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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.