Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
Ball State
Eagles Drop, 18-11, Decision to Cardinals
5/1/2010 4:03:56 PM | Baseball
Home runs by Marshall and Klein are not enough to overcome early deficit to Ball State
Box Score
MUNCIE, Ind. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University baseball team fell for the second straight game to Mid-American Conference foe, Ball State University, in what proved to be another offensively dominated contest as the Eagles lost, 18-11, at Ball Diamond Saturday, May 1, in game two of a three-game set.
EMU falls to 21-23 overall and 10-7 in Mid-American Conference play with the loss, while BSU improves to 22-21 (13-4 MAC) with the win.
Six Eagles recorded multi-hit games led by Andrew Marshall (Mason, Mich.-Mason) and Zack Leonard (Canton, Ohio-McKinley). Each recorded two hits and drove in three runs with Marshall adding his team-leading seventh home run of the season.
After trailing, 7-0, after two innings and 12-4 into the fifth, Marshall's three-run, sixth-inning shot brought the Eagles to within a run at 12-11. However, Kory Benbow and his three-home run day led a Cardinal offensive attack that proved too much to overcome.
With two outs in the bottom of the first, Ball State's Zach Dygert made it two straight games with a home run as he sent a two-run shot, his ninth of the season, over the fence in right field to give his team an early, 2-0, lead. In the second, Benbow and Kolbrin Vitek went deep in what amounted to a five-run inning, giving the Cardinals a commanding, 7-0, advantage.
And Ball State wasn't done. It would go on to score in each of the first four frames with Benbow adding another long ball in the third and TJ Baumet tacking on a lead off bomb to start a four-run fourth and make it 12-4.
Eastern Michigan got its first run on a Leonard two-out RBI single to score Brent Ohrman (Adrian, Mich.-Adrian) in the third inning. Just when it seemed as if the Eagles were out of it, they started a string of four consecutive innings with a run scored.
The Green and White added three runs in the third, two in the fifth and five in the sixth to climb back to within a run at 12-11, and nearly got EMU starting pitcher Collin Taylor (Cincinnati, Ohio-Lakota West), who lasted just three and two-thirds innings after allowing 11 runs on 10 hits, off the hook. Kyle Klein (Grand Rapids, Mich.-West Catholic) added a two-run shot in the fourth, his first of the year, before Daniel Russell (Grandville, Mich.-Grandville) and Aaron Crooks (Toledo, Ohio-Ottawa Hills) each drove in runs in the fifth. That would be it for Cardinal starter Cal Bowling as he threw five innings, allowing six runs (4 earned) on 10 hits, but still left with the lead.
In the sixth, Leonard tripled to right-center to plate two runs before Marshall put a charge into a three-run homer to take the team lead with his seventh long ball of the season.
Clinging to a one-run, 12-11, edge, the Cardinals responded in their half of the sixth with four runs powered by five hits including Benbow's third home run of the afternoon and ninth of the season. BSU would add two more runs in the eighth to provide the final tally.
The Eagles will try to salvage a win in the series tomorrow, May 2, when they face the Cardinals in the third and final game of the weekend. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. at Ball Diamond.
