MUNCIE, Ind. - The Northern Illinois University baseball team could not keep pace with the offense of the Ball State Cardinals on Sunday afternoon as the Cardinals scored in seven of the eight innings of a 14-4 win at Shebek Stadium.

NIU (12-22, 3-12 MAC) loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the first inning. JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) got the Huskies' first hit with a single up the middle. Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC) and Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) followed with walks off of Ball State starting pitcher John Chambers. Ben Loyd (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kaskaskia College) lined out however to end the inning.

Ball State (26-11, 13-2 MAC) got on the board in the bottom of the first. Nick Husovsky opened the scoring with a two-run home run over the left field fence to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. After Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) struck out Garrett Arnold for the second out, Blake Bevis hit a homer down the left field line to make the score 3-0.

"We knew they were going to go with a bullpen game and were not going to get much length out of their starter, and we had him on the ropes," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "We just didn't find a way to score early and that was a chance to get some early momentum. They took the lead and we were not able to find a way just to match a zero and allow the game to settle in."

The Huskies scored their first run in the top of the second inning. Kaden Kosobucki (West De Pere, Wis./West De Pere) led off by being hit by a pitch. With two outs Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) ripped a triple down the right field line to score the NIU catcher and make the score 3-1. Ball State answered with single runs in the second and third innings to extend its lead to 5-1. Bevis' second home run of the day, a two-run shot, capped the Cardinals' four-run fourth inning that gave the hosts a 9-1 advantage.

NIU's first two batters in the fifth both reached base as Parcell walked and Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) laced a single through the right side to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. After a strikeout Couchman hammered a three-run home run over the right centerfield wall to put the score at 9-4. The Cardinals responded with a two-run double from Husovsky in the bottom of the inning to put Ball State up seven 11-4. Ball State scored two runs in the sixth and one in the eighth to wrap up the series sweep with a 14-4 win.

"We knew it was going to be tough to come here and win a series at Ball State's park where they play so well," Copeland said. "We expect to win every game we play. When you're playing a pretty talented team, you just don't have much margin for error. You have to be better on the mound and make more plays defensively. We were on the barrel all weekend but at some point somebody's got to find a way to get a couple big hits."

Each of the top five batters in the NIU lineup had a hit on Sunday. Couchman's home run was his fourth of the season and first since March 29 at Butler.

NIU is in action on Tuesday, April 15 at Northwestern. First pitch at Rocky and Berenice Miller Park is at 3:30 p.m.

—NIU—