Ball State baseball's NCAA tournament run ends: 'Moving forward, this is the standard.'
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Ball State, the sole mid-major team in the NCAA baseball Lexington Regional, bowed out of the double-elimination tournament on Saturday afternoon.
The Mid-American Conference tournament champions suffered a 13-5 loss to West Virginia in the loser's bracket, ending the Cardinals' season. Ball State previously lost to Kentucky, 4-1, on Friday in the first game of the regional.
But the Cardinals, who made their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2006 this season, know not to take their short time on the national stage for granted.
"The truth of the matter is, this is the first time they got to play in a real, this kind of a setting," Ball State coach Rich Maloney said. "And it was great. It was a great experience. I'll never forget it. It was disappointing we didn't get the result we wanted, but nevertheless, I thought we were right there."
The Cardinals finished the season with a 33-23 record, including its first conference tournament championship and NCAA tournament appearance under Maloney, who's coached Ball State for 18 years. Maloney coached Ball State from 1996-2002 before moving to Michigan between 2003-12. He returned to Ball State in 2013, and his only losing season since his return was the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
"I think it meant a lot to Ball State and to coach Maloney because he's been here, I don't know, 18 years. And this is the first one we came to under him here," Ryan Peltier said. "He's had so much success here. To be able to get on the national — play on the national stage, we weren't able to show it and get any wins here, but moving forward this is the standard for the teams to come in the future to get here. And now that the younger guys have experienced this, hopefully they can come back here and do some damage in these Regionals."
Ball State started the scoring in the bottom of the second against West Virginia on Saturday, as Nick Gregory knocked an RBI single to center field. West Virginia responded with a three-run home run the top of the third, but Ball State took the lead again in the bottom of the frame with four runs.
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The Cardinals couldn't hold on to the lead, however, as the Mountaineers matched their four-run inning with one of their own in the top of the fourth. The Mountaineers never trailed after the fourth inning, adding an insurance run off a home run in the top of the seventh.
"Whatever happens during the game, we always have to dig deep and find a way to respond to things like that," Peltier said. "And to West Virginia's credit, they responded really well to our big rally. And after that, we weren't able to really get anything going offensively, so credit to them."
The Cardinals' offense fell off when West Virginia's starting pitcher, Ben Hampton, left the game after three innings. Aidan Major replaced Hampton, throwing five innings with one hit and no runs. Mountaineers closer Noah Short finished the game with a 16-pitch, 1-2-3 inning.
"I just thought he did a really good job," Maloney said of Major. "Our guys didn't have an answer to that. We didn't have a lot of good quality at-bats. Before that we had a lot.
"There's moments in a game where momentum really carries the game. And we had a shot — we pulled back. We got to a lead. And to West Virginia's credit, like the boys said, they answered back. We weren't able to shut them down."
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NCAA Baseball: Ball State falls to West Virginia, tournament hopes end
