Ball State University
8-7
LSU
10-3
Ball State Shocks No. 6 LSU, 7-1
March 12, 2016 | Baseball
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Ball State baseball team homered four times in a 7-1 triumph over No. 6 LSU Friday evening at Alex Box Stadium. This was the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Catcher Jarett Rindfleisch hit two home runs while right fielder Alex Call and third baseman Sean Kennedy added long balls as well. With the win, Ball State (8-7) picked up a win over a nationally ranked team for the fourth consecutive season.
LSU (10-3) entered tonight's contest on a six-game winning streak. In five of those games, the Tigers scored at least nine runs. Ball State starting pitcher Kevin Marnon kept LSU off-balance all evening, going 5.2 innings, striking out four and only giving up one run. Junior Zach Plesac earned his first save of the season by pitching the final 3.1 frames, striking out five and surrendering just one hit.
Ball State never trailed as Rindfleisch led off the second inning with his first home run of the season. One inning later, Call gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead thanks to a two-run blast to left center. Rindfleisch and Kennedy tallied solo shots in the sixth inning to push the Ball State advantage to 5-0.
The Cardinals scored the first five runs off LSU starter Jared Poché, who in three previous starts had posted a 2-0 record with a 0.92 ERA.
Rindfleisch and Call each finished 3-of-4 at the plate and combined for five RBIs. Rindfleisch is the first Cardinal to hit two home runs in a game since Ryan Spaulding accomplished the feat against Central Michigan last May.
This was Ball State's first win over an SEC team since the Cardinals downed Kentucky by a score of 10-8 in March 2014.
Saturday's game between the two teams has been moved to 7:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. CT) due to the forecast of rain.
For the most up-to-date information on the Ball State baseball team, please follow @BallStateSports, @BallStateBB and @CoachMaloney.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Marnon, Kevin (2-2)
L: Jared Poche' (2-1)
S: Plesac, Zach (1)
Batting:
2B: Spaulding, Ryan 1 ; Stayton, Caleb 1
HR: Call, Alex 1 ; Rindfleisch, Jarett 2 ; Kennedy, Sean 1
RBI: Call, Alex 3 ; Stayton, Caleb 1 ; Rindfleisch, Jarett 2 ; Kennedy, Sean 1
SH: Maloney, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Spaulding, Ryan 1 ; Call, Alex 2 ; Rindfleisch, Jarett 2 ; Kennedy, Sean 1 ; Eppers, Matt 1
Batting:
2B: Beau Jordan 1 ; Jordan Romero 1 ; Cole Freeman 1
RBI: Cole Freeman 1
Base Running:
RUNS: O'Neal Lochridge 1
SB: Jake Fraley 1
