Ball State University
11-10
Valparaiso
8-11
Baseball Can't Hold on to Early Lead at Valpo
March 19, 2024 | Baseball
The Cardinals (11-10) scored twice in the second inning on a Nick Husovsky RBI single and Corey Miley sacrifice fly before Blake Bevis pounded a solo homer to center field in the third to extend the Ball State edge to 3-0. Casey Turturici tripled to drive in Clay Jacobs and Miley tacked on another sac fly in the fourth to make it 5-0 Ball State.
After Valpo (8-11) responded with a run in its half of the fourth, Decker Scheffler hit a run-scoring double in the top of the fifth. Michael Hallquist proved to be the final Cardinal of the day to cross home plate, however, as the Beacons scored the final eight runs of the game.
Valparaiso scored four times in the fifth inning and twice each in the sixth and eighth to win its home opener. Leading hitter Kyle Schmack hit two home runs and had three RBI to lead the Beacon offense.
Keegan Johnson started the game on the mound for Ball State and threw 3.0 shutout innings, striking out six and allowing one hit. Valparaiso's Grant Jablonski (2-0) tossed 3.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to be credited with the win, while Lucas Letsinger (1-1) suffered the loss after allowing three runs in 2.2 innings pitched for the Cardinals.
Ball State is next scheduled to play at Butler at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Jablonski, Grant (2-0)
L: Letsinger, Lucas (1-1)
S: Konitzer, Bryce (1)
Batting:
2B: Hallquist, Michael 1 ; Scheffler, Decker 1
3B: Turturici, Casey 1
HR: Bevis, Blake 1
RBI: Scheffler, Decker 1 ; Bevis, Blake 1 ; Turturici, Casey 1 ; Husovsky, Nick 1 ; Miley, Corey 2
SF: Miley, Corey 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Hallquist, Michael 1 ; Bevis, Blake 1 ; Jacobs, Clay 2 ; Turturici, Casey 2
SB: Scheffler, Decker 1 ; Jacobs, Clay 1
HBP: Hallquist, Michael 1
Batting:
2B: Hannahs, Kaleb 1 ; Husmann, Carson 1
HR: Schmack, Kyle 2 ; Thurston, Alex 1
RBI: Schmack, Kyle 3 ; Husmann, Carson 1 ; Denty, Kevin 2 ; Giusti, Connor 1 ; Thurston, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hannahs, Kaleb 2 ; Schmack, Kyle 3 ; Renfro, Brady 1 ; Husmann, Carson 1 ; Thurston, Alex 2
SB: Hannahs, Kaleb 1
HBP: Denty, Kevin 1 ; Ryan, Alex 1
