Falcons Outlast Michigan State In The Home Opener

Tuesday, March 17

Bowling Green, Ohio

3:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

MICHIGAN STATE

March 17, 2009 | Baseball

March 17, 2009

Final Stats

BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - The Bowling Green State University baseball team collected 19 hits and survived five errors to win their fourth game in their last five outings defeating Big Ten foe Michigan State, 16-13, Tuesday afternoon at Steller Field. It was the home opener for the Falcons who are now 6-9 on the season while the Spartans fell to 2-14.

Under sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s, both teams battled back and forth before the Falcons took the upper hand with a five-run fifth inning, which gave them an 11-6 lead, and a five-run seventh, that increased their advantage to 16-8.

In the fifth, the Falcons had six hits, all singles, to score their five runs. BG scored one run on a balk after freshman Jon Berti had led off with a single and junior Mark Galvin's single moved Berti to third. Senior Ryan Shay had an RBI single to drive home Galvin and he moved to third on singles by juniors Tyler Elkins and Derek Spencer. Shay scored on a wild pitch with the other runners moving up a base. Junior Logan Meisler then drove home both runners with a single to center field.

In the seventh, junior Dennis Vaughn singled up the middle with one out. After Elkins singled through the right side to move Vaughn up two bases, Spencer drove him home with a sacrifice fly. Meisler then stroked an RBI double to right center and senior Brian Hangbers drove him home with a roller through the right side. Berti then reached on a bunt single and Galvin doubled to left field to send home Hangbers and Berti with the last BG runs of the game.

Michigan State scored a run in the eighth on a Chris Roberts home run and made things very interesting in the ninth frame before the Falcons held on.

Bo Felt doubled with one out in the ninth to drive home two runs and end the day for junior reliever Phil Hettlinger, who had worked 2.1 innings. Sophomore Clay Duncan came on for the Falcons and was greeted by a double off the bat of Seth Williams, his fourth hit of the game, to score Felt and the gap had been narrowed to 16-12.

MSU lead off hitter Eli Boike then hit a grounder that ended up being misplayed twice and by the time the play had ended, Williams had scored and Boike was at second base. After a ground out that advanced Boike to third, Roberts walked to bring the tying run to the plate. But, Duncan caught MSU third baseman Eric Roof looking at a third strike and BG had ended the Spartan rally and collected the victory.

Sophomore Brennan Smith started and worked only the first inning striking out the side, but only after Boike had led off the game with a home run on the second pitch.

The Falcons then got 4.1 important innings of relief from winning pitcher Kyle Atkinson. The sophomore had appeared in only two games last season for a total of 1.0 inning and had pitched only three innings this season in four appearances. Atkinson had four strikeouts and allowed five earned runs, two in the second and fourth innings and one in the sixth with him tiring, in the longest stint of his young career.

Sophomore Richie O'Brien and worked in the game along with Hettlinger and Duncan.

Meisler led the offensive attack with four hits, equalling a career high, while driving in three runs and scoring twice. Galvin had three safeties, including his first home run of the season in the second inning, and four RBI to equal career highs in both while Shay had three hits and a like number of RBI and runs scored. Elkins extended his hitting streak to 10 games, during which he is hitting .432 (19-of-44), while scoring two runs and collecting an RBI.

The Falcons got a hit from every spot in the batting order on their way to their highest hit total of the season.

The Falcons look to keep their winning ways going when they open defense of their Mid-American Conference regular season and East Division titles this weekend hosting preseason West Division favorite Western Michigan to open league play. The series will be played at Steller Field with single games on Friday (3 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).