The Ball State University baseball team will start its 2007 Mid-American Conference season by celebrating its 2006 MAC Tournament championship.
Before Sunday's final game of a three-game home series against University of Akron, Ball State athletics will hold the ring ceremony celebrating the championship that took the Cardinals to the NCAA Regionals last season.
Starting pitcher Tyler Pritchard said the ring ceremony will be special.
"It's the most amazing thing I have done in my lifetime," Pritchard said. "We were the first Ball State team to ever do it. It will be pretty cool to finally get that ring."
The 8-11 Cardinals have turned their season around after a 1-7 start. Coach Greg Beals calls the MAC portion of the schedule the team's second season, and he said the Friday game against Akron marks the first game.
The Zips are 9-4 this season, and Beals said their pitching is the biggest reason.
"The one thing they do really well is that they can really pitch," Beals said. "We expect some good pitching performances from both sides."
The Cardinals will stick with their normal weekend pitching rotation, Beals said. Brenden Stines will start the first game Friday, followed by Pritchard Saturday, and closing out the weekend with Ryan DeGeeter Sunday.
Pritchard said he relies on his fastball to establish his presence when he is on the mound.
"It all starts and ends with my fastball," Pritchard said. "If I establish my fastball the first time through [the lineup], then I can start throwing my offspeed [pitches]. Being a big fastball pitcher, we've really been working on my change-up."
Pritchard said the main strength of this year's pitching staff is the speed they can throw their pitches.
"Velocity and pure stuff: this might be the most talent we've had," Pritchard said. "Top to bottom, we got a lot of talented guys."
The Cardinals have improved pitching-wise since the beginning of the season. During the team's 1-7 start, they were allowing 9.58 runs per nine innings. Since then the team is 7-4, while allowing 5.29 runs per nine innings.
Batting-wise, Beals said the team just needs to continue to improve the quality of its at-bats.
"We got some experience; our hitters just got to be ready," Beals said.
Beals believes once a Cardinal gets on base, the team can wreak havoc.
"The thing I want to push the envelope on is steal some bases," Beals said. "I feel our team speed is really good, and I want to utilize that."
The Cardinal offense has been scoring more often in its last seven games compared to its first 12. The Cardinals scored 3.33 runs per game through the first 12 games, but have nearly doubled that average to 6.14 during the last seven games.
"We're playing with more confidence," Beals said.
While hitting has come around, fielding is still lagging behind. The Cardinals have struggled with errors from the start of the season, where they had 12 errors in their first four games, to their most recent game where they committed four errors at Louisville.
"It's part of baseball," Pritchard said. "It's not the first time an error is going to happen, and it's not the last time."
Pritchard said the errors don't bother him when he's on the mound.
"I get more frustrated with myself than anything else," Pritchard said.
Ring CeremonyPrior to the 1 p.m. game against Akron, the Ball State's baseball team will celebrate its 2006 MAC Baseball Tournament Championship.
TIME12:30 p.m. Sunday
VENUEBall Diamond
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