Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Kent State
Walk-Off Homer Lifts Kent State Past Falcons, 3-2
May 11, 2006 | Softball
May 11, 2006
MIDLAND, Mich. - Kim Hamilton's one-out homerun in the bottom of the seventh gave Kent State University a 3-2 win over the Bowling Green State University softball team Thursday night (May 11). The game, a Mid-American Conference Tournament winners' bracket contest, was held at Currie Stadium.
With the victory, the Golden Flashes improve to 30-22 on the season, while the Falcons drop to 36-22. BGSU will return to the diamond on Friday morning (May 12), facing Ohio University in a game slated to begin at 11:00 a.m. The Bobcats eliminated Central Michigan with a 4-1 win Thursday night.
On a cold, blustery night in Midland, Mich., the game did not start well for the Falcons. KSU put runners on second and third on just two pitches in the bottom of the first inning. Hamilton was hit by a pitch, and Jessica Toocheck followed with a single to center, with Hamilton moving to third base and Toocheck taking second on the BG throw toward third.
Falcon freshman Hayley Wiemer and the BGSU defense escaped the jam, however. Wiemer got three consecutive grounders to the left side of the infield. The first two were fielded by third baseman Gina Rango, who looked Hamilton back to third in each case, before firing to Lindsay Heimrich at first. The next hitter, Ashley Ball, grounded to shortstop Dawnjene DeLong, who got the final out with a toss to first.
KSU starter Brittney Robinson, as she had done in the opening inning, set the Falcons down in order in the top of the second frame. Robinson, the MAC Pitcher of the Year, then staked herself to an early lead, starting off the bottom of the second frame with a homerun to leftfield.
After the homer, the next two Flashes got aboard, as Ashley Fairhurst singled and Megan Verde walked, but Wiemer avoided further damage by getting a fly ball to left, a fielder's choice grounder and a soft liner to third base.
BGSU's first baserunner came in the top of the third inning, as Wiemer drew a four-pitch walk with one out. Then, Heimrich put down a sacrifice bunt, and both runners were safe when the KSU throw to first base was high. Wiemer continued to third on the play to put runners at the corners.
The next batter, junior Jeanine Baca, hit a cue-ball shot off the end of her bat, with the ball caroming off the glove of the KSU first baseman for another error. Wiemer scored on the play, with Heimrich advancing to second. It marked the second-straight game that the Falcons scored a run without benefit of a hit.
The Falcons' first hit of the game gave the Brown and Orange the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Freshman Desiree Miller led off the inning with a walk, and pinch-runner/flex player Megan McPherson stole second. McPherson took third base on a groundout, but Robinson then got a popup for the second out.
All-MAC First-Team catcher Abby Habicht, however, gave the Falcons a 2-1 lead by ripping a Robinson pitch to the gap in left-centerfield. The ball rolled all the way to the temporary fence as McPherson trotted home.
In the home half of the fourth, the Golden Flashes got a baserunner on Fairhurst's one-out walk, but Wiemer got Verde to hit a grounder to third. Rango grabbed the ball on the foul line and fired to McPherson, whose relay to Heimrich was in time for an inning-ending double play.
The Falcons put two-straight runners on base with one out in the top of the fifth. After Baca singled up the middle, DeLong hit a hot grounder that went through the legs of first baseman Jamie Fitzpatrick before she could get her glove down. Baca advanced to third on the single.
As Robinson prepared to release her next pitch, the first-base umpire ruled that DeLong had left first base early, resulting in the second out. Then, Robinson got a popup to shallow leftfield to retire the side.
Corey Houk reached on a BG error to begin the bottom of the fifth, as it was ruled that the Falcon throw forced Heimrich to pull her foot off the bag on a bang-bang play. Houk took second on a grounder, and Toocheck reached base on a fielder's choice, putting runners on first and second.
Wiemer then got a strikeout of Whitney Lebowitz for the second out, but Fitzpatrick followed with an inside-out swing that produced a fly ball just out of the reach of McPherson in shallow right-center. Houk scored to tie the game, with each of the other runners advancing a base on the throw. After a lengthy at-bat, Wiemer got Ball to ground to Heimrich, who touched first for the final out of the half-inning.
From that point, neither team had so much as a baserunner until Hamilton's one-out blast ended the contest in the bottom of the seventh.
Robinson got the win to improve to 28-11 on the year. She allowed one earned run and three hits, walking a pair of batters and striking out six. She threw 60 strikeouts among her 106 total pitches.
Wiemer dropped to 10-11 on the spring, allowing two earned runs and five hits. She issued two walks and had four strikeouts, with 61 strikes among her 95 pitches on the night.
BGSU's Friday morning contest against the Bobcats will be an elimination game, with the loser knocked out of the MAC Tournament.
