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Baseball: Weekend Mini-Previews, Week 2 of MAC Play

Two of the best teams (or the two best teams, depends on who you ask) will meet up in New York for, what should be, a very exciting series. Also, Eric Lauer will be seen in Ypsilanti to pitch against Eastern Michigan.

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Ball State (17-8, 3-0 MAC) @ Buffalo (10-8, 2-1 MAC)

Game 1: Fri. 3 p.m. T.J. Weir vs. Mike McGee
Game 2: Sat. 1 p.m. Scott Baker vs. Anthony Magovney
Game 3: Sun. 1 p.m. Zach Plesac vs. Mike Burke

Two of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference get to square off out near Buffalo. This is fantastic. For anybody that loves great pitching matchups (aka "real baseball fans"), this is a series that you'd love to keep an eye on.

Miami (10-12, 2-1 MAC) @ Central Michigan (13-10, 3-0 MAC)

Game 1: Fri. 3:05 p.m. Seth Varner vs. Jordan Foley
Game 2: Sat. 2:05 p.m. Nathan Williams vs. Pat Kaminska
Game 3: Sun. 1:05 p.m. Ryan Powers vs. Nick Deeg

The Chippewas are a very threatening team in the MAC, but you already knew that. A great pitching staff with one of the more talented lineups you'll see in the conference, both led by Jordan Foley and Cody Leichman, they definitely have a huge reputation to live up to. Miami is actually a lot better than a lot of people would give credit to. With the way Dan Walsh has stepped up with his bat this year, it's only a matter of time before Miami becomes a team to watch out for.

Kent State (12-9, 2-1 MAC) @ Eastern Michigan (9-11, 0-3 MAC)

Game 1: Fri. 3 p.m. Eric Lauer vs. Jake Andrews
Game 2: Sat. 3 p.m. Nick Jensen-Clagg vs. Ryan Lavoie
Game 3: Sun 1 p.m. Brian Clark vs. Steve Weber

Coming off of an embarrassing weekend in Akron, the Eagles get to have their first home MAC series against Kent State. Sure they're coming off of a home-opening win over Northwestern University, but this is going to be more of a challenge.

Western Michigan (10-11, 1-2 MAC) @ Ohio (4-17, 0-3 MAC)

Game 1: Fri. 6 p.m. Steve Laudicina vs. Jake Roehn
Game 2: Sat. 3 p.m. Chad Mayle vs. Jake Rudnicki
Game 3: Sun. 1 p.m. Keegan Akin vs. Connor Sitz

Originally scheduled to play in Kalamazoo for Western Michigan's home opener, but this had to be moved to Athens due to cold, snow, precipitation, Michigan weather stuff. Besides being on the lookout for Ohio's Mitch Longo (.429/.482/.623), I think it's time we start looking at WMU's Kurt Hoekstra (.400/.452/.520) more.

Bowling Green (6-13, 0-3 MAC) @ Northern Illinois (3-17-1, 1-2 MAC)

Game 1: Fri. 6 p.m. Cody Aprhorpe vs. Anthony Andres
Game 2: Sat. 1 p.m. Mike Frank vs. Eli Anderson
Game 3: Sun. 1 p.m. Andrew Lacinak vs. Alex Klonowski

Your typical bad team vs. bad team matchup. I keep trying to think of a witty pair of sentences for this mini-preview, but my noggin just filled with fart noises. Since I can't be super witty here, just watch out for NIU's pitching rotation. They had a pair of respectable games at home against Buffalo last weekend, so let's see if they can build off of that.

Akron (10-10, 3-0 MAC) @ Toledo (8-12, 1-2 MAC)

Game 1: Fri. 1 p.m. John Valek vs. Ryan Wilkinson
Game 2: Fri. 4 p.m. JT Brubaker vs. Sam Shutes
Game 3: Sat. 1 p.m. Myles McVeigh vs. Ross Achter

Akron is a better team than Toledo. Hey, that was easier to say that I thought it would be. Now that I've got that out o the way, I think Toledo should start to feel some pressure to take advantage of this series before they end up in a hole too deep to crawl out of. Ryan Wilkinson (2.85 ERA, 1.195 WHIP, 23 K) can't do it all.