Bowling Green State University Athletics
Kent State Wins Pitchers' Dual, 2-0
May 24, 2002 | Baseball
May 24, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - A pair of seventh-inning runs proved to be all that Kent State University needed to post a 2-0 victory over Central Michigan University in the Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament Friday (May 24). The tourney is being held at Bowling Green's Steller Field.
With the win, Kent State (36-19) remains undefeated in the tournament, and is one game away from posting back-to-back tourney titles. KSU will face Ball State in Saturday's (May 25) championship game, beginning at 1:00 p.m. BSU would need to defeat the Golden Flashes twice on Saturday to claim the tournament crown.
The win was the 300th career victory for Kent coach Rick Rembielak. He is now 300-203-1 in his ninth year as a head coach, all with the Flashes.
Central Michigan (31-25) was eliminated from the six-team tournament.
The two starting hurlers, KSU's Matt Lorenzo and CMU's T.J. Johnson, put together the top two pitching performances of the tournament. Lorenzo picked up the win, improving to 6-2 on the season. The sophomore allowed five hits over seven scoreless innings, striking out a career-high 10 batters while issuing just one walk.
Gus Hlebovy pitched the final two innings for the Flashes, allowing just one hit to earn his 11th save of the year. Hlebovy struck out one Chippewa batter and did not issue a walk.
Johnson, also a sophomore, allowed only four hits in his complete-game effort. In his first career start, he walked three batters and fanned five. Johnson dropped to 1-2 on the year.
CMU mounted the first serious threat of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning. Jim Geldhof had a one-out single, and Tim Groves had a hit with two down. The runners moved to second and third on a wild pitch by Lorenzo, but the KSU hurler got David Latour to go too far on an attempted check swing for the inning-ending third strike.
Meanwhile, Johnson faced just one batter over the minimum in the first six innings. He allowed just one hit during that time, a second-inning single by Brady Glass, and walked a pair of batters in that span. KSU advanced only one runner as far as second base in those first six innings.
In the seventh, however, the Flashes finally broke the scoreless tie. Four consecutive batters reached base, for KSU, all with two outs. Pat O'Brien drew a walk, and Glass got his second hit of the game, driving a ball past diving third baseman Tim Bullinger. The ball went down the left-field line, and third-base coach Greg Beals sent O'Brien home. The CMU relay throw was wide as O'Brien slid in with the game's first run. Glass took third on the errant throw.
The next batter, Tom Martin, beat out a bad-hop single that hit Bullinger in the neck. Bullinger recovered in time to make a throw to first that Martin beat by a step as Glass crossed the plate.
Casey Ellis followed with another single, but Johnson then retired Chad Kinyon for the third out.
CMU mounted one more threat against Lorenzo, in the bottom of the seventh. Ryan Krueger was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and was erased on a Geldhof fielder's choice. Lorenzo then whiffed Scott Pickens for the second out, but walked Groves. The two runners then pulled off a double steal to put runners at second and third, but Lorenzo caught Latour looking for strike three after a 10-pitch at-bat.
From there, Hlebovy slammed the door on the Chippewas, allowing only a two-out single in the ninth.
Geldhof and Bullinger each had a pair of hits for CMU, while Glass had a pair of hits, including the only extra-base hit of the game, for the Golden Flashes.
The game was by far the lowest-scoring affair of the tournament. The first eight games of the tourney saw a total of 196 runs scored, an average of 24.5 per game.
There have been a total of 47 homers hit in the tourney, none in game nine.
KSU will be looking for the fourth MAC Tournament title in school history, having won the tourney in 1992, 1993 and 2001. KSU's Saturday opponent, Ball State, will be looking to win the tourney title for the first time in school history.
