Mid-American Conference

MAC Baseball Championship Central
Official Bracket
 
No. 2 Ball State 8, No. 5 Northern Illinois 7 (11 innings)
Box Score
VIDEO: Ball State Head Coach Rich Maloney
VIDEO: Ball State RHP Nick Floyd
 
AVON, Ohio – No. 2 Ball State advanced to the MAC Championship Game as Nick Powell's single in the bottom of the 11th inning scored Mack Murphy for the 8-7 win over No. 5 Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon at Sprenger Stadium.

Ball State's Murphy led off the bottom of the 11th inning with a double to right field and Powell's single to left field provided the game winner for the Cardinals. 

NIU opened the scoring with two runs in the top of the first inning. Jake Dunham's single through the right side scored Brendan Joyce and Nick Drobushevich's ground out scored Tommy Szczasny to give the Huskies the early 2-0 lead. 

Ball State responded with three runs in the bottom of the first to take a 3-2 lead. William Baker singled and Ross Messina doubled and they came home on John Ricotta's three-run homer to left field to provide the Cardinals with a 3-2 advantage.

Both teams scored in the third inning as the Drobushevich's sacrifice fly to center scored Szczasny for the Huskies to tie the game, 3-3, however Ball State Chase Sebby's ground out scored Messina, who reached on a throwing error, to give the Cardinals the 4-3 lead. 

NIU scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 6-4 lead. Josh Mutter walked and scored on a double by Joyce.  Szczasny added a double which scored Joyce and then came home on Dylan Lonteen's single up the middle for the 6-4 Huskie advantage. 

Ball State addd one run to cut the NIU lead to 6-5 as Messina doubled to right center and came home on a fielders choice by Griffin Hulecki.

Ball State took the lead on Aaron Simpson's two-run homer to left center in the sixth inning to turn a 6-5 deficit into a 7-6 advantage for Ball State. 

NIU had clutch hitting in the eighth to tie the game, 7-7.  Lonteen's single scored Mutter for the tie.  Jake Dunham singled to left and Szczasny was thrown out at home trying to score to end the inning. 

Ball State will face No. 1 seed Central Michigan at approximately 6:00 pm ET, while Northern Illinois' season comes to and end.