Bowling Green State University Athletics
Baseball Team Begins MAC Play Friday
March 19, 2009 | Baseball
March 19, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -
BG Baseball Notes/Stats (vs. Western Michigan) 
This Weekend
Fri. - Sun., March 20-22
Western Michigan at Bowling Green
Steller Field - Friday (3 p.m.); Saturday/Sunday (1 p.m.)
FALCONS BEGIN MAC SCHEDULE AT HOME
The Bowling Green State University baseball team, coming off a 5-3 record on their spring trip to Winter Haven, Fla. and a win over Michigan State to start their home schedule, begins defense of their 2008 Mid-American Conference regular season and East Division titles hosting Western Michigan, the preseason West Division favorite, for a three-game weekend series.
SERIES INFORMATION
Western Michigan has a 71-54 edge in the series with Bowling Green...the series last season at WMU was snowed out...WMU took two of three from the Falcons in the 2007 season...in the last series played in Bowling Green, BG swept a three-game series from the Broncos in the 2006 season.
FALCONS OUTLAST MICHIGAN STATE IN ONLY MID-WEEK GAME
BG pounded out a season-high 19 hits and had a 16-8 lead after seven innings, but had to hang on for a 16-13 win over Michigan State on Tuesday. The Falcons had a five-run fifth and a five-run seventh to take a comfortable lead, but the Spartans came back and made things interesting in the final inning getting the tying run to the plate. Junior Logan Meisler had four hits and three RBI while junior Mark Galvin had three hits and four RBI to lead the Falcon offense. Sophomore Kyle Atkinson got the win in relief, his first collegiate victory.
SPRING TRIP REVIEW
The Falcons posted a 5-3 record on their spring trip to Winter Haven, Fla. BG started with a pair of wins over Fairfield (11-3) and Eastern Kentucky (8-4) before losing back-to-back games to Bucknell (10-7) and Connecticut (21-6). BG then won three of their last four to complete the trip with a winning record. The Falcons got consecutive strong starts in posting wins over Sacred Heart (1-0) and Northern Iowa (3-0). On the final day of their trip, they lost a 15-7 decision to Indiana before scoring a run in the bottom of the 10th inning to earn an 11-10 win over Bradley.
BATS COME ALIVE
Expected to be the strength of the team, Bowling Green started the spring trip having hit only .259 as a team in the first six games of the season and had averaged just 4.5 runs per game. But, the warm weather got the Falcon offense in high gear as they hit .339 in the eight games and scored 54 runs (6.8 per game). BG had a team slugging percentage of .435 with 23 extra-base hits (19 doubles, three triples, one home run) in the eight contests while they had a team on-base percentage of .390.
SPENCER OFF TO BIG START
Junior third baseman Derek Spencer led the team with a .452 (14-of-31) average in Florida. In addition, the first-team All-MAC selection last season drove in 13 runs and scored nine times. He had a .613 slugging percentage for the week and a .514 on-base percentage. He hit safely in seven of the eight games (he did not have a hit in the Indiana contest) and had four RBI in the Bradley game and three RBI in the Fairfield and Eastern Kentucky contests. For the season, Spencer is hitting .357 with 18 RBI and 13 runs scored.
SMITH, MALEWITZ EMERGE
With last year's #1 starter Frank Berry II sidelined with an injury, the Falcons have been looking for someone on the pitching staff to step forward and earn that role. They may have found two players while in Florida. Sophomores Brennan Smith and Matt Malewitz both had two strong starts on the trip. Smith did not give up an earned run in 13.0 innings of work and Malewitz had a 1.84 ERA in 14.2 innings. Smith won both of his starts, against Fairfield and Sacred Heart, while Malewitz had a complete game win over Northern Iowa and a no-decision after going 5.2 innings in the Eastern Kentucky game. Smith pitched five innings with six strikeouts in the Fairfield game and came back with eight innings of one-hit pitching against Sacred Heart. He had a career-high 10 strikeouts in the Sacred Heart contest and faced only one batter over the minimum. Malewitz followed Smith's performance with an even a better one, a complete game one-hitter facing the minimum 27 batters against Northern Iowa. Malewitz needed just 95 pitches to complete the shutout of Northern Iowa. Smith started the Michigan State game on Tuesday and pitched one inning allowing a run while striking out three.
