Baseball Falls to Minnesota in Florida Finale; Finishes Opening Weekend 3-1

Sunday, February 15

DeLand, Fla.

9:30 AM

Ball State University

3-1

Minnesota

3-0

Ball St.

Minnesota

Photo by: Caden Vincent

Baseball Falls to Minnesota in Florida Finale; Finishes Opening Weekend 3-1

February 15, 2026 | Baseball

Box Score

DeLAND, Fla. – The Ball State baseball team couldn't get the offense going in an 8-0 loss to Minnesota on Sunday morning in its final game of the weekend at Melching Field.

Jack Bakus, Gavin Balius, Tommy Landsnes and Maalik Perkins hit one single each for the Cardinals on the day. Ball State finished the opening weekend of the season 3-1 after wins over St. John's on Friday and Saturday afternoon and host Stetson on Saturday night.

Minnesota plated single tallies in the first and third innings before scoring three times in the fourth and twice in the fifth frame to build a 7-0 lead. The Golden Gophers added an insurance run in the eighth to help the team improve to 3-0 on the season.

Zach Leduc (0-1) started on the mound for the Cardinals and allowed one run in 1.1 innings to suffer the loss. Nate Bartlett, Zach Kwasny and Joe Lafkas had scoreless outings out of the bullpen later in the game for Ball State.

Marcus Kruzan (1-0) struck out five in 5.0 shutout innings to get the win, while Adam Urban followed with five strikeouts in 3.0 shutout frames to lead the Minnesota pitching staff. The Golden Gophers were led offensively by designated hitter Charlie Sutherland who hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning to start the scoring and a two-run triple in the fourth to put them ahead 4-0.

"We had a good weekend," Ball State head coach Rich Maloney said. "We beat some quality teams, got a lot of guys playing time, saw a lot of positives and some things we need to work on."

Ball State will next play in the Swig & Swine College Classic in Charleston, S.C., starting on Friday against Merrimack.