Marshall University Athletics
Herd Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Ball State
5/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Herd Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Ball State
5/15/2004
- Game One
- Game Two
MUNCIE, Ind. - The Thundering Herd took game one of Saturday?s doubleheader at Ball State by a 6-2 score before falling 4-3 in ten innings in game two. In game two, Chris Meadows (Huntington, WV) set the Mid-American Conference record for appearances with the 94th of his career.
With the split, Marshall moves to 23-27 and 6-13 in the MAC. Ball State is 26-22 and 14-9 in conference.
The first game was played as a continuation of Friday?s game, which was suspended in the bottom of the third inning due to the inclement weather. To recap what happened on Friday, Marshall started the game by scoring four runs in the top of the first inning. Francois Larmore (Magnolia, NJ) had an RBI single while Joe Glevenyak (West Palm Beach, FL) had a base clearing double in the inning. Kyle Dygert had a two-run home run for the Cardinals to make it a 4-2 game. Chris Monaco (Tucson, AZ) also had two stolen bases.
On Saturday, Chris Cummings (Huntington, WV) was back on the mound and continued his dominance of the Cardinal hitters. He went a total of 6 1/3 innings, allowing only the two runs from Friday while striking out nine batters. Steve Ziroli (LaGrange, IL) came into the game in the seventh and finished things up for MU to earn his second save of the season. It was not easy for Ziroli, as he had to get out of two bases loaded jams, but he escaped without any more runs being scored.
Marshall?s offense added on two more runs in the game to earn a 6-2 win. Rich Russell (Toronto, Ont.) and Roddy Stieger (Westchester, OH) each had RBI singles. Cummings earned the win, improving to 4-3 on the season. Monaco, Russell and Larmore each had two hits in the game. Marshall out hit BSU, 11-4 in the game.
In game two, Ball State jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Herd starting pitcher Chris Koutsavlis (Pittsburgh, PA). Brad Miller had an RBI single in the inning. The Herd rallied back to take a 2-1 lead in the top of the third. Mike Koitsopoulos (Markham, Ont.) and Monaco led off the inning with singles. A sacrifice bunt by Aaron Jamieson (Lindsay, Ont.) moved the runners to third for Larmore, who hit a two-RBI double to left field to give MU the lead. The hit gave Larmore a nine game hit streak, currently the best on the team.
The game went scoreless until the top of the ninth inning. In between, both pitchers did admirable jobs. Koutsavlis went eight innings, allowing one run on three hits. He retired 14 BSU batters in a row from the first through sixth innings. The Ball State pitchers also kept the MU hitters in check , allowing two runs on seven hits prior to the ninth. Going into the ninth, Marshall held a 2-1 lead, but Roddy Stieger recorded his third home run of the season to give the Herd insurance.
Chris Meadows (Huntington, WV) entered the game in the ninth for his 94th career appearance. That broke the Mid-American Conference record of 93 set by Matt Speicher of Ball State. Things did not go Meadows way in the game, as the first three runners reached base and a run scored on a throwing error by Meadows. With one out and runners on second and third, Jason Buckoltz grounded out to short bring in the tying run and take the game to extra innings.
In the top of the tenth, the Herd threatened, loading up the bases with two outs, but a strike out by Glevenyak ended the inning. That took the game to the bottom of the tenth. Cardinal Mike Sullivan reached on an error and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. That brought up Marc Franz, who hit a ball fair down the first base line to score the winning run and give Ball State a 4-3 win.
Meadows took the loss and dropped to 1-4 on the season. MU tallied eight hits to only six by Ball State. Adam Frederick (Franklin, PA) had two hits in the game. Stieger also notched two hits, including his third home run of the season.
The two teams will face off in the third and final game of the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Brian Chrisman (Pittsburgh, PA) is slated to start the game for Marshall.
