Bowling Green State University
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WESTERN MICHIGAN
Baseball Team Drops 10-Inning Contest To Western Michigan
March 21, 2009 | Baseball
March 21, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - The Bowling Green baseball game with Western Michigan was like a basketball game with three ties and two lead changes before the Broncos squeezed across a run in the 10th inning without a hit to earn a 13-12 extra-inning victory Saturday afternoon at Steller Field. WMU improved to 4-13 overall and 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference while the Falcons are now 7-10 and 1-1 in league play. Bowling Green won the series opener Friday by a 5-2 count.
Both teams used four pitchers in a contest the featured 32 hits and 25 runs. Sophomore Matt Malewitz started for the Falcons and went five innings while sophomore Brian Stroud made the start for Western Michigan and went 4.2 innings. Neither pitcher figured in the decision in a game that was dominated by the offense from the outset.
WMU scored a run in the first and four runs in the second to take a quick 5-0 lead as they collected seven hits, including two home runs in the second inning to account for the four runs.
After Malewitz got out of a bases loaded, two-out jam in the top of the third, the Falcon offense went to work in the bottom half of the frame doing all their damage with two outs.
Freshman Patrick Martin started it with a one-out walk. After a BG strikeout, senior Ryan Shay walked. Junior Tyler Elkins' single through the right side scored both Martin and Shay, who beat the throw to the plate with Elkins moving up a base. Junior Derek Spencer then tripled in Elkins and senior Brian Hangbers, who had walked after the Elkins single. And the Falcons made it a new game when junior Logan Meisler knocked home Spencer with a single to right field.
After WMU took the lead 6-5 on a walk and a double in the top of the fifth, BG took its only lead of the game with two runs in their half of the fifth.
Elkins his a solo home run, his first of the season, to left field with one out to tie the game and junior Mark Galvin plated the go-ahead run with a single down the left field line that drove home Hangbers who had singled and moved up one base on a Meisler single.
Western Michigan scored three runs on three hits in the sixth to re-take the advantage and built their edge to 10-7 with a pair of singles sandwiched around a ground out that accounted for a run in the seventh.
The Falcons got back to even with two runs in the seventh and a single tally in the eighth.
BG loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh and scored their two runs when Western Michigan reliever Derek Mosher hit two consecutive batters. The Falcons left the bases loaded in the seventh. They got back to even at 10-all in the eighth when Hangbers led off the inning with a home run, his first of the season, to right center.
WMU scored two in the top of the ninth after the Falcons thought they had escaped a possible rally. The Broncos had their first two batter reach in the inning on a double and a walk. But the Falcons seem to get out of trouble when a sacrifice bunt attempt by Grant Simotes was caught by Hangbers between first base and home plate and he threw to Shay at second to double off Matt Abro, who had doubled. But, WMU pushed across a pair of runs with two outs when the next two batters reached on a walk and a hit batter to load the bases and junior Kyle Galbraith delivered a single through the left side of the infield.
But, as they had done all day, the Falcons came right back to even things up and force extra innings as freshman Jon Berti beat out a bunt to lead off the ninth inning, and after a ground out, Shay hit his third home run of the season over the left field fence driving in Berti.
Then in the tenth, WMU loaded he bases on two walks and a hit batter and with one out Simotes hit a fly ball to center field to drive in the winning run. A single in the 10th inning by Bowling Green was wiped out when WMU ended the agme by turning a 4-6-3 double play.
Sophomore Clay Duncan suffered the loss pitching the last 1.1 innings. Senior Marty Baird and sophomore Charles Wooten also pitched for the Falcons. Junior Tim Mowry was the winner pitching tossing the last three innings for the Broncos.
Like the Friday game, the Falcons got at least one hit from every spot in the order except one with Elkins and Meisler both collecting three hits. Elkins extended his hitting streak to 12 games with his performance. Shay had two hits and three RBI, while Hangbers collected a pair of hits and scored three times. Spencer also had two hits and added a pair of RBI. The top five batters in the BG order were a collective 12-for-24 with 10 RBI and nine runs scored.
The two teams will decide the series on Sunday in a 1 p.m. game at Steller Field.
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