The Eastern Michigan University baseball team will head to Muncie, Ind., to take on Mid-American Conference opponent Ball State this weekend. Friday’s first pitch will be at 3 p.m. while the Saturday and Sunday games will take place at 1 p.m.
Eastern Michigan (16-19, 8-4 MAC) comes into the weekend with sole possession of the MAC West Division, 1.5 games ahead of Western Michigan. Eastern Michigan did so after winning five out of the last six games. EMU beat MAC rival Central Michigan this past weekend, including an 8-7 win Sunday from Brent Ohrman’s two-run walk-off home run.
Senior Ben Magsig leads the team in batting average (.361) as well as on-base percentage (.533). Ohrman is catching up to him in the batting average category while leading the team in RBI (27). Coach Jay Alexander was very impressed with Ohrman’s performance this past weekend.
“He’s been doing very well,” Alexander said. “He’s been taking advantage of some bad pitches. He’s been hitting just about every pitch.”
The pitching continues to improve as the season has progressed. Eastern Michigan took another Pitcher of the Week award with junior Joe Battistelli taking the honors. Battistelli improved his record to 2-4 after winning Sunday versus Central Michigan after pitching two no-hit innings with three strikeouts. He also picked up his third save in EMU’s 4-0 victory Friday against CMU.
Ball State (8-25, 4-8 MAC) heads into this matchup last in the MAC West. BSU started the season with a 4-3 win against Dayton in Spartanburg, S.C. Ball State lost to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Missouri and 21st-ranked Louisville in its non-conference schedule. BSU started the conference schedule with a series loss to Akron. The struggles in the MAC include Kent State sweeping the Cardinals, where BSU gave up 29 runs while driving in only eight. The Cardinals recently split a doubleheader with Ohio Sunday.
Ball State’s struggles this season have been hitting and scoring runs, where it is ranked at the bottom in the MAC in both categories. The Cardinals don’t have anyone with a batting average above .300. Senior Mitch Widau is the leader in batting average (.297).
Sophomore T.J. Weir has just about done it all for Ball State this season. Weir has pitched, started as a designated hitter and played 24 games at shortstop. Despite hitting at a .256 average, Weir leads the team in RBI (16) with the Cardinals having him hit in the third or fourth spot in the lineup.
The pitching staff has had its shortfalls all season, and is near the bottom of runs given up (254). The staff has only two pitchers with an earned run average below five. Senior right-hander Cal Bowling is the ace of the starters with a 3-2 record and a 4.38 ERA. Bowling is the only pitcher on the Cardinals team to have tossed a complete game and that came in Ball State’s 5-2 win against Missouri on March 2.
EMU played Michigan in Ann Arbor Wednesday while Ball State played Northwestern Ohio on Tuesday. Eastern Michigan returns home to play Northern Illinois April 27-29. Friday’s first pitch is at 6 p.m. while Saturday afternoon’s is scheduled for 3. The finale on Sunday will start at 1 p.m.
