Originally scheduled for a matchup at Victory Field April 23, the Ball State Cardinals (25-15-1) and Indiana Hoosiers (22-18-1) were forced to wait an extra day for their duel following a rain cancellation.
The matchup, moved to First Merchants Ballpark, in Muncie, did not disappoint. The game, which was forced into extra innings following a late-game collapse by the Cardinals, ended in Ball State tying the Hoosiers 7-7. The game was called due to darkness to give the Cardinals their first tie game of the season.
The tie breaks the Cardinals’ 11-game losing streak to the Hoosiers, which previously dated all the way back to 2013.
Head coach Rich Maloney notes that this is something he has almost never seen throughout his coaching career.
“It’s only the second time in my coaching career,” Maloney said. “That’s 33 years, so it’s very unusual to have a tie.”
At the start of the game, everything was under control for the Cardinals. Starting on the mound, junior Jacob Hartlaub received the majority of the pitch count. Hartlaub, who pitched for the first four innings, only allowed two hits and one run during his time on the mound.
While Hartlaub handled the Hoosier offense, Ball State’s bats quickly began to separate the two squads. Kickstarting the offense, senior Michael Hallquist earned himself a double before he was rewarded by junior Hunter Dobbins, who sent him home off a single to center field.
Ball State quickly added a flurry of runs throughout the following six innings, while the Cardinals’ pitchers continued to keep Indiana’s batters in check. Junior Nick Husovsky and sophomore Blake Bevis both added multiple RBIs with three hits apiece.
Then, suddenly, in the top of the 8th inning, everything changed. Senior Sam Klein was sent in as a relief pitcher, and the Hoosiers began their impossible two-inning comeback. Throwing 50 pitches in just over one inning, Klein gave up four hits and five runs.
Struggling to find an answer for Indiana, Maloney tested out a plethora of pitchers. In only a single inning, Ball State subbed in three separate pitchers, none of whom were able to slow down the Hoosiers before they accrued the game’s tying run late in the ninth frame.
Having gone through a total of seven pitchers in the game, Maloney decided to experiment with his first baseman, Bevis, on the mound.
Bevis, who had only pitched for 1.3 innings this season, managed to strike out Indiana’s final batter in the ninth and pitch two more scoreless innings as the game headed beyond regulation.
Closing out the game on the mound for the Cardinals, sophomore Brady Owens finished the game with another scoreless inning in the 12th frame.
“At the end of the game, Bevis did fantastic, and so did Owen,” Maloney said. “If I had known they were going to do that good, I would’ve brought them in earlier.
“We had opportunities, but we didn’t finish the game. It feels like a victory to them [Indiana] in their minds, and to us, it feels like a loss.”
Heading out on a six-game road trip, Ball State heads to Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 26 to take on No. 24-ranked NC State in a three-game series.
Contact Nick Shelton with comments via email at nicholas.shelton@bsu.edu or on X @NickS9954
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