Baseball Wraps Up Regular Season Versus WMU

Game #53 – Western Michigan at Ball State
Thursday, May 17, 3 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateBB)

Game #54– Western Michigan at Ball State
Friday, May 18, 3 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateBB)

Game #55– Western Michigan at Ball State
Saturday, May 19, 1 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateBB)

Projected Starting Pitchers (2018 stats)
Thursday – John Baker, RHP (4-4, 3.59 ERA, 108 Ks
Friday – Drey Jameson, RHP (6-1, 3.62 ERA, 86 Ks)
Saturday – Evan Marquardt, RHP (3-2, 6.29 ERA, 56 Ks)

Around the Horn
Opening Pitch: The baseball regular season winds down this weekend with MAC Tournament seeding on the line. The Cardinals are currently tied for second in the league with Miami. Western Michigan is tied for fifth with Eastern Michigan.

In a change to this year's MAC Tournament format, only the top six teams in the league will qualify for next week's tournament. The top two teams will each receive a bye in the first round.

Saturday's game is also First Merchants Ballpark Fan Day. Click here for more information on all of the promotions scheduled to take place at the park.

Series History: Ball State has played Western Michigan more than any other opponent in program history (174 games). The Cardinals swept a three-game series at WMU last year while averaging 15 runs per game. OF Jeff Riedel hit .600 in that series and finished with five RBIs and five runs scored.

Western Michigan holds a 98-76 lead in the all-time series.

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

• Five seniors will be honored before Saturday's game – OF Colin Brockhouse, 2B Seth Freed, 3B Justin Kirkpatrick, OF Jeff Riedel and LHP Trevor Simon.

• Ball State batters have been hit by a pitch 85 times this year, 11th most in the nation. That number also shattered Ball State's previous single season record of 69 hit-by-pitches in 2008.

• OF Colin Brockhouse has reached base safely in all 15 home games and is hitting .397 (25-of-63) at home.

• 1B John Ricotta tallied a team season-high four walks on May 13 at Toledo.

• Three Cardinals earned their Ball State bachelor's degree this semester – OF Colin Brockhouse, RHP Brendan Burns and LHP Trevor Simon.

• C Chase Sebby has reached base safely in 31 straight games.

• SS Noah Powell is hitting .393 (11-of-28) over the last six games. He has multiple hits in four of those games.

• Ball State needs one more win to reach the 30-win plateau for the sixth consecutive season.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

John Baker

Colin Brockhouse

Brendan Burns

Seth Freed

Drey Jameson

Justin Kirkpatrick

Evan Marquardt

Noah Powell

John Ricotta

Jeff Riedel

Chase Sebby

Trevor Simon