Texas Trip Up Next For Diamond Cards

Friday, February 21

Houston, TX

3 p.m. (2 CT)

Ball State University

Houston Baptist

Photo by: Mike Janes/Four Seam Images

February 20, 2020 | Baseball

Game Notes

By: Ball State Athletics

2020 Ball State Baseball

Ball State (0-3) at Houston Baptist (1-4)
Feb. 21-23, 2020 - Houston, Texas

Weekend Coverage (Found on the baseball schedule page)
Listen Live To All 4 Games | Live Stats | Live Video ($4.95)

Possible Starting Matchups (subject to change)

Friday: John Baker (0-1, 1.80 ERA) vs. Solomon Klimeck (0-1, 54.00 ERA)
Saturday: Kyle Nicolas (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Kyle Gruller (0-1, 1.93 ERA)
Sunday: Chayce McDermott (RHP) vs. Austin Spinney (0-1, 11.81 ERA)

Ball State has an opportunity to bounce back this weekend when it takes on Houston Baptist this weekend in a three-game series. The Cardinals started their 99th varsity season with an 0-3 weekend at Georgia Southern. Houston Baptist went 0-4 while giving up 12.0 runs per game but won on Wednesday over Texas State.

Rich Maloney has never taken BSU to Texas in 14+ seasons and this weekend is the first baseball meeting between the two schools. Ball State has one Texan on its roster in pitcher Trennor O'Donnell, who's from Southlake in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Despite the slow start in the opening weekend, BSU found strong starting pitching in its first two games. John Baker and Kyle Nicolas combined for 10 innings of one-run ball, striking out 15 with three walks. Nicolas left his start with the lead and Baker left his start with the Cards down just 1-0.

Chase Sebby was the team's top bat last weekend, going 3-for-8 with a walk and two RBIs. Ross Messina also had three hits.

This is the last true road series of the early season for Ball State. The next two weekends are filled with neutral-site games in South Carolina.