MUNCIE, Ind. - Western Michigan and Ball State showed why they were the two best teams in the Mid-American Conference West Division heading into the final weekend of the season, splitting Friday's doubleheader. The Broncos took game one by a score of 11-10, while the Cardinals answered back with a 12-4 victory in game two.
The first game of the day was an offensive onslaught as the two teams combined for 24 hits, 21 runs and six home runs. Western Michigan tied a program record with four home runs, matching the mark originally set at Ohio on May 4, 2003 and matched a season ago against the Cardinals on May 2, 2010.
Each team had batters go yard in back-to-back at bats with BSU doing it in its five-run second inning and the Broncos doing so in their five-run fourth inning.
Kayla Houston put WMU on the board with her second home run of the season in the top of the second, cutting Ball State's two-run lead in half. The Cardinals plated five runs on four hits in the home half of the inning to take a 7-1 lead, partially on the strength of a three-run home run by Jennifer Gilbert and a solo shot by Amanda Carpenter.
The Broncos appeared to take control of the game, scoring 10 runs over the next three innings to take an 11-7 lead. Gracie Barstad started things off by reaching on an RBI-fielder's choice to score Michelle Bendewald after she led off with a walk. Courtney Rousseau registered an infield hit to score Meredith Whitney who also had earned a walk earlier in the inning. Whitney worked 5.1 innings in the circle to pick up her 10th MAC win and 11th over all in 2011.
The fourth inning was the break out frame for the Broncos. Allie Carlson plated Jennifer Tschetter with a single to center field after Tschetter led off by reaching on an error. Bendewald hit a home run to left field, her second of the year to bring WMU to within three runs. Back-to-back solo home runs from Lexi Jager and Tara Buchanan put the Broncos just one run back headed into the fifth.
Jager's blast, coupled with her first-inning home run in the first inning of game two, gives her 25 for her career, which is good enough for fifth on the MAC career list. Buchanan's shot was her eighth of the season, putting her alone in second on WMU's single-season list.
Whitney and Jager registered back-to-back doubles in the fifth with Whitney's scoring Carlson from second and Jager's scoring Whitney. Jager crosses home plate on one of Barstad's three hits of the game. A trio of Broncos recorded three hits in the series opener with Jager and Barstad going 3-for-5 and Carlson going 3-for-4 at the plate.
Ball State scored twice more in the bottom of the fifth and once again in the sixth to cut WMU's lead to one run. Houston came into the circle in relief of Whitney to record the final two outs of the sixth. In the home half of the seventh Ball State led off with a single to left center field followed by a walk. Both base runners advanced on a ground out but Houston struck out the final two Cardinal batters to preserve the win and her first career save.
The second game did not go as well as game one for the visiting Broncos, falling, 12-4, in six innings to Ball State. The sparks flew early for WMU as Whitney hit her second lead-off home run of the season, giving her 12 for her career and tying her with Erin Malloch (2000-03) for second on WMU's career list. Jager followed with her second shot of the day. The senior finished the doubleheader 5-for-8 at the plate with three RBIs, three runs scored and two home runs.
Down 9-2, the Broncos attempted to mount a comeback beginning with an RBI-double in the top of the fifth off the bat of Barstad, scoring pinch runner Bri Russell. She would later score on Rousseau sacrifice fly. WMU loaded the bases in the sixth when Myranda McDonald led off with a pinch hit and Bendewald and Jager drew walks, setting the table for Buchanan. A home run would have brought Western Michigan within a run but the junior was sat down on strikes. Ball State closed the door in the bottom of the inning with three runs, including Gilbert's second home run of the day.
Ball State quickly erased WMU's two-run lead with a pair of runs in the home half of the first, added three more in the third and four runs on four hits, including a Kate Wilczynski home run.
Western Michigan heads to Oxford, Ohio for a season-ending two-game series with Miami, needing a split and help from Northern Illinois at Ball State to secure its first regular season MAC title since 2006.
