Baseball Suffers 9-5 Loss at Western Michigan

Friday, May 1

Kalamazoo, Mich.

3:00 PM

Ball State University

25-18, 10-9

Western Michigan

18-22, 10-9

Ball State Cardinals

Western Michigan

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May 01, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Ball State Athletics

Ball State's baseball team suffered a 9-5 loss at Western Michigan Friday afternoon in the first game of a three-game series in Kalamazoo, Mich.

With the loss, the Cardinals fall to 25-18 overall and 10-9 in the Mid-American Conference, while the Broncos improved to 18-22 overall and 10-9 in the MAC.

Zach Plesac suffered the loss after pitching 6.1 innings, allowing only four earned runs and striking out four batters.

Ball State scored first with one run in the top of the third when Jarett Rindfleisch's single up the middle scored Alex Maloney, who had led off the inning with a single through the left side of the infield.

Western Michigan responded with four runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to take a 5-1 lead through six innings.

The Cardinals got back in the game with a four-run fourth inning to tie the game at 5-5.

Brandon Estep started off the seventh with a single down the left field line. With one out, Matt Eppers tripled to score Estep. Ryan Spaulding singled to score Eppers and close the gap to 5-3. Caleb Stayton reached on an error by the WMU right fielder and scored two more for Ball State to tie the game at 5-5.

But, Western Michigan responded with a four-run seventh inning and earned the 9-5 victory. Both teams tallied nine hits in the game, but the Cardinals committed four errors and stranded seven runners on base in the contest.

Maloney was 2-for-4 with two runs scored in the game, while Estep was 3-for-4 with one run scored. Eppers had one hit in four at-bats plus had one run-batted-in and scored once.

The two teams will play Saturday at 1 p.m. and complete the series Sunday at 1 p.m.