MALEWITZ MAC POW
For his performance against Northern Iowa last week, sophomore Matt Malewitz was named the East Division Pitcher of the Week in the Mid-American Conference, the league office announced Wednesday. Malewitz tossed a complete game one-hitter against Northern Iowa to earn his first win of the season. The Grand Rapids, Mich. native did not allow a runner past first base and only a leadoff single in the fourth inning kept him from recording the ninth no-hitter in school history.
MORE OFFENSIVE NUMBERS
In addition to Spencer, a number of Falcon players enjoyed the warm weather and used that to get their bats going. Junior Tyler Elkins, who missed all of last season with an injury after transferring from John Logan CC, hit .433 (13-of-30) on the trip with six doubles, three RBI and seven runs scored. Elkins has a 10-game hitting streak going and he has hit safely in 11 of the 13 games he has played in this season. Junior T.J. Blanton hit .423 (11-of-26) with six runs scored and four RBI. He had three doubles and a triple starting all eight games. Senior Brian Hangbers saw a career-best eight game hitting streak come to an end when he went hitless in the final game of the trip against Bradley, but he hit .419 (13-of-31) in Florida with four runs scored. Senior Ryan Shay hit .333 (11-of-33) with 10 runs scored and six RBI. Juniors Logan Meisler (nine-of-27) and Mark Galvin (eight-of-24) also hit .333 in Florida. Meisler had seven RBI and Galvin had six. Freshman Patrick Martin played in four games in Florida, making three starts, and hit .429 (six-of-14) with four runs scored.
ATKINSON MAKES LONG STINT
Sophomore Kyle Atkinson made the longest stint of his young career in getting the win in the Michigan State game Tuesday. Atkinson pitched a total of 1.0 inning in two appearances last season and had pitched 3.0 innings this season in four appearances prior to the game with the Spartans. Atkinson went 4.1 innings with four strikeouts in the MSU game allowing seven hits and five earned runs while making almost 90 pitches.
ELKINS SWINGING A HOT BAT
Junior Tyler Elkins has earned a spot somewhere in the starting lineup by swinging a hot bat of late. Elkins has started each of the last eight games, four behind the plate and two at first and two as the designated hitter. But, no matter where he has played, he has been successful at the plate. Elkins has a 10-game hitting streak going that dates back to the Feb. 27 game at Louisville. Elkins, who missed all of last season after undergoing surgery after transferring from John Logan CC, has hit .432 (19-of-44) with five RBI and 11 runs scored during his hitting streak. For the season, he leads the team with a .408 average while he also leads the team with six doubles. Elkins has had three hits in each of his last two games.
HE JUST KEEPS HITTING
Senior Ryan Shay, after hitting .412 last season to lead the MAC and rank 22nd in the country, has continued this season where he left off in 2008. He is hitting .373 for the season and has hit .556 (10-of-18) in the last four games with two or more hits in each game. He has hit safely in 12 of the 15 contests this season and 58 of his last 67 games dating back to last season. Shay has reached safely leading off for the Falcons in eight of the 15 games.
BERRY TO MISS SOME TIME
Junior Frank Berry II, who was expected to be the #1 starter this season, had bone spurs removed from his pitching elbow and is expected to miss the early part of the season. Berry made 11 starts in his first year in the program last season after transferring from Longwood University. He led the staff with 70.0 innings of work and compiled a 7-1 record to go along with a 4.76 ERA. He was the opening game starter in all eight MAC series last season and he started the first game of the MAC Tournament for the Falcons. He went five or more innings in seven of his nine starts against MAC teams. His seven wins was the second-best total in the conference. He also is a career .264 hitter.
