Ball State University
Stanford
Baseball Season Starts Friday!
February 14, 2019 | Baseball
Cards have 4 games this weekend in Arizona
The Ball State baseball team opens its 98th varsity baseball season this weekend with four games in Tempe, Arizona. The Cardinals' opener is against a Stanford team ranked as high as No. 5 in the national polls.Â
Friday's opener will be played at Tempe Diablo Stadium, the spring training home of the LA Angels of Anaheim. Angels pitchers and catchers reported Tuesday and the position player report Sunday.
TEAM PREVIEW: Power Pitching Headlines 2019 Cardinals
The three remaining games will be at Grand Canyon's Brazell Field, where GCU will be playing its second season in the new ballpark. Ball State will play host school Grand Canyon Saturday morning and finish the trip with two games against Cal State Bakersfield.
A wealth of power arms is the story for Ball State heading into the season. The rotation is buoyed by hard-throwing righties Drey Jameson, Kyle Nicolas and John Baker. Those three starters combined for 14 wins and 270 strikeouts last year. Nolan Gazouski struck out 61 over 42 innings last year and Chayce McDermott is projected to earn a lot of starting assignments after redshirting his true freshman year. Nick Floyd, Brendan Burns and Mike Pachmayer are also experienced arms who will be counted on.
On offense, the Cardinals return virtually half of last season's offensive statistical production, highlighted by nearly 57% of the team's walks output back for 2019. Ball State returns five position players who started 40 games last year:
- Noah Powell -Â OF: .319, 45 Runs, 18 XBH, 35 RBIs, .402 OBP
- Chase Sebby - C: .293, 30 Runs, 12 XBH, 23 RBIs, .441 OBP
- William Baker - UTIL: .251, 35 Runs, 5 XBH, 19 RBIs, .345 OBP
- Griffin Hulecki - OF/DH: .295, 28 Runs, 12 XBH, 32 RBIs, .405 OBP
- John Ricotta - 1B: .212, 19 runs, 11 XBH, 21 RBIs, .326 OBP
Ball State, which has won 30+ games for six straight seasons, went 32-26 last year with wins over Iowa, Purdue, Ohio State and two over Kent State. BSU was picked to finish second in the MAC preseason poll.Â
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All-Time Series
These weekend's games are the first-ever meetings for Ball State against Stanford, Grand Canyon or Cal State Bakersfield.
Special Speaker
Former Ball State star pitcher Luke Hagerty, a first-round draft pick who recently signed with the Chicago Cubs, will address and visit with the team in Arizona. Hagerty's story is an amazing one, as the 37-year-old lefty is on the comeback trail and throwing 99 mph. Read a recent ESPN.com feature on Hagerty HERE.
2019 BALL STATE BASEBALL
Ball State vs. #12 Stanford
Friday, Feb. 17 - 9 p.m. ET (7 MT)
Tempe, Arizona - Diablo Stadium
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Saturday Doubleheader
Ball State at Grand Canyon - 1 p.m. ET (11 MT)Â
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Ball State vs. CSUB - 4:30 p.m. ET (2:30 MT)
at Grand Canyon
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Sunday's Finale
Ball State vs. CSUB - 4:30 p.m. ET (2:30 MT)
at Grand Canyon
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Possible Pitching Matchups
Friday vs. Stanford: RHP Drey Jameson (7-2, 3.88 ERA, 72 IP, 54 H, 97 K, 44 BB) vs. RHP Brendan Beck (8-0, 2.43 ERA, 66.2 IP, 56 H, 38 K, 12 BB)
Saturday Game 1 vs. GCU: RHP Kyle Nicolas (2-4, 5.21 ERA, 57 IP, 53 H, 55 K, 44 BB) vs. RHP Pierson Ohl (Freshman)
Saturday Game 2 vs. CSUB: TBA
Sunday vs. CSUB: TBA
