Baseball To Wrap Up Home Schedule Against Ball State

5/12/2005

HUNTINGTON, W. Va. – In its final home series of the season, the Thundering Herd baseball team will host Mid-American Conference rival Ball State for a three-game series, starting at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon at University Heights.

With game one set for Friday at 3 p.m., the games on Saturday and Sunday will start at 1 p.m. Sunday’s series finale will mark Senior Day for Marshall as the team will honor its five seniors, Joe Glevenyak (West Palm Beach, FL), Brad Helm (Downingtown, PA), Mike Marchyshyn (Markham, Ont.), Josh McConnell (Phenix City, AL) and Marshall Murray (Walnut Creek, CA).

Marshall comes into the weekend with an overall record of 15-29 and 7-11 in the MAC. Over the last week, the Herd has put up a 2-3 record. In last Friday’s game against Akron, the Zips held MU to two hits en route to a 10-0 win. On Saturday, pitchers Chris Cummings (Huntington, WV) and Brendon Bump (Lawrence, KS) held the Akron hitters to just one run on four hits as the Herd knotted up the series, but Sunday saw Akron clinch the series with a 9-8 win. Marshall took an 8-7 lead in the eighth inning of the game, but Akron came back with two runs in the ninth to take the win and the series.

Two midweek games were also played. On Tuesday, the Dayton Flyers came to town and were dealt a 16-6 loss. The 16 runs was the most scored by the team in over two years. Roddy Stieger (Westchester, OH) had the top day at the plate, going 2-4 with three runs batted in and two runs scored. Catcher Nick Wolle (Coatesville, PA) was also solid, recording three hits and two RBI’s in the game.

Wednesday’s trip to Morehead State proved to be a heartbreaker for Marshall, as it would drop a 10-9 decision to the Eagles. The Thundering Herd offense put up nine runs in the first two innings, helped by a three-run home run courtesy of Joe Glevenyak in the first inning and a grand slam by freshman Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, MD) in the second. From that point on, though, the Morehead State pitchers held MU to only two hits. While the pitchers controlled the Marshall offense, the Eagle offense got on the scoreboard in a big way, scoring eight runs in the sixth. After tying up the game in the eighth inning, Morehead got a bases-loaded single in the ninth to clinch the win.

The offense found itself mired in a slump which saw the team batting under .200 in the four games prior to MU’s 2-1 win over the Zips on Saturday, but since Sunday’s game, the team has put up 33 runs in the last three games and has seen the offense bat .333 in those games. Adam Frederick (Franklin, PA) has turned it on as of late, recording six hits in his last 14 at-bats. He has also scored four runs and batted in four more over those three games.

Adam Ptacek (Assaria, KS) has also been effective, going 5-12 and adding three runs to his team-leading total of 36. Roddy Stieger has recorded two home runs over that span while Glevenyak and Johnson each homered in the Morehead State game.

Ball State, who leads the West Division with a 15-4 record, was the first team in the conference to clinch a berth in the postseason tournament. Their overall record is 31-13, second in the conference to Miami, who is 32-13.

The Cardinals offense has been one of the best in the conference, which is shown by their .309 team batting average, tied for the lead in the MAC. They have five regulars who are batting .337 or higher, led by Kyle Dygert, who is batting .361 on the season. Dygert is second on the team with 41 RBI’s and is tied for the team lead with five home runs. C.J. Webb, second on the team with a .356 average, has also been solid, notching 58 hits and 32 RBI’s.

On the mound, the Cardinals post a solid 4.73 team ERA, sixth in the conference. Friday’s starter Joe Ness comes into the weekend with a 4-4 record, with a team-leading 73 strikeouts in 70.2 innings of work. Saturday’s starter, Ben Snyder, is second in the MAC with seven wins and leads the team with 75.2 innings pitched.

Ball State owns a 7-2 advantage in the overall series, but it was the Herd who emerged victorious in last year’s series, taking two out of three in a series in Muncie. Marshall came close to sweeping the series, but lost a 4-3 game in ten innings.

The action at the Heights starts on Friday at 3 p.m. while the other two games over the weekend will start at 1 p.m. Sunday will mark Senior Day as the five seniors will be honored prior to the game. Next weekend, the season will wrap up with Marshall’s final series in the MAC at Buffalo.