Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
10-8, 5-1
Eastern Michigan
4-16, 0-6
Pinch Hit Grand Slam Leads Cardinals to Series Sweep over Eastern Michigan
March 15, 2026 | Baseball
Trailing 6-5 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Cardinals (10-8, 5-1 Mid-American Conference) loaded the bases on a Ryan Muizelaar double plus a hit by pitch and walk to set up Scheumann, who came off the bench and blasted a 2-0 pitch a projected 444 feet over the left center field fence to put the hosts ahead 9-6. Ball State tacked on three insurance runs on an RBI single by Gavin Balius, who later scored on a wild pitch, and an RBI knock from Muizelaar to extend the edge to 12-6.
Eastern Michigan (4-16, 0-6 MAC) started the scoring with two runs in the first frame, but the Cardinals responded with single tallies in the bottom half of the first (Muizelaar RBI single) and second (Taber Stokes solo home run) to knot the score. Brett Griffiths hit a two-run homer to left in the third to give Ball State a 4-2 lead.
The Eagles got three runs in the fourth and one in the sixth to gain a 6-5 advantage before Ball State's big seventh inning.
Muizelaar went 4-for-4 at the dish with three RBI to cap a week where he collected 10 hits and 14 runs batted in. Balius and Griffiths both collected two hits for the Cardinals, and Balius stole a base.
Zach Kwansy (2-0) went 4.2 innings of four-run ball in relief to earn the win, and Zander Bretza worked a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts to get the save.
Fischer Hendershot (0-1) surrendered four runs in 3.1 frames to suffer the loss for the Eagles.
Ball State's next scheduled game is Tuesday afternoon at Valparaiso.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kwasny, Zach (2-0)
L: Hendershot, Fischer (0-1)
S: Bretza, Zander (1)
Batting:
2B: Williams, TJ 1 ; Zirwas, Devan 1 ; Borchardt, Nathan 2 ; Stecko, Ty 1
HR: Zirwas, Devan 1 ; Weaver, Nick 2
RBI: Zirwas, Devan 4 ; Stecko, Ty 2 ; Weaver, Nick 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Zirwas, Devan 1 ; Hale, John 1 ; Borchardt, Nathan 3 ; Schechterman, Ben 1 ; Stecko, Ty 1 ; Weaver, Nick 2
HBP: Heidelberg, Demir 1
PO: Stecko, Ty 1
Batting:
2B: Muizelaar, Ryan 1
HR: Griffiths, Brett 1 ; Stokes, Taber 1 ; Scheumann, DJ 1
RBI: Griffiths, Brett 2 ; Balius, Gavin 1 ; Stokes, Taber 1 ; Muizelaar, Ryan 3 ; Scheumann, DJ 4
SF: Muizelaar, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Griffiths, Brett 2 ; Balius, Gavin 3 ; Stokes, Taber 1 ; Muizelaar, Ryan 2 ; Huebner, Brayden 1 ; Scheumann, DJ 1 ; Colligan, John 1 ; Thomas, Kenskey 1
SB: Balius, Gavin 1
CS: Sorgius, Kendric 1
HBP: Griffiths, Brett 1 ; Kalk, Max 1 ; Sorgius, Kendric 1
