Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
Ball State
Baseball Takes Out Ball State, 6-3
4/21/2007 9:16:19 PM | Baseball
Eagles reach .500 mark with seventh consecutive conference victory, sereis finale will be televised on Comcasst Local at 1 p.m.
Eastern (15-15, 11-1 MAC) got the upper hand of a pitchers duel thanks to senior ace pitcher George Biddle (4-3) who notched his fourth consecutive conference victory allowing two runs (one earned) on four scattered hits with three strikeouts in 7.1 innings of work. Ball State (15-23, 4-10 MAC) sophomore pitcher Brenden Stines also had a good outing going 7.2 innings allowing four runs (one earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts in the losing effort. Matt Shoemaker recorded his sixth save of the season.
Senior Trumaine Riley had a breakout game hitting 3-for-4 with three RBI and one run scored. Junior Jeff Hehr went 2-for-5 with a run scored while sophomore Aaron Powell and junior Jeff Davis both hit 1-for-4 with a combined two runs scored and a RBI. Senor Derek Lehrman also went 1-for-5 with two RBI.
Ball State was led by senior Eric Earnhart who hit 2-for-3 with a run scored and junior Matt Stoeklen who went 1-for-4 with two RBI on a home run and a run scored.
After two scoreless innings by both teams, Davis reached on a fielding error in the top of the third inning. Hehr singled up the middle and advanced to second on the throw. Lehrman then followed with a two RBI single to give EMU an early 2-0 lead.
EMU got some help from BSU in the sixth inning. With two outs, Powell reached on a bunt and advanced to second on a throwing error. Kyle Rhoad struck out swinging, which would have ended the inning, but reached first on a wild pitch that also enabled Powell to move to third base. Riley made the Cardinals pay for its mistakes with a RBI single to plate Powell for a 3-0 lead.
Ball State got on the board in the seventh inning as Ryan Chenoweth reached on a single and was later moved to third on a throwing error. Alex Schmid grounded out to the shortstop to score Chenoweth and pull BSU within two, 3-1.
EMU increased its lead to 6-1 as Riley notched a two out single to left field to score Jim Gulliver and Patrick Dean. Davis followed with his fifth triple of the season to plate Riley. Ball State added two runs in the bottom of the frame on a Stokeklen home run to cut the lead in half at 6-3.
Shoemaker came in during the bottom of the eighth to record the last Cardinal out and retired all three BSU batters in order in the ninth to secure the victory.
The series finale between EMU and Ball State is Sunday, April 22 at 1 p.m.
