Baseball Defeats Northern Illinois 9-3 Saturday

Saturday, May 16

Muncie, Ind.

1:00 PM

Ball State University

30-23, 14-13

Northern Illinois

22-33, 10-17

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

Baseball Loses 4-2 Contest at UNC Wilmington

May 17, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Ball State Athletics

Ball State's baseball team handed Northern Illinois a 9-3 defeat Saturday at Ball Diamond in the First Merchants Ballpark Complex in Muncie, Ind., and will now advance to the Mid-American Conference Tournament in Avon, Ohio.

With the win, the Cardinals improved to 30-23 overall and 14-13 in the MAC, while Northern Illinois fell to 22-33 overall and 10-17 in the league and was eliminated from the conference tournament.

Ball State earned the fifth seed in the MAC Tournament and will face fourth-seeded Toledo Wednesday at 8 p.m. The two teams met in the regular season and the Rockets won two of three games in the series in Muncie, Ind.

Against Northern Illinois, Ball State jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after four innings before Northern Illinois added one in the top of the fifth. The Cardinals responded with three more in the fifth to take a 5-1 lead before NIU managed two more in the sixth. Ball State once again responded to the challenge and added four runs in the bottom of the seventh to close out the 9-3 win.

In a pitch by committee contest, Scott Baker started the game and pitched three innings, allowing zero runs and striking out two. Baker improved to 4-6 on the season before turning the game over to four additional pitchers for the Cardinals.

Ball State's first two runs came on a single from Jarrett James that scored Matt Eppers and a single from Jarett Rindfleisch to right center field that scored Alex Call, who had singled up the middle.

With a 2-1 advantage, the Cardinals scored their five runs in the fifth behind a double by Alex Maloney, followed by an Alex Call walk and a bases clearing three-run homer by Rindfleisch.

After Northern Illinois closed the game to 5-3, Ball State's four runs in the seventh inning came behind and Elbert Devarie run-batted-in fielder's choice, an RBI single by Caleb Stayton and a Brandon Estep single.

Rindfleisch was 2-for-3 on the day with four RBO and two runs scored. Estep was 1-for-3 with two RBI, while James was 1-for-2 with one RBI.