Ball State University
23-10, 0
Eastern Michigan
13-15, 0
Richter's Go-Ahead Three-Run Homer Leads Baseball to Comeback Win and Series Sweep at EMU
April 06, 2025 | Baseball
Trailing 5-3 heading into the final frame, the Cardinals (23-10, 10-2 Mid-American Conference) had Max Kalk pinch hit and draw a walk before Gavin Balius singled to right field. Richter the blasted a home run to right field that scored Balius and Brett Griffiths, who had pinch run for Kalk, to give the Cardinals a 6-5 advantage.
DJ Scheumann later scored on an error, and Blake Bevis hit a two-run double to tack on three insurance runs for the Cardinals in the ninth. Garrett Harker (3-1) closed out the game and struck out two in 2.1 innings of work to earn his second win of the weekend.
After Eastern Michigan (13-15, 8-7 MAC) plated three runs in the second frame, Ball State responded with three of its own in the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Richter, an RBI single by Dylan Grego and a run-scoring triple from Nick Husovsky. The host Eagles had one run each in the sixth and seventh innings in advance of the final frame heroics for the Cardinals' offense.
Balius, Bevis and Richter had two hits each, while Balius scored two runs, Bevis had two doubles and Richter drove in four runs.
Right-hander John Chambers struck out three in 4.0 frames of one-run ball out of the bullpen for the Cardinals to help get to Harker in the later innings.
"Our boys' 'never say die' attitude showed up today - a great team effort!" Ball State head coach Rich Maloney said. "Alex Richter and Blake Bevis came up with the big hits. John Chambers and Garrett Harker led us on the mound. Sweeps are hard to come by and especially against a good team like EMU."
Eastern's Ethan Davis (2-1) surrendered two runs in the ninth to be hit with the loss.
Ball State is next set to play at Indiana at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Harker, Garrett (3-1)
L: DAVIS, Ethan (2-1)
Batting:
2B: Bevis, Blake 2
3B: Husovsky, Nick 1
HR: Richter, Alex 1
RBI: Richter, Alex 4 ; Grego, Dylan 1 ; Husovsky, Nick 1 ; Bevis, Blake 2
SF: Richter, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Balius, Gavin 2 ; Richter, Alex 1 ; Grego, Dylan 1 ; Scheumann, DJ 1 ; Arnold, Garrett 1 ; Griffin, Korbin 1 ; Jacobs, Clay 1 ; Griffiths, Brett 1
SB: Balius, Gavin 1 ; Richter, Alex 1 ; Grego, Dylan 1
CS: Grego, Dylan 1
Batting:
2B: HUGO, Logan 1 ; ZIRWAS, Devan 1 ; KLEIMAN, Brendan 1
HR: STECKO, Ty 1
RBI: ZIRWAS, Devan 1 ; JELLISON, Bruce 2 ; STECKO, Ty 2
SF: JELLISON, Bruce 1
Base Running:
RUNS: HUGO, Logan 1 ; KLEIMAN, Brendan 2 ; TRAVIS, Harrison 1 ; STECKO, Ty 1
SB: STECKO, Ty 1
