Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
XAVIER
Another Hangbers Walk-Off Homer, Another Falcon Win
May 13, 2008 | Baseball
May 13, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - In a scene very similar to this past Saturday evening, Falcon junior first baseman Brian Hangbers came to the plate in the ninth inning as the game's winning run and once again became that run, as his 12th homer of the season and second of the game led the Bowling Green State University baseball team to a 6-5 come-from-behind victory on Tuesday over the Xavier Musketeers. The mid-week non-conference contest was held at Warren E. Steller Field.
The victory improved BG to 28-18 overall on the season, while the Musketeers fell to 22-29.
BG fell behind 2-0 through one and a half innings, before tying the game up at two all in the home half of the second. They then scored single runs in the third and fourth to take a 4-2 lead, but fell behind again in the seventh after a Musketeer homer in the sixth tied the game at four and a single run in the seventh gave XU a 5-4 edge, which they had all the way up till the game's final play.
Hangbers, who made that final play, was 1-of-2 Falcons to finish with multiple-hits in the contest, as he went 2-for-4 at the dish, scoring two runs and driving in three. Mark Galvin the other Falcon with multiple base knocks, finished 3-for-4 with a run scored, while also adding an RBI.
Earning the win after tossing a scoreless ninth inning was Marty Baird, who improved to 1-2 on the year. Taking the loss for the Musketeers was Jordan Conley, who fell to 1-1 and saw his chance at his 10th save of the year become lost on the second-straight Falcon walk-off homer.
That walk-off home run came however, when things weren't looking up for the Falcons. Ryan Schlater flied to right to leadoff the Falcon ninth, just before Galvin was able to reach on fielding error by XU's third baseman. Andrew Foster then lined out to short, which brought Hangbers to the plate as the Falcons' final hope. But luckily for the BG, the junior left-hander delievered and made sure Steller Field was closed for the year on a high note.
With two outs and a runner on first, Hangbers took Conley's 2-2 pitch and belted it over the fence in left center to bring Galvin home with him and hand the Falcons their season-best eighth-straight victory.
For Hangbers, it was hie second walk-off job in as many games, as just three days earlier he hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth against Buffalo to give BG a 9-8 victory.
The home run also marked the second-time on the afternoon Hangbers gave the Falcons a lead via the deep ball.
With the game tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the third, the Hamilton, Ohio native drilled a 2-0 pitch from Musketeer starter Brett Greenwell for his first homer of the afternoon. The ball just cleared the top of the batter's eye in dead center field, as the Falcons earned their first lead in the game on his 11th homer of the year.
That came after XU started the contest with single runs in the top half of the first and second to take an early 2-0 edge. BG then battled back with a two-spot in the home half of the second to tie the game at 2-2. Ryan Price and Galvin both picked up RBI-singles in the inning as the Falcons had three hits and took advantage of one Musketeer error.
A solo home run by David Borcherdt (his third of the season) would then extend the Falcon lead to 4-2 in the fourth, as starter Nick Cantrell looked well on pace to earning his eighth victory of the season.
That all changed though in the sixth when the Mueketeers got a two-run homer from catcher Tyler Aholt to tie the game up at four all. Dan Hayden then layed down a perfectly placed suicide squeeze bunt to pull XU ahead 5-4 in the seventh, as BG suddenly saw its' hopes to continue its' winning-streak begin to take a turn.
But when the momentum was starting to turn in XU's favor, the Falcon bullpen came in and once again saved the day.
Dusty Hawk, Charles Wooten and Baird would allow just a single run on three hits in three combined innings of work to keep BG close and earn the eventual victory.
They were aided in the field by three double plays, that helped them strand seven Musketeers on base for the afternoon.
Aiding in the Falcons' early success was Cantrell, who got the start in his final home contest. The Waldo, Ohio was again stellar in his outing, going five innings, allowing just two runs (one earned) on seven hits with two strikeouts. On the other side, Greenwell tossed three innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits, giving way to reliever Ben Thomas in the fourth, who went five innings, surrendering a run also on four hits.
Leading the way for the Musketeers in the contest were first baseman Zac Richard and third baseman John McCambridge who each had three hits. Aholt added a homer and two RBI.
BG will return to the diamond on Thursday when the head to Lee Jackson Field in Akron, Ohio to battle Mid-American Conference East Division rival Akron. Game one of the Falcons' final MAC weekend series will start at 3 p.m. on Thursday with games two and three on Friday and Saturday both tossing the first pitch at 1 p.m. Live statistics for the series can be found at www.bgsufalcons, via gametracker, which can be found on the team's schedule page.
