A great day for Ball State

The Ball State football team beat Navy 35-23 in front of 22,000 fans and a national TV audience on ESPN. A university record 10,000+ students attended the game. BSU took a quick 14-6 lead after trading touchdowns and field goals in the first quarter. Another Navy field goal and a Nate Davis touchdown pass made the game 21-9 towards the end of the second half. However, Davis threw an interception and Navy scored a touchdown going into the half. BSU led 21-16 at the half. Navy took the kickoff in the second half and scored a touchdown in 2 minutes to take the lead 23-21. At this point Ball State had not stopped Navy on any possession. BSU got the lead back with another Davis TD pass and led 28-23 at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the BSU defense stood its ground on a 4th and 1 inside the 5 and and had interception inside the 20 by DB BJ Hill to stave off any kind of Navy rally. Davis threw another TD pass to make the final score 35-23. Davis threw for 326 yards and 4 TDs with 2 INTs. Dante Love had 9 catches for 165 yards and 2 TDs and he ran 6 times for 37 yards and a TD. MiQuale Lewis ran the ball 21 times for 114 yards. BSU goes to Akron next Saturday for a 1pm start. GO CARDS!!!

The Atlanta Braves used a 7 run third inning to beat the Nationals 10-5 on Friday night. Jair Jurrjens gave up 1 run in 5 innings to get the win. Kelly Johnson had 3 hits and 2 RBI to lead the offense. The teams play game three of the series at 710p tonight. Mike Hampton pitches for the Braves and Tim Redding will pitch for the Nats.

Hope for the future, because the present sucks

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I was excited to see 22-year-old pitcher James Parr pitch sometime this month. What I didn't know is that he would start the game against the Nationals last night and throw 6 shutout innings in his first major league game. He had 3 strikeouts and gave up 3 walks and 2 hits while never throwing a pitch over 88 MPH. Jeff Bennett and Julian Tavarez received holds for their scoreless inning and Mike Gonzalez pitched the ninth for his ninth save of the season. Gonzalez has not blown a save since June 2004, saving 39 games in that span. The Braves two runs were scored on a Brian McCann sac fly and a Gregor Blanco fielders choice. Kelly Johnson had 2 hits for Atlanta. They play again Friday night at 735p. Jair Jurrjens pitches for the Braves, Jason Bergman throws for the Nats. The Braves are 61-80, 18.5 games behind in the NL East.

The Redskins were pitiful last night, losing to the Giants 16-7. The defense played well after allowing a touchdown on the first drive, only allowing 3 field goals for the rest of the game. The offense was not good at all. Jason Campbell was 15 of 27 for 133 yards. Clinton Portis had an average game with 23 carries for 84 yards. Antwan Randle El had 7 catches for 73 yards. The offense had a grand total of 205 yards for the game. That will not win many games in the NFL. London Fletcher had 17 tackles and Fred Smoot had 8 tackles and an interception. Smoot was injured in the second half with a bruised back and did not return.

The biggest game in Ball State football history is tonight. The Cardinals host Navy and the game is being shown nationwide on ESPN. BSU is a 7 point favorite and the over/under is 60 1/2. This is a great chance to tell the nation about Ball State University, the town of Muncie, and the state of Indiana. GO CARDS!!!!!

Is the season over yet?

The Braves lost to the Marlins yesterday 5-3 in front of a sparse crowd of just over 11,000 people in Miami. Jorge Campillo only went 5 innings and gave up 3 runs. Will Ohman and Vladimir Nunez each gave up a run in their inning of work. Jeff Ridgway pitched a scoreless eighth in his second time on the mound since his call-up from Richmond. Kelly Johnson had 2 hits and 2 RBI to led the offense. The Braves host Washington to start a four-game series tonight. Jo-Jo Reyes will pitch for Atlanta, Shairon Martis will get his first start of the season for the Nationals. Game time is 700p.

