Alec Runyan / Ball State Sports Link
Two BSU teams keep their MAC records perfect, a new school record on the track and one BSU swimmer dominates at MAC Championships. All this and more in this week’s “Cardinals In The Crowd.”
Noah Navarro – Baseball
Second basemen Noah Navarro helped Ball State pick up two MAC wins in their four-game series with Eastern Michigan this past weekend.
The senior delivered two big at bats over the weekend. The first came in the 7th inning with the Cards down 1-0 with two runners on. Navarro singled which was enough to score two runs and open up the rest of BSU’s offense, scoring five runs in the final three innings.
The other big hit came in a similar spot with the Cardinals down in the fifth inning of game one on Saturday. With two runners on-base again, Navarro delivered with his third triple of the season to score both runners and take the lead.
Navarro went 8-12 at the plate with five RBIs and three runs scored over the course of four games.
Ball State returns home for a four-game series against Northern Illinois starting Friday at 3 p.m., followed by a double header Saturday afternoon, and the series finale taking place Sunday at 1 p.m.
Michelle Lehmann – Track
The Ball State track and field team competed at Vanderbilt’s Black and Gold Invite last week where the 4x100m relay team of Kennedy Batts, Bryeana Byrdsong, MaQuila Norman, and Michelle Lehmann would set a new school record of 45.14.
Lehman, the relay’s anchor, also finished in third place in the 100m finals with a time of 11.88 followed by teammate Bryeana Byrdsong in fourth.
The Cardinals head to MAC opponent Miami this Saturday, April 24 for their final meet before competing at the MAC Championships at Miami as well.
Marcelle Ribeiro – Swimming and Diving
The Ball State women’s swimming and diving team finished in fifth place at the MAC Championships, their best finish since 2005.
The team was led by freshman Marcelle Ribeiro who finished the three-day event with three medals and 5 school records which also earned her First Team All-MAC honors.
Ribeiro seemed to get stronger as the weekend went on. She placed third in 500m free Thursday, second in the 200m free Friday, and finished it with a first place finish in the 1650 free with a time of 16:32.61.
During Ribeiro’s recording setting 1650m swim, she also broke the record for the school’s 1000m with a time of 10:01.21.
Ball State ended their 2021 season with 18 athletes scoring points in individual events to finish with a team total of 320 points.
Deborah Jones – Softball
Ball State softball kept its conference record perfect after sweeping Akron in a four-game series this previous weekend.
Sophomore Deborah Jones pitched in three of the four games for BSU.
Jones went 11 innings, only allowing four earned runs on seven hits and two walks to go along with 12 strikeouts.
Her strongest performance came Sunday when she threw for a perfect three innings and struck out five Akron batters.
On quick turn-around, the Cardinals face Miami on the road in a doubleheader Tuesday, April 20 with the first game starting at 2 p.m.
Amy Kaplan – Tennis
The Ball State women’s tennis team had two tough conference opponents come to Muncie this week in Buffalo and Eastern Michigan. The Cardinals were able to pull away with 4-3 wins in both matches thanks to an overall team effort.
Despite BSU being in a very close match all afternoon, sophomore Amy Kaplan made quick work of her opponents in both of her matches.
After winning her No.1 doubles match with teammate Emma Peeler 6-0, Kaplan went on to win her singles match at the No.4 spot with a final score of 6-3, 6-0.
Ball State (19-2, 10-0 MAC) now riding a 19 match win streak heads to Miami to take on the Redhawks on Friday, April 23 at 1 p.m.
