Cardinals Complete Sweep With Another One-run Win
3/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
KENT - TJ Baumet's first career home run propelled Ball State to a series sweep over Kent State at Schoonover Stadium Sunday afternoon.
Tied at five with two outs and bases empty in the ninth, the Cardinal third baseman hammered a 2-0 Reid Lamport fastball over the wall in left field for the go-ahead run. Closer Kyle Heyne then struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to make it official. The Cardinals have now won seven straight in Kent, dating back to the 2006 Mid-American Conference Tournament - which also featured a pair of wins over the host Golden Flashes.
For Kent State (8-13), it was another disheartening one-run loss. After Saturday's 6-5 setback, Kent State acutally grabbed its first lead of the weekend on Sunday in the second inning. Down 1-0, Brad Winter singled to right. He was sent to the plate on a Jared Bartholomew double and the game was tied. With two down, Doug Sanders gave KSU the elusive lead when he doubled deep down the right field line.
The Flashes added another run in the fifth. Chris Tremblay reached on a throwing error and would later score on an Anthony Gallas ground out. The Flashes lengthened their lead to 3-1.
In the top oif the sixth, Ball State erupted against a tiring Kyle Smith. With runners at second and third, Justin Rogers doubled to tie the game. Another two-run double later in the inning gave the Cardinals a 5-3 lead, but further damage was avoided when Tremblay, Sanders and Greg Rohan turned a nifty bang-bang double play.
The Golden Flashes - with the help of the Ball State defense - plated single runs in the seventh and eighth to tie the game. But, as was the theme on the weekend, Kent State stranded 10 more baserunners on Sunday. With the 12 left on base Saturday, the Golden Flashes left 22 runners stranded in the final two games of the series.
Kent State will wrap up the six-game homestand with a game against Niagara on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
