After four runs in the eighth inning alone, the Eastern Michigan University baseball team continued its eight-game win streak as it took a 5-4 victory over the Ball State Cardinals on Saturday. The game was the second of a three-game series and the Eagles now lead the series 2-0.
With the win, the Eagles advance to 27-15 on their season (11-6 MAC), while the Cardinals fall to 12-27 (8-8 MAC). EMU is having its best start since the 1982 season as they have won eight consecutive games and nine of their last 11 games.
BSU’s Morgan Coombs allowed four runs on eight hits over seven strong innings, but settled for the no-decision while EMU’s Steve Weber earned the win after striking out seven over 6.2 innings.
Zack Leonard turned in another multiple-hit day, going 2-for-4 with a run scored and a RBI to stretch his hit streak to nine games and streak of reaching base to 18 straight.
BSU’s Cody Elliott led all hitters with a 3-for-4 effort with a run scored and a RBI.
Ball State got its first run in the first inning on an RBI groundout by Kevin Franchetti. In the second inning, the Cardinals pushed across two more runs, advancing their lead to 3-0 and then loaded the bases with just one out gone in the frame.
The Eagles put together a scoring frame in the third as Ben Magsig drove in the team’s first
run with a sacrifice fly to right field. As a result, EMU still had runners on the corners and Leonard at the plate.
BSU starter Coombs responded, striking Leonard out with a tantalizing slider that got him chasing it out of the zone.
The Cardinals added a run in the sixth on a Franchetti RBI double that fell just in front of Ken Battiston as he gave chase toward the right field line. It let Sean Godfrey score and gave BSU a commanding 4-1 lead.
With Ball State ahead 4-2, the next batter Tucker Rubino belted one to deep center, bringing home Magsig on the sacrifice fly and bringing the Eagles within one run of BSU.
Matt Hitt tied the score with a base hit to right field scoring Magsig to make it 4-4. Lee Longo then reached on one-of-four Cardinal errors on the day to put two on with one out, forcing head coach Alex Marconi to bring in Devin Wilburn to relieve Michael Sandman.
The next EMU batter, Sam Ott, took the 1-1 pitch from Wilburn and placed a perfect suicide squeeze attempt past the pitcher to score the pinch-runner, Wally Gerbus, from third base to give EMU a 5-4 lead. The Eagles would not look back from that point on as they went on to take the 5-4 victory.
