Mid-American Conference

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Ball State University stayed alive in the Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament, downing Kent State University by a 16-9 count Saturday afternoon (May 25). The MAC Tournament is being held at Bowling Green's Steller Field.

The win by the Cardinals (34-22) forced a second Saturday game in the tournament. Both BSU and KSU (36-20) have one loss in the double-elimination tourney, and will meet again to determine a conference champion.

Bryan Bullington (11-3), the 2002 MAC Pitcher of the Year, picked up the win with six innings of relief work. Bullington allowed five runs and seven hits, walking one batter and striking out six.

Bullington threw a total of 77 pitches, including 51 strikes, in his stint. The win was his 11th of the year, tying the Ball State single-season record, and he became the school's career wins leader, with 29.

KSU reliever Shane Curry took the loss to fall to 1-2. He allowed nine runs and 11 hits in two-and-two-thirds innings.

The teams combined for a total of 12 homeruns in the contest, with the Cardinals hitting a MAC Tournament record-tying seven. Both Ben Schroeder and Brad Snyder had two homers apiece in the contest.

KSU got on the board right away, as Eric O'Brien hit the game's first pitch for a homer off of BSU starter Kory Bucklew. The Flashes got another run on Tom Martin's leadoff homer in the second inning.

Brady Glass continued the trend for KSU, with a two-run homer in the third frame. The homer, which banged off the scoreboard in right-centerfield, scored Chris Welsch ahead of Glass to double the KSU lead to 4-0.

The Cardinals got on the board in the bottom of the third. After Doug Boone hit a bloop single to right-center, Jason Bucholtz doubled to left-center, sending Boone to third base. Then, an infield groundout by Schroeder produced the first BSU run of the day. Then, Paul Henry followed with a homer to center to cut the Kent State lead to a single run.

KSU got single runs in the fourth and the fifth, with the latter tally coming on Pat O'Brien's round-tripper, but the Cardinals tied the score in their half of the fifth.

In that frame, Schroeder hit an opposite-field homer to left, and after Henry singled, Snyder's two-run blast made it a 6-6 game.

The Flashes scored again in the top of the sixth, on Eric Holick's pinch-hit homer, but BSU took its first lead of the game in the bottom of that inning, with the team's third three-run inning of the contest.

Kiel Holman's one-out single chased KSU starter Ben Orengia, but Boone greeted Curry with a two-run homer to left-center, giving the Cards an 8-7 advantage. One out later, Schroeder hit his second homer of the day.

Bullington kept the Flashes off the scoreboard in the seventh, the first inning of the game in which KSU failed to score. Then, the Cardinals put the game out of reach in the top of the eighth.

Holman began the scoring in that frame with a one-out homer to increase the lead to three runs. Boone and Bucholtz each singled, and Schroeder followed with a single of his own to plate Boone. Bucholtz also scored when the KSU throw to third sailed into the BSU dugout. Henry singled to score Schroeder, before Snyder hit a monstrous homer to right-center.

Matt Deckman became the seventh-straight Cardinal to get a hit when he singled. Curry got the second out, but Adam Metzler's double scored Deckman with BSU's seventh run of the inning.

Three KSU doubles, by Holick, Phil LoCascio and Welsch, produced two runs in the ninth, but the Flashes would draw no closer.

Ball State now has a total of 72 hits over the last three games, all wins. The Cardinals, after banging out 26 hits in victories over Bowling Green (Thursday) and Miami (Friday), had 20 more in Saturday's win. The top-three hitters in the BSU lineup -- Schroeder, Henry and Snyder -- each had three hits vs. the Flashes, as did Metzler and Boone.

Schroeder, Henry and Boone all scored three runs in the win, while Schroeder and Snyder each had four RBI and Henry three.

LoCascio was 3-for-5 for the Golden Flashes, while Holick was 2-for-2 with a pair of runs after entering the game.

The Cardinals have a team batting average of .457 through the first four games of the tournament. Metzler and Snyder each are batting .600 (12-for-20), while Schroeder has scored 11 runs in the four contests.

The teams were scheduled to return to the field later Saturday afternoon to determine the MAC tourney champion.