Ball State University
32-16, 18-6
Kent State
31-15, 18-6
Baseball Suffers 10-6 Setback in Series Finale vs Kent State
May 04, 2025 | Baseball
The Cardinals (32-16, 18-6 Mid-American Conference) are now in a tie for first place in the league standings with the Golden Flashes (31-15, 18-6 MAC) and Miami (OH) with the decision. Ball State's remaining weekend series are at Ohio starting on Friday and at home against Miami starting the following Thursday.
Dylan Grego, Nick Husovsky, Garrett Arnold, Blake Bevis and Houston King hit consecutive singles in the first frame to give the hosts a 3-0 edge before Ben Giovannetti had an RBI fielder's choice and came home on an RBI double to left center off the bat of Clay Jacobs to wrap up the five-run first.
Kent State plated one run in the second through fourth innings and went ahead 6-5 following a three-run fifth frame. Both teams scored once each in the sixth, as Gavin Balius hit a triple and was driven in by Alex Richter's single to get the Cardinals within 7-6, but the visitors added two tallies in the seventh and one in the eighth for the final scoring of the day.
Brendan Garza started for the Cardinals and struck out five in four innings of three-run ball. Lucas Letsinger (1-2) came on after Garza and allowed three runs to suffer the loss. Kent State's Eric Chalus (5-3) struck out three in 5.1 frames of one-run ball to be credited with the win.
Husovsky and Balius each had a pair of hits for the Ball State offense, and six different Cardinals crossed home plate.
"Our boys came ready to play and jumped out to a great start, then Kent's pitchers stymied us," Ball State head coach Rich Maloney said. "We gave up too many freebies to win this game. Now it is a three-way tie with six to go. I believe we were on a 13 or 14-straight series won streak dating back to week four last season. It was a good run, and now the challenge is to start another one."
Ball State is next set to play at Purdue at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in West Lafayette.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Chalus,Eric (5-3)
L: Letsinger, Lucas (1-2)
Batting:
2B: Casey,Jake 1 ; Jatczak,Hayden 1 ; Williams,Brody 1
HR: Casey,Jake 1
RBI: Casey,Jake 2 ; Solitaria,Sawyer 1 ; Williams,Brody 1 ; Kiracofe,Micah 1 ; Kibler,Dom 1 ; Tiesing,Landon 2
SH: Kiracofe,Micah 1
SF: Kiracofe,Micah 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Matthews, Luke 2 ; Casey,Jake 1 ; Jatczak,Hayden 2 ; Solitaria,Sawyer 2 ; Kiracofe,Micah 1 ; Schaller,Kolton 1 ; Kibler,Dom 1
SB: Matthews, Luke 2 ; Jatczak,Hayden 1 ; Schaller,Kolton 1 ; Kibler,Dom 1
CS: Casey,Jake 1
HBP: Casey,Jake 1
Batting:
2B: Jacobs, Clay 1
3B: Balius, Gavin 1
RBI: Richter, Alex 1 ; Bevis, Blake 1 ; King, Houston 1 ; Giovannetti, Ben 1 ; Jacobs, Clay 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Grego, Dylan 1 ; Husovsky, Nick 1 ; Arnold, Garrett 1 ; Bevis, Blake 1 ; Giovannetti, Ben 1 ; Balius, Gavin 1
