The Kent State baseball team concludes the regular season by hosting Ball State this Thursday-Saturday in a rematch of last year’s MAC Championship round. Both teams have punched their tickets for Avon, the site of next week’s MAC Tournament. Both teams will be playing for seeding, as the Flashes and Cardinals can both finish anywhere from 2-6.
FESTIVITIES: Thursday is Fan Appreciation Day with giveaways and fan interaction all game, followed by Graduation Day on Friday and Senior Day on Saturday with a pre-game ceremony taking place around 12:30pm Saturday before the 1pm game.
CARIACO HONORED: Kent State reliever Peyton Cariaco was honored this week by the league office, being named the MAC Pitcher of the Week for his performances last week. The 6-1, 220 pound lefty from Georgia recorded three saves last weekend over Akron. On the season, Cariaco has appeared in 23 games and worked 35 innings, has a 2.83 ERA with five saves. He’s struck out 28 and walked nine on the season while batters are hitting .250 off him. He emerged early in the season as the Flashes back-end stopper.
BICKERSTAFF AND KARTSONAS RETURN: Kent State starting pitchers Calvin Bickerstaff and Jack Kartsonas made their return against the Zips in relief appearances. It will be interesting to see how Head Coach Jeff Duncan and Pitching Coach Mike Birkbeck look to use and leverage the two pitchers this weekend and in the MAC Tournament next week.
AROUND THE MAC: BGSU won their first league title since 2009 over the weekend in what was their first series win at EMU since 1999…Western Michigan honored a whopping 11 seniors on their Senior Day, Sunday’s win over NIU was Head Coach Billy Gernon’s 300th at the helm of the Broncos…Ball State was supposed to host #17 in the nation Indiana State Tuesday, but it was rained out.
SEEDING SCENARIOS: Kent State can finish as high as the #2 seed in next week’s MAC Tournament and as low as the #6 seed. BGSU has wrapped up the one seed and a MAC Regular Season Title and sit at 21-6. WMU is 17-10, followed by Kent State, Ball State and Toledo all at 16-11. Miami’s conference record is complete at 17-13. The top two seeds get byes in the tournament. The bracket begins on Wednesday, May 22, with the top two seeds playing Thursday. The #3 seed plays #6 on Wednesday and #4 plays #5. This week Toledo is at Bowling Green, Western is at Central Michigan and the Flashes host the Cardinals. Tickets are on sale now.