Kent State baseball (38-16, 24-7) made their long-awaited appearance in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament on Friday as the two-seed, defeating the three-seeded Ball State Cardinals (36-21, 21-10) in walk-off fashion to move on in the winner’s bracket at Crushers Stadium in Avon, Ohio.
Although they came into the game as an underdog, Ball State wasted no time taking a shot at the Flashes when junior outfielder Blake Bevis grounded in a run to put Kent State on their toes quickly.
The hot start for the Cardinals did not last as long as they would have hoped, with Kent State adjusting to the adversity and exploding for six unanswered runs.
Kent State’s run began with graduate student utility player and MAC Player of the Year Hayden Jatczak slamming a two-run homer into right field that immediately stole the lead from Ball State.
Despite pitching one of their best starters in the form of Second Team All-MAC right-handed pitcher senior Jacob Hartlaub, a tough decision would have to be made in the second inning when Hartlaub loaded the bases with one out down six to one.
In came senior lefty Alex Burden, who managed to get himself in a pitcher’s duel with Kent State as both offenses were unable to score more than one through three innings, setting the score at seven to two heading into the sixth.
Cardinal bats slowly woke up, notching a sacrifice fly and single to help put the squeeze on Kent State seven to four.
One final run by Kent State set up for a showdown in the final two innings, which did not disappoint as the Cardinals, with their backs against the wall down to their final six outs, Ball State’s senior infielder Alex Richter singled to score a run, was advanced to second base on a single and stole home off of a catcher error to bring the Cardinals within one on the two-seed.
A final hard-hit double would do the unthinkable and knot everything up, heading to the bottom of the eighth with the Flashes unable to get their offense back up and running, putting the game into a tied-up ninth inning.
A lengthy review ate up a majority of the top of the first with the ruling of a pop fly caught instead of dropped, giving Ball State their first out of the inning.
With a runner on first base, batters’ interference on the pickoff attempt sent Kent to the dish, leaving Ball State empty-handed.
All eyes were on freshman utility Sawyer Solitaria as he had the game in the palm of his hand with the bases loaded hitting a single but creating a force out for the first out of the inning.
Right behind him in the order was junior catcher Brody Williams, who walked the game on a sacrifice fly that put the Flashes in the winner’s bracket final.
Ball State is now slated to face the winner of the Eastern Michigan and Toledo matchup on Saturday at 2 p.m.
