Baseball Travels to Ball State For Conference Series

Saturday, April 13

Muncie, Ind.

11:00 AM

University of Akron

Ball State

Photo by: Jacob Farrar

Baseball Travels to Ball State For Conference Series

April 11 | Baseball

AKRON, Ohio – The Zips travel to Muncie, Ind., to take on conference foe Ball State for three games starting on April 12.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION
GM1: Stats | Video
GM2: Stats | Video
GM3: Stats | Video

A LOOK AT THE SERIES
Ball State Leads 40-25

SCOUTING REPORT
The Cardinals are currently 20-13 overall, 7-8 in the MAC, and 7-5 at home this season. Ball State had won eight straight games before falling 11-1 to Miami in the series finale on April 7.
This will be the first game for the Cardinals since April 7 with the midweek contest at Indiana on April 9 canceled.
On the year, the Cardinals are led by Michael Hallquist's .348 batting average. Hallquist also leads the squad in hits with 46, doubles with 10, home runs with 11, and RBI with 34. Decker Scheffler joins Hallquist with 40 or more hits with 41. Scheffler has five doubles, two triples, three home runs, 24 RBI, and a team-high 10 stolen bases this season.
Merritt Beeker, Zach Kwasny, and Keegan Johnson all have four wins to lead the Cardinals' pitching staff. Nate Blain is the leader in ERA with a 4.04 mark with one complete game and one save. Tanner Knapp has a team-leading four saves. Beeker is the team's leader in innings pitched with 39.0 and a team-leading 63 strikeouts.

ZIPS AT A GLANCE
Akron comes into the conference series with Ball State holding a 6-25 overall record, a 1-11 record in the MAC, and a 2-13 record on the road.
The Zips recently fell 12-7 at Dayton on April 9. Seven Zips recorded a hit while Jack Poist had a multi-hit performance. Michael Sprockett had a double and a walk while Max Bowman hit a home run on the first pitch he saw in the seventh inning.
Bowman leads the Zips in batting average with a .306 average. He also leads Akron in hits with 33, triples with four, home runs with three, RBI with 23, and walks with 20. Poist is second on the squad with a .270 average that features 27 hits, six doubles, nine RBI, and 11 stolen bases to lead the Zips. Charlie Schebler continues to hit the ball well since entering the lineup. He's up to a .286 batting average in 13 starts.
Sean Perkins leads Akron in ERA with a 3.38 ERA in 11 appearances out of the pen. Perkins has thrown 21.1 innings, has struck out 12 and hitters are hitting a combined .241 against him. Jared Schaeffer is next in ERA with a 5.54 ERA in seven starts. He leads the Zips in innings pitched with 36.1 while striking out 26. Spencer Atkins is the team leader in strikeouts with 29 in the season.

CURRENT STREAKS
Evan Bottone leads Akron with a 22-game on-base streak while Jack Poist is second with a nine-game streak. Michael Spockett currently leads the Zips with a five-game hit streak

COMMON OPPONENTS WITH BALL STATE (NON-MAC SCHOOLS)
Cincinnati (Big XII), Illinois (Big 10)

PERKS OF THE JOB
Sean Perkins was named the MAC Pitcher of the Week on March 4 after picking up a win over No. 10/12 Duke.
Coming in down 2-1 against Duke in the second game of the series, Perkins pitched five innings of near-spotless baseball as the Zips defeated the No. 10/12 Blue Devils 4-3 on March 2. Throwing the final five innings, Perkins held his own with just two hits allowed along with one run and two strikeouts to earn the win. He sent Duke three-up-three down in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings and ended the ninth with a strikeout. Perkins also held Duke's hitters to a combined .118 batting average over the five innings of work.

ONE TO REMEMBER
Head coach Bryan Faulds collected his first win leading the Akron Zips in the second game of a doubleheader against Illinois on February 14. Down 4-2 heading to the bottom of the seventh, Akron battled to force extra-innings when Max Bowman sent a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to give the Zips a 5-4 victory.

#MACTION CONNECTIONS
The Zips have numerous connections to the MAC on their coaching staff as well as players.