Saturday, March 16
Muncie, Ind.
1 p.m.
Ball State University
11
vs
6
Dayton
Cardinals Rout Dayton 11-6
March 16, 2019 | Baseball
Cardinals bang out 17 hits for 10th win of the season
MUNCIE - Ross Messina spent part of the pregame warm-ups keeping his bat warm in the Ball State dugout. Clearly, the tactic worked as Messina doubled and tripled during a 3-for-5 day as Ball State rolled to an 11-6 win over Dayton on Saturday. Aaron Simpson and John Ricotta homered as BSU pounded out 17 hits and avenged a 5-4 Friday loss at UD.
Messina, now batting .310 this year with a team-high 12 XBH, fell a homer short of the cycle with his literally hot bat. Ricotta and William Baker also had three hits and Ricotta scored a team-high three runs.
The score was 2-2 in the 4th inning when Ball State's bats broke the game open. An RBI groundout by Simpson gave BSU the lead and Noah Navarro smacked an RBI double to make it 4-2. Ricotta's 2-run shot in the 5th made it 6-2 and then Simpson delivered a 3-run shot to right center to give the Cardinals a commanding lead.Â
RELATED: Ball State Piles It On In Win Over Dayton (Daily News)
A Messina RBI triple made it 10-2 before Dayton's Jay Curtis hit a grand slam to make the score a little closer than the game appeared. Dayton continued to battle but Ricotta singled and scored on a wild pitch to provide the final 11-6 margin.
The 3-run homer was Simpson's second of the week, and the centerfielder is now batting exactly .300 on the season.
On the mound, Ball State built its lead behind a strong outing from John Baker. The righty struck out five over 5.0 innings and Lukas Jaksich struck out six more in 2.2 innings of relief. Two-way player Andre Orselli got the last four outs of the game on the mound and also had a hit and two walks on offense. An emerging player on offense, Orselli is 4-for-9 with two walks and three RBIs in addition to his relief pitching duties.Â
Ball State (10-9) will finish its series with Dayton Sunday afternoon. BSU has home games in the coming week Tuesday against Purdue and Wednesday against Fort Wayne.
Messina, now batting .310 this year with a team-high 12 XBH, fell a homer short of the cycle with his literally hot bat. Ricotta and William Baker also had three hits and Ricotta scored a team-high three runs.
The score was 2-2 in the 4th inning when Ball State's bats broke the game open. An RBI groundout by Simpson gave BSU the lead and Noah Navarro smacked an RBI double to make it 4-2. Ricotta's 2-run shot in the 5th made it 6-2 and then Simpson delivered a 3-run shot to right center to give the Cardinals a commanding lead.Â
RELATED: Ball State Piles It On In Win Over Dayton (Daily News)
A Messina RBI triple made it 10-2 before Dayton's Jay Curtis hit a grand slam to make the score a little closer than the game appeared. Dayton continued to battle but Ricotta singled and scored on a wild pitch to provide the final 11-6 margin.
The 3-run homer was Simpson's second of the week, and the centerfielder is now batting exactly .300 on the season.
On the mound, Ball State built its lead behind a strong outing from John Baker. The righty struck out five over 5.0 innings and Lukas Jaksich struck out six more in 2.2 innings of relief. Two-way player Andre Orselli got the last four outs of the game on the mound and also had a hit and two walks on offense. An emerging player on offense, Orselli is 4-for-9 with two walks and three RBIs in addition to his relief pitching duties.Â
Ball State (10-9) will finish its series with Dayton Sunday afternoon. BSU has home games in the coming week Tuesday against Purdue and Wednesday against Fort Wayne.
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