The Mid-American Conference campaign began on the road for the Eastern Michigan University Baseball program as they traveled to Muncie, Ind., finishing the weekend taking two out of three from the Ball State Cardinals to open up the MAC schedule.
The Eagles won an offensive-exploding game for both teams on Friday, 10-9, followed by a pitcher-dominated 6-2 win on Saturday, and losing on Sunday in yet another offensive shootout by a score of 11-8.
The weekend’s results now find Eastern Michigan at 5-10 (2-1 MAC) on the season. The Eagles scored a total of 24 runs on offense over the three games.
The Eagles have now scored more than 10 runs in a game this season three times already. These comprise three out of five of the Eagles’ wins this season.
Game One:
The Eagles led from the jump in the opening game of the weekend series and did not look back. It started with Cooper Vance (New Waterville, Ohio) and Cory Taylor (Shelbyville, Ind.) getting RBI singles.
The Green and White also hit a total of three home runs in the first game of the series, including Logan Hugo (Essexville, Mich.), Lucas Johnson (Hamilton, Ontario), and Taylor who each had one.
The team led by as many as seven runs in the first game, being up 8-1 after the top half of the fifth inning.
Pitching struggled for Eastern Michigan, although Drew Jones (Cleveland, Ohio) tallied his first save of the season by pitching a scoreless ninth-inning.
Game Two:
Pitching was the story of game two for the Eagles. Drew Beckner (Westerville, Ohio) had a solid outing for Eastern Michigan. Pitching six innings of just two-run ball, and then Niko Kreuzer (Westerville, Ohio) came on in relief and pitched three perfect games.
The offense saw three players get multiple hits in the game, including Taylor, Darren Kraft (Mount Pleasant, S.C.), and Kyle Schroedle (Redding, Calif.).
Taylor also homered for the second consecutive game while Kraft hit a homer for Eastern Michigan. The extra-base hits made all the difference in game two for the Eagles.
Game Three:
The final game saw the Cardinals blow out the Eagles for the most part, except for a six-run ninth inning that Eastern Michigan possessed.
Things got out of hand in the first inning when Ball State hit two home runs. Eastern Michigan also did not have any extra-base hits in the series finale as well, something they had a lot of strength in during the first two games.
Schroedle and Vance were the only two players who recorded multiple hits for the Eagles.
Eastern Michigan did record eight walks in the loss as well. They did that on Saturday’s game too, producing 16 passes in two games.
Up next, Eastern Michigan will stay on the road to play at Morehead State before finally returning home to play Michigan. It will be a four-game series contested on March 15-17 with a doubleheader on March 16. All games are slated to be aired on ESPN+.
For more information on the Eastern Michigan Baseball team, you can visit The Echo's website.