RETURNING ALL-LEAGUE
Bowling Green has two players returning this season who were All-MAC choices last season. Senior shortstop Ryan Shay and junior third baseman Derek Spencer were both first-team all-conference selections in 2008. Shay led the league and was 22nd nationally with a .412 batting average while Spencer was eighth in the league hitting .360. Shay, whose average last season was 155 points higher than his career average coming into the season, hit safely in 46 of the 52 games setting school records for batting average, hits (87) and doubles (19). He had a 16-game hitting streak and a 17-game hitting streak, fourth-best in school history. Shay was also a first-team All-Mideast selection last season. Spencer led the team with 54 RBI (third in the MAC, tied for eighth on BGSU single-season list) and in extra-base hits (25) and two-out RBI (21). He did not go more than two games at any point in the season without getting a hit.
FALCON CAPTAINS
Seniors Ryan Shay (SS), Dusty Hawk (RHP), Brian Hangbers (1B) and Kevin Leady (RHP) will serve as captains of the 2009 team. Leady will not play this season after having surgery in November.
EARLY SEASON HONORS
Senior shortstop Ryan Shay was picked as one of the top seven shortstops in the country by the web site Ping!Baseball. The web site picked the top players in the country for their preseason All-American list and included Shay among the best shortstops in the land. Shay also was named to the preseason All-MAC team by Baseball America. In the same publication, freshman Jon Berti was picked as the second-best newcomer in the MAC this season.
FALCONS THIRD IN EAST
The 2009 Falcon team was picked third in the MAC East Division in the preseason poll of the conference coaches. Bowling Green shared the 2008 East Division and MAC regular season titles with Kent State as both finished with a 16-8 mark in loop action. BG was picked behind Kent State and Ohio in the East. Western Michigan was the pick of the coaches to capture the West Division. Kent was the favorite to win the MAC Tournament.
2009 MAC Preseason Coaches Poll
East Division
1. Kent State
2. Ohio
3. Bowling Green
4. Miami
5. Akron
6. Buffalo
West Division
1. Western Michigan
2. Ball State
3. Central Michigan
4. Northern Illinois
5. Eastern Michigan
6. Toledo
BGSU BLOOP SINGLES
The back-to-back shutouts on the spring trip were the first since the spring trip in 2007 when BG shutout Georgetown (5-0) and IPFW (11-0) in consecutive games...senior Brian Hangbers had a career-best eight game hitting streak come to an end in the final game of the spring trip...he hit .484 (15-of-31) with three runs scored and one RBI during his streak which went back to the March 1 Louisville game...Hangbers had a hit in the Michigan State game Tuesday and has now hit safely in 11 games this season...Hangbers has 804 career putouts to rank fourth on the BG career list...with 30 more putouts he will assume the #3 spot...BG has turned 19 double plays this season (1.27 per game) after leading the conference with 59 twin-killings last season...BG's average of 1.13 double plays per game last season was 14th in the nation...BG is averaging 6.5 runs per game while the opposition is averaging 9.5 runs...despite the difference in runs scored, BG is hitting one point higher, .318 to .317, than their opposition...the Falcons went seven games without a home run before hitting two in the win over Michigan State...senior Ryan Shay has moved into or is on the brink of moving into some BGSU career categories...he is 10th in at-bats (596, 10th), he needs 12 runs scored to assume the #10 spot in that category, his 192 career hits is just five shy of 10th-place and his 40 doubles puts him in a tie for seventh on the BG career list...in addition, his 464 assists is third on the BG career list...junior Mark Galvin has hit safely in his last five games and is hitting .450 (9-for-20) over the period with eight RBI and four runs scored...junior T.J. Blanton has also hit safely in his last five games and is hitting .444 (8-for-18) over the five contests with four RBI and four runs scored...sophomore Brennan Smith's eight innings or work in his start against Sacred Heart was three innings more than his previous longest...Smith is averaging 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings...the BG staff matched its season best with 12 strikeouts in the Michigan State game Tuesday...BG also had 12 K's vs. Sacred Heart.
NEXT WEEK
The Falcons have mid-week games with Findlay (March 24) and Cleveland State (March 25) at home before embarking on their first MAC road trip, a three-game series against Northern Illinois (March 27-29).
