Bowling Green State University
AKRON
Baseball's Win Streak Reaches Nine With, 15-9, Win At Akron
May 15, 2008 | Baseball
May 15, 2008
AKRON, Ohio - Nine runs in the first four innings helped the Bowling Green State University baseball team break open an early 9-1 lead en rout to a 15-9 victory over the University of Akron on Thursday at UA's Lee Jackson Field in game one of their three-game Mid-American Conference series. BG scored three runs in the first, third and fourth innings with four runs coming via home runs from Derek Spencer and Brian Hangbers, as the run total was more than enough for starter Frank Berry, who earned his sixth victory of the year.
With the victory the Falcons improved to 29-18 overall and 14-8 in the MAC, while the Zips fell to 25-22 and 8-11, respectively.
Berry, who was making his 10th start of the season, went seven innings on the day, giving up just four runs on 10 hits with two strikeouts. The effort improved the Virginia Beach, Va. native to 6-1 on the season, as he moved to within two victories of entering the top-10 of BG's single-season wins list.
Helping Berry on the day was senior outfielder Andrew Foster, who went 4-for-5 at the plate with three runs scored and a game-high five RBI. Adding two RBI each then were Hangbers, Ryan Shay and Spencer, as Hangbers was 2-for-6 with a homer, Shay was 3-for-4 with four runs scored and Spencer was 1-for-4 with a home run.
The Falcons led 9-1 after the top half of the fourth inning, before the Zips rallied for three runs in the home half to close to within five. That would be as close as the game would get however, as BG went on to add two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh to lead 14-4 at the seventh inning stretch. UA tallied five runs in the final two innings, but it wouldn't be enough to keep BG from continuing its' longest winning-streak of the season - a streak that has now reached nine games.
No Falcon team has nine-straight games since the 1999 season when BG won 10-straight, starting with a four-game May sweep of the Zips at Jackson Field.
BG wasted no time grabbing an early lead in the first inning. After Shay led-off the inning with a single, he was immediately advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Foster. A double by Hangbers would plate Shay for the game's first run just before Spencer tacked on two more with a two-run shot to center field.
For Spencer, it was his ninth-homer of the season and as he also recorded his team-best 46th and 47th RBI on the play.
BG continued to pour on the runs in the third then, as Hangbers hit his team-best 13th home run of the season to drive in two runs and make it 5-1. A UA fielding error would also lead to a Falcon run in the inning as BG needed just four hits to score its' first six runs.
Three more BG runs in the fourth would run UA starter Frank Turocy from the game, as he was saddled with just his third loss of the season. Turocy, who fell to 6-3, went four innings, surrendering nine runs (eight earned) on seven hits.
Turocy's bullpen couldn't stop the bleeding though, as BG continued to pour on the runs. Foster picked up his second RBI of the day with an RBI-double in the sixth inning, while Mark Galvin added an RBI-groundout to give BG an 11-4 edge.
That lead grew to 10 runs then in the seventh. Shay tallied hit number three on an RBI-double, just one at bat before Foster pounded his sixth homer of the season to deep center to plate two more and give the Falcons a 14-4 lead.
Despite some troubles, the lead would be more than adequate, as BG won its' third-straight game when it was out-hit by its' opponent. The Falcons were just 4-14, prior to that streak, when it was out-hit by the opposition.
UA held a 17-16 edge in hits, but it also held the edge in errors as the Zips committed three errors in the field to BG's one.
The two teams will resume their three-game series on Friday afternoon, as first pitch for game two is scheduled for 1 p.m. Taking the hill for the Falcons will be left-hander Kevin Light (4-3), who will be getting the start against right-hander Tom Farmer (3-3) for the Zips. Live statistics for the game will be available on www.gozips.com.
NOTES Ryan Shay's seventh inning double gives him 18 for the season, which puts him one double shy of tying the single-season school record ... with its' three home runs on Thursday, BG has now hit 50 home runs in the last 23 games ... the 14 road games won by BG now this season are the second-most by a Danny Schmitz coached team and the second-most in the program's recorded history only to the 1999 Falcons that won 17 road games... BG's win clinched a finish of no lower than second-place in the East Division ... the Falcons were 10-for-24 on the day with runners in scoring position.
