Thursday, February 20
Sacramento, Calif.
5 PM ET / 2 PM PT
Ball State University
at
Sacramento State
Photo by: Kolbi Media
Baseball Set for Four-Game Series at Sacramento State
February 19, 2025 | Baseball
The Ball State baseball team is set to play three games in four days at Sacramento State starting Thursday at 2 p.m. PT (5 ET).
The Cardinals (2-1) will begin play each day at the same time and play a doubleheader on Friday at John Smith Field before wrapping up the series on Saturday. Links to the video streams and live stats can be found above and on the schedule page.
Sacramento State (2-2) split its season-opening four-game set with San Francisco, taking the first and last games of the series. The Hornets are in their 15th season under the direction of head coach Reggie Christiansen.
SCOUTING SACRAMENTO STATE: The Hornets went 26-31 (14-16 WAC) last year to finish eighth in the 11-team Western Athletic Conference. Sacramento State was picked fifth in the recently released WAC preseason poll.
Junior infielder JP Smith and sophomore relief pitcher Kade Brown were named to the preseason All-WAC team. Brown was also named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division I Preseason All-America Second Team.
Both Smith and redshirt sophomore infielder Jakob Poturnak hit a pair of home runs in the first four games of the year, while senior outfielder Matt Masciangelo had multiple hits in each of his three starts to lead the team with a .636 batting average. Brown got the save in both wins, striking out eight in 5.1 innings of work with a 1.69 ERA to begin the campaign.
Up next for the Cardinals is a trip down south where Ball State plays North Florida in three games starting on Feb. 28 and Florida A&M twice starting on March 4.
B1G WIN: The Cardinals beat Maryland 5-3 on Saturday at the Swig & Swine Classic in Charleston, S.C., for the team's second win of the opening weekend.
The duo of Keegan Johnson (6.0 innings, four strikeouts) and Garrett Harker (3.0 scoreless innings, five strikeouts) limited the Terrapins' offense while Clay Jacobs (2-run single in the first) and DJ Scheumann (go-ahead 2-run home run in the sixth) had big days on offense to lift the baseball program to its second win over Maryland in three tries (Feb. 17, 2017). Ball State has now notched at least one win over a Big Ten opponent in each of the last three seasons (Michigan State and Illinois in 2024 and Rutgers in 2023).
HARTLAUB HEATERS: Senior right-handed pitcher Jacob Hartlaub tossed 5.2 shutout innings with eight strikeouts in the season-opening 7-2 win over Towson on Friday.
Hartlaub did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, mowing down the side in four frames including setting down every batter in the first time through the order. The fourth-year Cardinal had the second-most punchouts in the Mid-American Conference during the opening weekend.
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CLOSING IN ON NO. 1,000: Head coach Rich Maloney is currently 10 wins away from 1,000 in his career as a collegiate head coach, which is in the early stages of his 30th season.
Maloney (990) is 10th on the career wins leaderboard among active NCAA Division I coaches. The group consists of Paul Mainieri (South Carolina, 1,508 wins), Danny Hall (Georgia Tech, 1,414), Elliott Avent (NC State, 1,263), Dave Van Horn (Arkansas, 1,257), Rich Hill (Hawaii, 1,177), Steve Owens (Rutgers, 1,048), Rick Heller (Iowa, 1,042), Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt, 1,029), and Mike Bianco (Ole Miss, 1,008).
HIGH EXPECTATIONS: The 2025 Cardinals were picked to finish first in the recently released Mid-American Conference preseason poll. Ball State got six first place votes for the regular season and five to win the MAC Tournament.
The Ball State baseball program boasts the best winning percentage both overall (.636) and in conference play (.647) among MAC teams since 2019 entering the 2025 campaign.
CALI CALLING: Thursday's game at Sacramento State will be the Ball State baseball program's first ever game against the Hornets and its first ever game played in the Golden State.
It comes at a good time as six Cardinals on the 2025 roster hail from California, including five who have hometowns in close proximity to the state capital of Sacramento. The last time Ball State has played a team from California was in Feb. 2019 against CSU Bakersfield in Tempe, Ariz.
Jaden Bitter (Los Gatos), Brett Griffiths (West Sacramento), Will Jacobson (Elk Grove), Ben Giovannetti (Redwood City), and Garrett Arnold (San Jose) are from Northern California, while Nick Husovsky (Ramona) grew up in SoCal.
CLUTCH CLAY: Senior outfielder Clay Jacobs needed only two total hits to drive in four runs on the weekend.
The graduate student out of Huntsville, Ohio, plated runners on an RBI bunt single and RBI groundout on Friday vs Towson before driving in two on a single in the first inning against Maryland to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
HIGH RPI: The Cardinals are ranked No. 9 in the RPI after the opening weekend largely thanks to a win over No. 22 Maryland.
