ORLEANS, Mass. – In the midst of what you could call a “bullpen game” against the Orleans Firebirds where the Kettleers won 2-1, Merritt Beeker (Ball State) walked away as the winning pitcher after three scoreless innings of relief. It’s another notch on the belt for Beeker, who has used 2024 to emerge on the national scene in college baseball.
But to get to this point, the southpaw first needed to leave home.
Beeker grew up in Lexington, N.C. -- about a three-hour drive from where his parents Tricia and Phillip graduated college at East Carolina.
Growing up, Merritt would go to tons of Pirates games and considered himself an ECU fan. Naturally, it must have been a dream come true when he chose to go to Greenville, N.C., to start his collegiate career.
Beeker had a successful freshman season in 2022, making 12 appearances including three starts, and posted a 2.70 ERA in 13 1/3 innings pitched. However, the lefty experienced a sophomore slump where he slipped down the depth chart and managed just five innings on the bump. Beeker felt that a change was needed.
“I just wanted to get more opportunity each week and going into my junior year I decided to hit the portal,” Beeker said. “I never thought I’d end up in Ball State being from North Carolina.”
With the Cardinals in Muncie, Indiana, Beeker saw his innings count jump as a full-time member of Ball State’s starting rotation. He logged 81 innings in 15 games and settled in after the first third of the season, allowing four earned runs or fewer in all his last 10 appearances.
“It was just getting an opportunity to be out there consistently,” he said. “Coming in I didn’t really have a lot of confidence because I didn’t really have that much opportunity, but coach [Rich] Maloney really believed in me and poured into me every single day, every single week, and my confidence grew throughout the year.”
The move paid off for Beeker, who won the MAC Pitcher of the Year award with a league-best 116 strikeouts while having an unblemished 7-0 record against conference opponents. The lefty finished the season top 10 in the nation in punchouts and seventh with 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.
Against Orleans, Beeker allowed just two baserunners after relieving starter Ben Jacobs (Arizona State) in the third inning. The southpaw faced the minimum through the first two frames, tossing just 17 pitches. The strikeout king of the MAC became more dominant in his final inning of work, sitting down the first two Firebirds batters down on strikes before working around a two-out walk to keep Orleans scoreless through five.
“Merritt has gotten a lot better just in the short time here. He was absolutely on the money tonight and really executed all three of his pitches,” Kettleers pitching coach Trey Holland said. “Big time won a couple of 3-2 counts. A couple of big strikeouts too.”
Just as he did at Ball State, Beeker may have shown his worth to the Cotuit pitching staff with the stellar outing.
