Baseball Falls to Ball State, 6-4

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YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University baseball team dropped its second consecutive Mid-American Conference contest to rival Ball State University, 6-4, Saturday, May 4, at Oestrike Stadium. The Cardinals took the early lead with a four spot in the second inning and would never relinquished the lead. The Eagles' bats showed signs of promise late, scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but the late rally was not enough to overcome the deficit.

With the setback, EMU (21-23, 9-11 MAC) falls out of second place in the MAC's West Division. Meanwhile, the Cardinals helped their case for a MAC Tournament berth as they improve to 10-10 in the league and 21-20 overall.

Junior Paul Schaak (Winkler, Manitoba-Vauxhall-Southern Idaho C.C.) took the loss (3-4), throwing seven innings while allowing six runs via seven hits. Schaak struck out four and only walked a single batter. Brian Valente (Macomb, Mich.-Eisenhower-Saginaw Valley State) put in two innings of flawless work for the Green and White, not allowing a single hit.

BSU's Chris Marangon improved to 3-3 on the year after pitching six innings, allowing seven hits and striking out one. T.J. Weir came in late to tally his third save of the year. He pitched the eighth and ninth innings, allowing no hits and striking out four.

Freshman Austin Wilson (Valrico, Fla.-Bloomingdale Sr.) had another good day at the plate, collecting a pair of his while scoring a run. Junior Lee Longo (Mayfield, Ohio-Mayfield) belted his fifth home run of the year in the bottom of the fourth. Longo, Sam Ott (Canton, Mich.-Salem), Daniel Russell (Grandville, Mich.-Grandville) and Marquise Gill (Paw Paw, Mich.-Paw Paw) each tallied a RBI on the day for the Eagles.

The Cardinals offense was led Wes Winkle, who was 1-for-5 on the day with a team-high three runs-batted-in, and Elbert Devarie, who was 1-for-3 with two RBI. Ryan Spaulding managed a 1-for-3 performance from the plate with one run scored and one RBI.

The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead with a four run second inning. With runners on first and second, Spaulding singled through the left side to score Blake Beemer to give BSU a 1-0 lead. Sam Tidaback singled to load the bases and Devarie promptly doubled to right to score Spaulding and Billy Wellman. Wes Winkle's ground out scored Tidaback to make it 4-0.

Longo struck back for Eastern in the fourth, sending the first pitch of the inning deep over left field fence to make it a 4-1 contest.

Two doubles in the bottom of the fifth inning got the Eagles back in the game. First Wilson doubled a hard shot down the left line that just barley stayed fair. Next up Russell knocked a 0-2 Marangon offering into the left center gap to bring Wilson home and further cut into the Cards' lead.

Ball State scored two runs in the top half of the seventh to lead 6-2. The Cardinals firepower was a Winkle home run to left field that also scored Tidaback. It marked Winkle's first blast of the season and gave Ball State the four run advantage.

Eastern Michigan rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but BSU was able to maintain its lead in the final two frames to record the 6-4 victory. EMU has its chances but stranded nine runners on base during the contest.

The two teams wrap up the three-game series with a Sunday, May 5 with a 1 p.m. game at Oestrike Stadium.

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Team Stats

Austin Wilson

Daniel Russell

John Rubino

Lee Longo

Eastern Michigan Athletics