baker entered the game in the seventh inning as Ball State's sixth pitcher of the game and was able to strike out four of the 13 batters he faced to put the finishing touches on the game and earn his first save of the year.

With the Black Bears narrowing the lead to 6-5 in the seventh, Ball State responded with two runs in the eighth on a single by Matt Eppers that scored Alex Maloney and later saw Eppers score on a Maine error.

Baker allowed back-to-back singles to the first two batters in the ninth before striking out the next batter for the first out of the inning.? Another pair of singles closed the gap to 8-7 before a fly out to right field left runners on first and second and two outs in the inning.? Baker was able to strike out the final Maine batter in the frame and record the save.

The Cardinals scored six runs in the first four innings in most part due to a pair of big hits from Scott Tyler.? Tyler knocked in two runs with a single in the second inning and then doubled to right field in the fourth to start a three-run rally.? Eppers' double to left center field in the fourth scored two and a Ryan Spaulding single added another RBI to the Ball State total.

Matt Haro started the game and earned the win after pitching four innings and allowing only one earned run on four hits and striking out one.

Elbert Devarie was 3-for-5 on the day, while Tyler was 2-for-2 with two RBI and one run scored.? Eppers was 2-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored for the Cardinals.

Ball State will play Northwestern Friday at 5 p.m. in Port Charlotte, Fla.