MIX OF NEW AND OLD: Ball State's 2025 roster features 17 returning players from last year's team, seven true freshmen and 13 incoming transfers.
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The Cardinals (2-1) will begin play each day at the same time and play a doubleheader on Friday at John Smith Field before wrapping up the series on Saturday. Links to the video streams and live stats can be found above and on the schedule page.
Sacramento State (2-2) split its season-opening four-game set with San Francisco, taking the first and last games of the series. The Hornets are in their 15th season under the direction of head coach Reggie Christiansen.
SCOUTING SACRAMENTO STATE: The Hornets went 26-31 (14-16 WAC) last year to finish eighth in the 11-team Western Athletic Conference. Sacramento State was picked fifth in the recently released WAC preseason poll.
Junior infielder JP Smith and sophomore relief pitcher Kade Brown were named to the preseason All-WAC team. Brown was also named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division I Preseason All-America Second Team.
Both Smith and redshirt sophomore infielder Jakob Poturnak hit a pair of home runs in the first four games of the year, while senior outfielder Matt Masciangelo had multiple hits in each of his three starts to lead the team with a .636 batting average. Brown got the save in both wins, striking out eight in 5.1 innings of work with a 1.69 ERA to begin the campaign.
Up next for the Cardinals is a trip down south where Ball State plays North Florida in three games starting on Feb. 28 and Florida A&M twice starting on March 4.
B1G WIN: The Cardinals beat Maryland 5-3 on Saturday at the Swig & Swine Classic in Charleston, S.C., for the team's second win of the opening weekend.
The duo of Keegan Johnson (6.0 innings, four strikeouts) and Garrett Harker (3.0 scoreless innings, five strikeouts) limited the Terrapins' offense while Clay Jacobs (2-run single in the first) and DJ Scheumann (go-ahead 2-run home run in the sixth) had big days on offense to lift the baseball program to its second win over Maryland in three tries (Feb. 17, 2017). Ball State has now notched at least one win over a Big Ten opponent in each of the last three seasons (Michigan State and Illinois in 2024 and Rutgers in 2023).
HARTLAUB HEATERS: Senior right-handed pitcher Jacob Hartlaub tossed 5.2 shutout innings with eight strikeouts in the season-opening 7-2 win over Towson on Friday.
Hartlaub did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, mowing down the side in four frames including setting down every batter in the first time through the order. The fourth-year Cardinal had the second-most punchouts in the Mid-American Conference during the opening weekend.
Â
CLOSING IN ON NO. 1,000: Head coach Rich Maloney is currently 10 wins away from 1,000 in his career as a collegiate head coach, which is in the early stages of his 30th season.
Maloney (990) is 10th on the career wins leaderboard among active NCAA Division I coaches. The group consists of Paul Mainieri (South Carolina, 1,508 wins), Danny Hall (Georgia Tech, 1,414), Elliott Avent (NC State, 1,263), Dave Van Horn (Arkansas, 1,257), Rich Hill (Hawaii, 1,177), Steve Owens (Rutgers, 1,048), Rick Heller (Iowa, 1,042), Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt, 1,029), and Mike Bianco (Ole Miss, 1,008).
HIGH EXPECTATIONS: The 2025 Cardinals were picked to finish first in the recently released Mid-American Conference preseason poll. Ball State got six first place votes for the regular season and five to win the MAC Tournament.
The Ball State baseball program boasts the best winning percentage both overall (.636) and in conference play (.647) among MAC teams since 2019 entering the 2025 campaign.
CALI CALLING: Thursday's game at Sacramento State will be the Ball State baseball program's first ever game against the Hornets and its first ever game played in the Golden State.
It comes at a good time as six Cardinals on the 2025 roster hail from California, including five who have hometowns in close proximity to the state capital of Sacramento. The last time Ball State has played a team from California was in Feb. 2019 against CSU Bakersfield in Tempe, Ariz.
Jaden Bitter (Los Gatos), Brett Griffiths (West Sacramento), Will Jacobson (Elk Grove), Ben Giovannetti (Redwood City), and Garrett Arnold (San Jose) are from Northern California, while Nick Husovsky (Ramona) grew up in SoCal.
CLUTCH CLAY: Senior outfielder Clay Jacobs needed only two total hits to drive in four runs on the weekend.
The graduate student out of Huntsville, Ohio, plated runners on an RBI bunt single and RBI groundout on Friday vs Towson before driving in two on a single in the first inning against Maryland to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
HIGH RPI: The Cardinals are ranked No. 9 in the RPI after the opening weekend largely thanks to a win over No. 22 Maryland.
MIX OF NEW AND OLD: Ball State's 2025 roster features 17 returning players from last year's team, seven true freshmen and 13 incoming transfers.
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