Five games out of the lead in the Mid-American Conference West Division, the Ball State University baseball team has an uphill climb to get into the MAC Tournament.
Only the top two seeds from each division and the two teams with the next best records regardless of division make the conference tournament.
The climb begins today at 3 p.m. as the Cardinals (13-18, 3-6 MAC) begin a three-game series against Kent State University (12-19, 4-5 MAC) at Ball Diamond.
"It's very important that we have good weekends these next two weekends, while we are at home," coach Greg Beals said. "We need to get back in this race, set the tempo for us the rest of the season."
The Cardinals' next six MAC games are at home. Ball State plays Eastern Michigan University next weekend. So far this season the Cardinals are 6-3 at home.
"When you're playing at home, it just ups the ante a little bit," Beals said.
The Cardinals' normal starter on Friday, Brenden Stines, will not take the mound until Sunday. Ryan DeGeeter, normally Sunday's starter, will take the mound in the first game.
The other weekend starter will be Tyler Pritchard, who will remain in his Saturday starting role.
"Rather then switching everybody up, we thought we would just let Pritch stay in his slot," Beals said. "We thought it would be better to move DeGeeter up and Stines back."
Stines started the Cardinals last game, a 2-1 victory against the Indiana Institute of Technology on Tuesday. Stines started the mid-week game because his start against Ohio University the weekend before was only two innings because of snow, Beals said.
"I'll go into [Sunday] as if it is Friday," Stines said. "I'll throw the same way, I practiced the same way, I'll just be pitching on a different day."
The Cardinal offense has been getting runners on base in recent games, but has not been able to bring the runners home.
During the last week, the Cardinals have averaged 14 base runners and five runs a game.
However, the Cardinals are one of the MAC's top stealing teams, ranking third with 40 stolen bases and have attempted the third most with 56.
"Good base stealers have the green light," Beals said. "Good base stealers need to have a green light so they can prepare themselves to make a steal. Some guys don't have the green light and we have to signal-in to try and steal."
Having a player on base threatening to steal affects the pitcher, Beals said.
"It diverts [the pitcher's] attention," Beals said. "Rather then having his attention solely on the hitter and just making good pitches, he has to concentrate a little on the runner."
Beals said threatening to steal hopefully gives the batter better pitches to hit. He said many times he signals-in a steal attempt, it is partially to avoid a double play.
Stines, however, said he doesn't give much thought to a base runner while pitching.
"Really only affects me if it's a tight game and the run really matters," Stines said. "If it's early in the game I try to just get the batter."
While Ball State is one of the best stealing teams, they are the worst in stopping steals. The Cardinals have allowed 54 steals, the most in the MAC. The 54 steals have come on 66 attempts.
Beals said the blame is both on the pitchers and catcher Zach Dygert.
"Zach needs to be just a little bit quicker on his release," Beals said. "Pitchers need to do a better job of holding base runners on-base and also need to be faster to home plate."
The Cardinals need to ignore the big picture, Beals said.
"We can't go into the series thinking we need to win two of three," Beals said. "They have to take care of the play at hand. We got to win that at-bat and make the plays happening right then."
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