Ball State softball beats #3 Missouri

BSU pitcher Elizabeth Milian continued her dominance on the mound as the Ball State Cardinals defeated #3 Missouri on their home turf by a score of 2-1. Milian gave up 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 3. The win moves her to 12-1 on the season. Jen Reifschneidfer and Kate Wilczynski had the RBI in the game. In the second game, the Cards were defeated by Northwestern 3-2. Audra Sanders started for BSU and gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in 3 innings. Milian came on in relief and threw 3 scoreless innings, but the offense only managed 2 hits. Meredith Nash and Alyssa Freiling has the RBI for BSU. The Cardinals are now 16-6 on the season. They play two games today in Missouri, a familiar foe at 11am (Eastern Michigan) and Northern Colorado at 7pm.

In other Ball State news, senior running back MiQuale Lewis has been officially cleared to play football for the Cardinals next year. Lewis needs 669 yards rushing and 5 touchdowns to pass Marcus Merriweather to lead the all-time list in both categories.

Go MAC!!!! 14-seed Ohio upends 3-seed Gerogetown

Two weeks ago, I thought that Ball State's loss at home to Ohio in the MAC tourney was just about as low as you can go in a season. However, the last two weeks have proven that Ohio was a good team that hit it's stride at the right time. The Bobcats were a 9-seed in the MAC tourney and won it all. Yesterday, they were a 14-seed in the NCAA tourney and beat 3rd-seeded Georgetown. Ohio shot 58 percent from the field and 57 percent from three-point land (13-23). They move on to play Tennessee on Saturday in the round of 32.

The Ball State baseball team travels to #10 Louisville this weekend for a 3-game series. BSU is 5-11 while Louisville is 15-1. Ball State will throw Brad Piatt on Friday, Cal Bowling on Saturday, and Kolbrin Vitek on Sunday. Lousiville will throw Thomas Royse on Friday (3-0 0.74 ERA). After this series, BSU will have played 8 of their 19 games against ranked opponents.

The BSU softball team has had a great start to their season. They are 15-5 and travel to Missouri this weekend for 5 games in the Demarini Invitational. The Cardinals will be tested early as they play #3 Missouri in the first game at 5pm on Friday. BSU Pitcher Elizabeth Milian is 11-1 with a 0.54 ERA. She needs 61 strikeouts to become the school's all-time leader in that category. Milian already has 111 Ks in 72 innings this year, so this record should come within the next week or so. The pitching overall has been brilliant as the Cards have given up 37 runs in 20 games. Jessie Ware leads the offense with a .373 batting average with 22 hits, 25 runs, 6 triples, 2 home runs and 13 RBIs, all team-leading stats.

Ugly day...

I ran in the Big Ten Hoops 5k yesterday and did not have a good race. My time was 29:43, which is 30 seconds slower than the Jingle Bell Run in December when it was 27 degrees out. Many factors contributed to the slow time. The first is that I was not in very good running shape. The weather prohibits running in the winter and I hate to run on the treadmill. Also, I was unfamiliar with the course. According to my GPS, I ran 5.14km, which added an extra minute or so to my time. And finally, it was cold and windy, 43 degrees and the wind whipping through the buildings downtown. Anyway, I did finish the race, so that is always a positive. I finished 418th out of 803 runners and 52nd our of 71 in the M30-34 group. I definitely need to learn from this experience.

Speaking of ugly, the Ball State baseball team had some big innings that determined their games. On Friday, the Cardinals faced Michigan and was down 8-0 early until BSU had a 6-spot in the 5th and added two more in the 6th to tie the game. However, Michigan added 4 more in the bottom of the 6th to win 12-8. Seven of Michigan's 12 runs were un-earned. Kolbrin Vitek and Stephen Claypool had 3 hits in the game.

On Saturday, BSU took a quick 4-0 lead over Lipscomb, but that lead was erased by a grand slam in the 4th inning. Lipscomb added another run in the 5th to take the lead. But, a huge 9-run sixth inning by the Cardinals put the game away, leading to a 14-5 victory. Morgan Coombs got the win by pitching 5 innings and giving up 3 earned runs while striking out 6. Scott Brother Jr, pitched the final 4 innings in scoreless fashion. Once again, Kolbrin Vitek and Stephen Claypool had 3 hits in the game.

Sunday's game against Illinois was also decided by a big inning. The Illini put up 6 runs in the 5th to take a 7-0 lead en route to a 10-3 victory. BSU could only manage 6 hits in the game.

After 9 games in 10 days, the Cardinals get a little break before going to Lousiville this weekend. Louisville is 14-1 and ranked 9th in the RPI. BSU is 5-11 and ranked 188 in the RPI. That RPI is currently 6th best in the MAC.

RACE DAY!!!!!

I will be running in the Big Ten Hoops 5k this morning. Hoping to run a time in the 28's, trying to beat a PR of 27:32. I have a lot of baseball and basketball to write about and I will do that after I return from the race this afternoon.