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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Kent State
Falcons Drop Game One of Four-Game Series to Kent State, 15-8
May 04, 2001 | Baseball
May 4, 2001
Bowling Green, Ohio - Bowling Green flexed its home-run muscle early, but it was Kent State and first baseman John VanBenschoten who stole the show and game one of a four-game series at Warren E. Steller Field on Friday afternoon, 15-8.
Left-fielder Len Elias hit his first of two home runs on the day in the bottom of the first inning to give the Falcons an early 2-0 lead. Senior Aric Christman led off the home-half of the inning with a bunt single down the third base line and came home on Elias' homer.
The two-run lead held up until the top of the third inning. That's when a walk and single given up by BGSU starter Brett Baumgartner put two Flashes on base for VanBenschoten, who is third in the nation in home runs. He added to his roundtrippers when he drove a 3-2 pitch over the left-field wall to give KSU a 3-2 lead.
BGSU (33-12, 15-5) evened the score in the bottom of the fourth inning when right-fielder Lee Morrison doubled off the outfield fence, extending his hitting streak to 19 games. After Morrison advanced to third base on a groundout by shortstop Nick Elrod, third baseman Scott Dukate hit a sacrifice fly down the right-field line to bring home Morrison.
However, the Flashes (22-23, 13-7) came right back in the top of the fifth when VanBenschoten hit his second three-run homer of the game, this time to the opposite field, to give Kent State a 6-3 lead. They added one more in the sixth, three more in the seventh and five in the eighth to extend their lead to 15-3.
The Falcons started a comeback in the bottom of the eighth when Elias led off the inning with his second homer of the game and 11th of the season. Then, with the bases loaded, KSU committed two fielding errors to bring home two more Falcon runs to bring the home team to within nine entering the ninth.
In the ninth, again Elias started things off for the Falcons, this time with a walk. Designated hitter Kelly Hunt followed with a double down the left-field line. Neil Schmitz singled home Elias and moved Hunt to third with no outs. But, BGSU mustered just one more run in the inning before recording the last out.
BGSU hosts Kent State in a doubleheader on Saturday, May 5, beginning at 1 p.m.
