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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NOTRE DAME
Baseball Falls To Top-Ranked Irish, 5-2
April 24, 2001 | Baseball
April 24, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The Bowling Green State University baseball team faced the top-ranked team in the country Tuesday night (April 24), and fell to the University of Notre Dame by a 5-2 score. The game was held at Frank Eck Stadium.
The Fighting Irish, ranked first in the nation in the Collegiate Baseball poll, used a four-run first inning to take the lead for good. Notre Dame is now 36-5-1, while the Falcons are now 28-11 on the year.
The Irish got four hits, including a Steve Sollman homerun, and took advantage of a pair of Falcon errors in the first inning.
UND increased the lead to 5-0 when Sollmann's second-inning double plated Steve Stanley.
Falcon starting pitcher Kyle Knoblauch settled down after a rough start. After the second inning, the freshman surrendered just five hits and no runs the rest of the way.
The Falcons got a pair of runs off UND starter Peter Oglivie in the third inning. Oglivie entered the game with an earned-run average of just 0.72, but surrendered four hits to BG batters in that third frame.
Len Elias started the rally with a one-out single to centerfield, and he moved to third on Kelly Hunt's single down the right-field line. Lee Morrison then singled to left to plate Elias and move Hunt to second. Nick Elrod then singled to right for the Falcons' fourth-straight hit, loading the bases. Hunt then scored when Scott Dukate lined a ball to the leftfielder for a sacrifice fly.
The Falcons could not narrow the gap any further off Oglivie or reliever Matt Buchmeier. Oglivie got the win to improve to 3-1 on the year, while Buchmeier picked up his first save.
Oglivie allowed both BG runs and six hits in five innings of work, while Buchmeier threw four innings of scoreless, two-hit ball.
For the Brown and Orange, Knoblauch fell to 4-3. He surrendered five runs, with several of those unearned, and 11 hits. Knoblauch issued just one walk while fanning four batters.
Morrison had two of BGSU's eight hits in the contest, while Stanley and Sollmann were two of four Irish players to get two hits apiece.
The game featured the nation's top hitting team, BGSU, vs. the top pitching team. The Falcons took an NCAA-best .359 batting average into the game, while the Irish had a national-low 2.52 ERA.
The win was the 15th in a row for Notre Dame, and snapped a seven-game win streak for the Falcons.
BGSU will return home for a Wednesday (April 25) contest vs. Siena Heights.
