Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Begins 2005 MAC Tournament on Wednesday, May 25
May 24, 2005 | Baseball
May 24, 2005
Bowling Green, Ohio -
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BGSU Headed to Postseason for First Time in Three Years
Bowling Green will be the No. 5 seed at this week's 2005 Mid-American Conference Tournament, hosted by No. 1 seed Miami University at McKie Field in Oxford, Ohio. BGSU finished fourth in the MAC West Division with a 12-8 league record and a 33-16 overall record. The Falcons will play No. 2 seed Ball State at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25. The bid for the Falcons snaps a two-year absence from the postseason. The last MAC Tournament the Falcons participated in was in 2002 when BGSU was the host school after winning the regular-season title with an 18-7 record.
The Falcons and the MAC Tournament
BGSU will be making its seventh appearance in the 14th year of the MAC Tournament. The Falcons are 10-10 in MAC postseason play, fifth-best among the 13 MAC affiliates. BGSU won back-to-back tournament titles in 1998 and 1999. The 1998 championship came at Warren Steller Field in Bowling Green while 1999's title was won at Ball State.
Congratulations to Miami...Maybe
Miami University won the 2005 MAC Regular Season title with a three-game sweep of Kent State last weekend. With the title, MU gets to host the MAC Postseason Tournament with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line. However, in the 15 previous MAC Baseball Tournaments (16, if one counts a neutral site in 1982), the home team has claimed the tournament title only four times. In 1997 and 1998, Ohio and Bowling Green each won the title on its home fields, while Kent State won back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993. In fact, the host has failed to make it to the title game in eight out of the last 10 years, including the last six seasons.
Danny Schmitz Records Career Win No. 400
Head Coach Danny Schmitz became the first coach in ANY SPORT at BGSU and the eighth coach in MAC history to record career victory No. 400 on April 29 in a 6-1 win vs. IPFW. Schmitz' 15-year record now stands at 409-360-4 (.532 pct.). He is third on the MAC active coaching list for career wins, behind Ohio's Joe Carbone (512) and EMU's Roger Coryell (484). Schmitz' 213 MAC wins are also third among active coaches.
Reimold Officially the Best "Slugger" in the Nation
JR Nolan Reimold enters the MAC Tournament leading the nation with his .791 slugging pct. Of his 51 hits this season, 30 are for extra-bases (20 home runs, 7 doubles, 3 triples). In 2002, when Kelly Hunt set the school record for home runs in a season with 22, his slugging pct. was .785. The school record for slugging pct. is an amazing .898 by Ron Blackledge in 1960 when he led the nation. Reimold is also fourth nationally in home runs per game (.42 pg) while his 20 home runs are just four off the national leader, Adam Tucker of Birmingham-Southern. AND, he is 17th in the nation with 1.25 RBIs per-game. He leads the MAC in all of these categories, as well as total bases (136) and on-base pct. (.498). Reimold also is second in the MAC with a .366 batting avg. and tied for third in runs scored (51) and walks (38).
Homerin' Down the Home Stretch
JR Nolan Reimold homered in his fourth-straight game on Tuesday, May 17, at Michigan a two-run blast. After "slumping" with no home runs in 11 games, Reimold has hit a home run in seven of his last 13 games and five of his last six games.
Killer "Bs" - Badenhop and Brech
SR Burke Badenhop (9-2) and SO Alan Brech (8-1) have combined for over half of BGSU's 33 victories this season. Badenhop's nine wins lead the MAC and are the most by a Falcon pitcher since Jason Kelley's school-record 12 wins in 1999. His 69.2 IPP and two complete games are a career-high and lead the Falcons, while his 55 strikeouts ties a career-high. Brech leads the Falcons with a 3.07 ERA and 63 strikeouts. The southpaw is 5-0 with a 2.78 ERA in MAC play. He has won his last seven decisions.
Andy Hudak Going Out With a Bang
SR Andy Hudak is making sure no one forgets about him when he leaves BGSU. The senior infielder leads the MAC with a .378 batting avg. and is among the top three in on-base pct., walks, runs scored, RBIs, and slugging pct. He will end his collegiate career among the top-10 all-time at BGSU in eight different categories, including RBIs (4th, 159), doubles (4th, 45), batting avg. (5th, .373), total bases (5th, 338), runs (6th, 151), hits (6th, 209), walks (8th, 100), and home runs (T-9th, 26).
Lawson's Streak
SO Eric Lawson enters the MAC Tourney having hit safely in 19 of his last 22 games (.418 avg., 13 doubles, 21 runs during that stretch). For the season, he has failed to reach base via a hit or a walk in just three games while serving as BGSU's lead-off hitter in 40 games. He leads the Falcons and is T-4th in the MAC with 17 doubles, two away from the school record.
Sacrificial Falcon
SR Jeff Warnock is ranked sixth in the nation in sacrifice hits with a 0.29 sacrifice per game avg. He has laid down a career-high 14 sacrifice bunts this season, two more than his total from a year ago. Add those to his two sacrifice flies and he is just one sacrifice away from the BGSU record for total sacrifices set by Mike Lanseer in 1977 (17). Warnock has 42 career sacrifices, the most of any current Falcon.
