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Bowling Green State University
OHIO
Falcons Drop Season Finale, 12-11
May 20, 2006 | Baseball
May 20, 2006
ATHENS, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University baseball team concluded the 2006 season with a disappointing 12-11 loss at Ohio. The Falcons banged out 13 hits in the losing effort.
Falcon starter Marty Baird began the game by retiring the first six Ohio batters, but a throwing error in the third inning allowed the Bobcats to push an unearned run across the plate. Baird did not let the fielding blunder shake him, however, converting a sliding catch off a popped-up bunt to get the first out. The Findlay, Ohio native then started an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded that read "123 GDP" in the scorebook.
Bowling Green responded the following inning with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning. Junior Kurt Wells's single was followed by a walk to give the Brown and Orange two runners with no outs. Sophomore Andrew Foster then reached first when he laid down a bunt in which Ohio unsuccessfully attempted to nab the lead runner at third base, loading the bases. Wells tied the game up by jogging home off a Jeff Telmanik sacrifice fly to deep left-center field. A perfectly executed sacrifice squeeze by Freshman Ryan Shay notched the Falcons second run.
BGSU started the fifth at the top of batting order, tallying four straight singles to score a run and load the bases once again. With a 2-0 count, Freshman Brian Hangbers made a souvenir out of an inside pitch, crushing a grand slam off the batters' eye in straight-away center field. The Falcons owned a 7-1 lead at the halfway point.
Ohio refused to go away quietly, trimming the Falcon lead to a lone run after a five-run sixth inning. A two-run homerun by Anthony Gressick that cleared the scoreboard in left-center highlighted the inning for the Bobcats. Gressick recorded his second homerun on the day the following inning, knotting the score at 7-7. Unfortunately, the runs kept coming for the Bobcats as they took an 11-7 heading into the eighth.
Two walks issued by the Bobcat reliever gave Hangbers another opportunity to drive in some runs, and he did just that. The left-handed first baseman tallied his fifth and sixth RBI of the game with a bases-clearing double to center field. Later in the inning, pinch hitter Brandon McFarland belted a grounder up the middle that ricocheted of the second baseman's glove, allowing the Falcons to score run number 10.
With just one out remaining and still trailing by a run, Freshman Kevin Leady delivered a clutch RBI-single for an 11-11 score. A groundball by the next Falcon batter ended the rally.
Unforunately, Gressick continued his stellar day, sneaking a groundball through the left side of the infield to win the game, 12-11. Saturday's contest marks the second bottom of the ninth loss in as many days.
Bowling Green finishes the season at 26-27 overall and 11-16 in conference play.