One of the players that I am looking forward to seeing pitch for Atlanta is James Parr. He is only 22 years old and was called up to the big club when the rosters expanded on September 1st. In his 150 innings at AA Mississippi and AAA Richmond he put up some pretty good numbers. His ERA is 3.52 this year with a 1.24 WHIP. He also had 125 strikeouts in 150 innings. He is only 22 years old, so they may want to ease him in to the ball game at certain points. But, we have also seen how good numbers in AAA do not correspond to good numbers in Atlanta (see Jo Jo Reyes, Charlie Morton, and Chuck James).

Also, today is the start of the NFL season with my Redskins going to New York to face the Giants. Game time is 7pm. The Redskins are 4.5 point underdogs.

Ball State hosts Navy tomorrow in a nationally televised game on ESPN. BSU is a 7 point favorite, with and over/under of 60. That seems about right. BSU beat Navy at Navy last year 34-31 in overtime. Hopefully, the crowd will be more that the 13,000 that showed up for opening night last week. That was disappointing.

Is that a football score?

The Braves missed an extra point last night, but still beat the Marlins 16-14. Obviously the pitching was not too good, but there were a few bright spots for the Braves. Julian Tavarez threw 1-2/3 innings of shutout ball and Mike Gonzalez pitched a scoreless ninth for his 8th save of the year. The offense had 21 hits. Omar Infante and Kelly Johnson had 4 hits each. Martin Prado added three hits. Prado has 18 hits in his last 10 games. Johnson had 4 RBI and Jeff Francoeur knocked in 3. The rubber game of the series is this afternoon at 110p. Jorge Campillo pitches for the Braves. Chris Volstad will pitch for Florida.

The Redskins open up the NFL season on Thursday against the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants. Currently, the Giants are a 4 point favorite, which is just about right considering the teams are fairly even and the Giants are playing at home. It will be interesting to see how the Jim Zorn era will start in Washington. GO SKINS!!!!

not playing well

The Braves have lost four in a row after losing to the Marlins on Monday 4-3. Mike Hampton was solid on the mound giving up 3 runs in 6 innings. Jeff Bennett threw 2 more innings of solid relief. Then Mike Gonzalez came in and took the loss. The ninth inning was walk, sac bunt, intentional walk, walk, sac fly RBI, game over. The young ones had a decent game. Josh Anderson had 3 hits and Brandon Jones and Jeff Francoeur had 2 hits each. The two teams play today at 710p. Charlie Morton will pitch for the Braves and Anibal Sanchez will pitch for the Marlins.

#18 Tennessee was beaten by UCLA in overtime last night. This week, Ball State hosts Navy on Friday night. The game will be on ESPN. Ball State is currently favored by 8 points. I think that may be too much, but we will see.

Can't beat the bad teams, part 2

The Braves lost to the Nationals last night, 9-8 in 10 innings. Vladimir Nunez walked in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th. Jo Jo Reyes gave up 4 runs in 4 innings on 94 pitches. He was struggling out there. Buddy Carlyle gave up 3 runs in his one inning. Jeff Bennett, Will Ohman, and Julian Tavarez pitched well in relief. Bennett has been pitching well as the long reliever/spot starter. His ERA over his last 10 games is 3.27. The offense had 14 hits. Martin Prado was 3 for5 with 2 RBI. Prado is batting .418 in his last 10 games. Josh Anderson, Brian McCann, Chipper Jones, and Kelly Johnson added two hits a piece. Jones and McCann each had 2 RBI. The final game of the series is today at 135p. Jair Jurrjens will pitch for the Braves. Collin Balester will pitch for Washington.

In college football yesterday , there were a few upsets. #17 Virginia Tech and #25 Pitt were beaten by unranked teams. #9 Clemson and #20 Illinois were beaten by ranked teams. For the second year in a row, Michigan was beaten in its home opener. This time they were beaten by Utah. It was a tough start for Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverines.