BSU vs. Northern Illinois: Weekend Series Info

Ball State (21-11, 12-4 MAC) vs. Northern Illinois (7-23, 6-10 MAC)
Dates	Friday (DH at noon), Saturday (DH at noon), Sunday TBA
Times	Baseball Schedule \| Friday 12 pm start
Location	First Merchants Ballpark - Muncie
Live Video	BSU on Friday, ESPN + on Saturday and Sunday (see schedule page)
Game Notes	Ball State \| Northern Illinois
Live Stats	BallStateSports.com
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram

Schedule Update

With rain coming in Saturday's forecast, please note that the schedule is now a noon doubleheader on Friday and a scheduled noon doubleheader on Saturday. Sunday is the rain day. Friday will be a 9-inning game at noon followed by a 7-inning game. Please check the schedule page and @ballstatebb on social media for updates through the weekend.

Maloney Media Availability

12-4 Cardinals At Home This Weekend

The Ball State baseball team will be at home for the first time in 20 days when it hosts Northern Illinois this weekend. The Saturday and Sunday games will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Ball State has won 10 of its last 12 after getting a pair of comeback wins last weekend at Eastern Michigan. That has allowed BSU to keep pace with preseason favorite Central Michigan (12-4) atop the standings. This weekend is the third of BSU's five home league series this season, with Kent State and Miami still to visit Muncie in May.

Northern Illinois (6-10) is 9th in the MAC, three games out of 5th place. NIU owns the worst W-L percentage in the league (.233). BSU is 3rd in the MAC in team ERA (4.00) and NIU is 10th (6.96). Ball State gets on base at a much better rate than Northern, but the two teams have almost an identical slugging percentage (BSU .383, NIU .382).

What To Know For This Weekend

-- John Baker, the active career leader for strikeouts in NCAA Division I with 351, can tie Bryan Bullington's school record for career Ks with his 6th strikeout this weekend. No other Division I pitcher has 290 strikeouts as of this week.

-- Noah Navarro went off at EMU last weekend, batting 8-for-12 and getting on base at a .750 clip. He went 4-for-4 and delivered a clutch 2-run single on Sunday that got Ball State a series split.

-- In his last four appearances, Lukas Jaksich has pitched 16.0 innings with 23 strikeouts while allowing just one run. Before that, he struck out 11 in 5.2 innings vs. Toledo. Jaksich is 5-1 on the year and is now 4th in the conference with a 2.22 ERA.

Schedule Update

Maloney Media Availability

12-4 Cardinals At Home This Weekend

What To Know For This Weekend

Next Event

Players Mentioned

John Baker

Lukas Jaksich

Noah Navarro