AVON, Ohio- A two-run double in the bottom of the seventh pushed No. 1 seed Ball State past No. 8 Western Michigan, 5-3, Wednesday in the third game of the day at the Mid-American Conference baseball tournament.
The Broncos return to All Pro Freight Stadium tomorrow morning to face No. 5 seed Bowling Green at 9:30 a.m. The Falcons fell to No. 4 Kent State earlier in the day, 6-2.
The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Jarrett Rindfleisch's two-run home run to right field off of WMU left-hander
Steve Laudicina.
Laudicina worked out of a bases loaded situation in the second inning and cruised through the bottom of the third and fourth, retiring six of the next seven batters he faced, allowing only a walk.
Western Michigan had the bags full with one out in the fourth after a walk by
Grant Miller and singles by
Brett Sunde and
Jared Kujawa. BSU right-hander T.J. Weir got out of the jam however with a pair of strikeouts.
The Bronco offense got to Weir in the top of the fifth, scoring three runs to take the lead, 3-2.
Vinnie Booker and
Kurt Hoekstra slapped one-out hits and Booker came across on a wild pitch for WMU's first run. Miller and
Andrew Sohn drew back-to-back walks to load the bases again for the Broncos. Sunde reached on an RBI fielder's choice, as Sohn was thrown out at second. Miller moved to third and Ball State's shortstop mishandled the ball allowing Miller to dart home on the error for Western Michigan's third run.
Alex Call hit a leadoff double for the Cardinals in the bottom of the fifth and went on to score on a one-out single by Sean Godfrey to tie the score for Ball State, 3-3.
The Cardinals went down in order in the sixth and Laudicina opened the bottom of the seventh with his second strikeout of the game. Ball State then put two runners on with a hit by pitch and a walk. Godfrey stepped to the plate and hit a ball deep to left center for a double, scoring both runners to put Ball State ahead for good, 5-3. That ended the day for Laudicina who gave way to RHP
Gabe Berman. Berman struck out the next two batters, looking.
Western Michigan came out with pop in its bats in the eighth, but a controversial double-play call ultimately thwarted the rally. Sunde led off with a single down the right line and Kujawa followed with hit a hard grounder to short. The ball was flipped over to second for the force and depite Kujawa's effort to leg out the play was also called out at first. The next two Broncos, pinch hitter
Brandon Cable and
Steve Buglione, singled to give the Broncos a chance, but a popout ended WMU's at bat. Western Michigan was retired in order in the ninth.
Laudicina dropped to 5-6 with the loss, going 6.1 innings, striking out two, walking three and allowing 10 hits. Berman faced six batters and struck out four, holding BSU without a hit in his appearance.
Western Michigan totaled nine hits in the game, Hoekstra, Sunde and Kujawa each collecting two apiece. Both teams committed an error in the field.
Reliever Zach Plesac (12-2) earned the win for Ball State, throwing four scoreless innings, striking out four and scattering four hits.
