Eastern suffered its second home loss of the season Wednesday when it lost a 8-5 battle against visiting Ball State.

The Cardinals, who came into the games against the Panthers with a 23-17 record, earned their 24th win of the season behind strong pitching and timely hitting.

“I think it was a situation where they got the timely hits,” Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz said. “And they pitched really well against us.”

Cardinal manager Rich Maloney felt that this was one of the better games that his team has been all season long.

“This was a ball game with two good teams battling out,” Maloney said. “This was one of the better games that we have been in all season long.”

Ball State jumped out to an early lead by scoring three runs off Panther starter Nick Albu.

The left-hander walked the first two batters he faced and three of the first seven sandwiched around a Brad Dorrmann RBI single that scored two Cardinal runs.

“Nick wasn’t sharp again today at all, and that is something that we will have to address,” Schmitz said.

The Panthers were able to get one back in the second with a Pete Pirman home run, but Ball State answered with a home run of their own from the bat of Paul Henry, who was 3-for-5 on the day with two RBIs, making the score 4-2 Cardinals.

“Paul was huge for us today with the home run,” Maloney said. “But not only was he big for offensively, but he also played a good shortstop for us.”

After two more runs in the top of the fourth inning off Albu, the Panthers got two back with a Tim Aurrichio home run to close the gap to 6-4 Ball State.

“Their pitcher was working inside most of the game,” Aurrichio said. “He got me on the first pitch inside, and then he threw me another one in the same spot and I was able to hit it out.”

After Albu left the mound, Panther reliever Nathan Stone came on and pitched the final 6 and 2/3 innings, allowing only four Cardinal runs on seven hits.

“My main concern is the big picture, which is the tournament,” Schmitz said. “And those two guys came out and did a great job. I feel like I can use them in the tournament. I couldn’t have asked for a better outing out of either one of those guys.”

The Panthers were only able to muster up one more run on

the day with a Bob VanHoorebeck home run in the top of the sixth inning off Ball State starter Luke Hagerty, who pitched six strong innings. Despite giving up three home runs, he struck out eight while walking none.

“Outside of the home runs, Luke pitched really well today,” Maloney said. “It’s good for us to get a young guy like Luke out there and give him some innings, and he did a great job for us.”

Although the Panthers didn’t hit the ball well against

Ball State, Schmitz still thought his team is on the right track.

“We didn’t the ball well today, and that’s the game sometimes,” Schmitz said. “We spotted them three runs in the first and we tied them the rest of the game. But I thought we responded well after being down.”