Baseball Set to Play Home-and-Home Series with Dayton

Game #17 – Dayton at Ball State
Friday, March 16, 3 p.m.
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Game #18 – Ball State at Dayton (DH)
Saturday, March 17, Noon
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Game #19 – Ball State at Dayton (DH)
Saturday, March 17, approx. 3 p.m.
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Game #20 – Dayton at Ball State
Sunday, March 18, 1 p.m.
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Projected Starting Pitchers (2018 stats)
Friday – John Baker, RHP (2-1, 5.01 ERA, 35 Ks)
Saturday, Game 1 – Kyle Nicolas, RHP (2-1, 4.12 ERA, 23 Ks)
Saturday, Game 2 – TBD
Sunday – TBD

Around the Horn
Opening Pitch: This is the final weekend of non-conference play for Ball State. The offense has come alive the last week as the Cardinals have put up at least six runs in five of their last six games.

OF Jeff Riedel (.481) and SS Justin Kirkpatrick (.438) are both hitting better than .400 in that stretch. Riedel has 13 hits over the last six games, seven of which are extra-base hits. Kirkpatrick has an on-base percentage of .640 thanks in part to earning eight walks.

The Cardinals have won five straight home openers, including a 6-0 win over Dayton last year. In that game, former Cardinal RHP BJ Butler tossed his first collegiate complete game shutout.

Series History: This is the fifth consecutive year and sixth time in the past seven seasons that these two teams have met on the diamond.

Ball State won three of four games against Dayton last year. In that series, C/OF Griffin Hulecki hit .438 (7-of-16) with four RBIs. Meanwhile, RHP John Baker took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in the final game of last year's series. Baker finished with a personal high 8.0 IP along with eight strikeouts, one walk and one hit.

The Cardinals lead the all-time series by a count of 29-11.

This and That: Some random stats heading into the weekend …

• The Cardinals have notched 24 base on balls the last four games and rank second in the MAC with 69 walks overall.

• Ball State is 5-1 in games where a Cardinal hits a home run. OF Drey Jameson tallied Ball State's most recent home run, which was also his first as a collegiate player on March 10 at WCU.

• 2B Seth Freed has reached base safely in 11 straight games.

• Ball State pitching ranks 10th nationally in strikeouts per nine innings (10.8). Mercer (12.9) leads the nation in that category.

• Ball State is 8-0 when leading after six innings and 0-8 when trailing or tied at that mark.

• Ball State's nine doubles on March 9 at Western Carolina equaled a program single game record.

Baseball Set to Play Home-and-Home Series with Dayton

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Players Mentioned

John Baker

BJ Butler

Seth Freed

Griffin Hulecki

Drey Jameson

Justin Kirkpatrick

Kyle Nicolas

Jeff Riedel