Cardinals Host NIU in Pivotal MAC Baseball Series

Game #40 – Northern Illinois at Ball State
Friday, April 27, 3 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateBB)

Game #41 – Northern Illinois at Ball State
Saturday, April 28, 1 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateBB)

Game #42 – Northern Illinois at Ball State
Sunday, April 29, 1 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateBB)

Projected Starting Pitchers (2018 stats)
Friday – John Baker, RHP (3-4, 4.01 ERA, 91 Ks)
Saturday – Drey Jameson, RHP (4-0, 4.37 ERA, 62 Ks)
Sunday – TBA

Around the Horn
Opening Pitch: Ball State's final four MAC weekends are all against teams fighting for a spot in the league tournament. Only six of the 10 conference teams qualify for the MAC Tournament, a change from last year when eight teams qualified.

Right now, the Cardinals are tied with Ohio for the sixth spot in the MAC standings. Ball State is two games out of second, but also just two games ahead of Northern Illinois in 10th spot.

This is Northern Illinois' first visit to First Merchants Ballpark Complex since 2015. The Cardinals have won seven of the last nine games against the Huskies at home.

Series History: Northern Illinois won two of three games over Ball State in each of the last two series, both of which took place in DeKalb, Illinois Between 2012 and 2015, the Cardinals took 10 of 12 games from NIU.

C/OF Griffin Hulecki hit .455 (5-of-11) in last year's series at Northern Illinois and led the team with three runs scored.

Ball State leads the all-time series by a count of 49-36-1 and 19-12 in Muncie.

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

• Ball State pitchers rank second in league games in strikeouts (141), but also tops in walks (76).

• C Chase Sebby's on-base percentage in MAC games (.517) in the best in the league.

• OF Jeff Riedel and C/OF Griffin Hulecki are each riding eight-game hitting streaks entering Friday's game. Riedel holds the team's longest hitting streak of the season (nine).

• Four players have batting averages over .300 in home games – C/OF Griffin Hulecki (.379), OF Colin Brockhouse (.351), OF Jeff Riedel (.350) and C Chase Sebby (.333).

• OF Jeff Riedel has scored at least one run in seven of the last eight games. He ranks second in the MAC in runs scored (36).

• RHP Drey Jameson is the only Ball State starting pitcher to earn a win in the last month.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

John Baker

Colin Brockhouse

Griffin Hulecki

Drey Jameson

Jeff Riedel

Chase Sebby