Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Findlay and Cleveland State This Week
March 23, 2009 | Baseball
March 23, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -
BG Stats/Notes For Mid-Week Games 
This Week
Tues., March 24
Findlay (3-13) at Bowling Green
Steller Field - 3 p.m.
Wed., March 25
Cleveland State (3-13) at Bowling Green
Steller Field - 3 p.m.
Fri. - Sun., March 27-29
Bowling Green at Northern Illinois (8-12, 3-0)
McKinzie Field - Friday (4 p.m. (EDT)); Saturday/Sunday (2 p.m. (EDT))
FALCONS HAVE TWO AT HOME THEN NEXT SEVEN ON THE ROAD
The Bowling Green State University baseball team has two mid-week games this week before getting back into Mid-American Conference play at Northern Illinois this weekend. The Falcons complete a six-game homestand with contests Tuesday against Findlay and Wednesday with Cleveland State. Both games begin at 3 p.m. at Steller Field. The weekend series with Northern Illinois will feature single games on Friday (4 p.m. (EDT)), Saturday (2 p.m. (EDT)) and Sunday (2 p.m. (EDT)).
SERIES INFORMATION
The Falcons have a 64-16 edge in the series with Findlay...BG has won the last 11 series meetings dating back to the 1978 season...BG leads the series with Cleveland State, 39-16...BG has won the last 11 meetings in the series with the last Viking victory an 8-1 decision in 1997...BG has a 21-8-1 series edge over Northern Illinois...BG swept the Huskies at home last season in the first MAC games played by the Falcons...BG won 3-2, 4-3 and 4-1...BG has won five in a row in the series...seven of the last 12 games have been one-run decisions with only two games during that time period decided by four or more runs.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons opened the home portion of their 2009 schedule with a 16-13 win over Michigan State. Sophomore left-hander Kyle Atkinson pitched 4.1 innings, the longest stint of his career, to earn the win while junior Mark Galvin had three hits and four RBI. BG then opened MAC play with a 5-2 win over Western Michigan as sophomore Brennan Smith, who started and earned the win pitching seven innings, and senior Dusty Hawk combined on a five-hitter. Western Michigan took the final two games of the weekend series winning 13-12, in 10 innings, on Saturday, and 8-4 on Sunday. After senior Ryan Shay tied the Saturday game with a one-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, WMU scored a run in the 10th, without a hit, to win the game. In the Sunday game, a seven-run fifth inning for WMU was the difference.
SMITH IS ON A ROLL
Sophomore right-hander Brennan Smith has emerged as the Falcons #1 starter, in the absence of Frank Berry II, making another strong outing last week. Smith won BG's lone game against Western Michigan going seven innings allowing two runs, both earned, on five hits with five strikeouts. Smith leads the team with three victories and a 2.83 ERA. He has 28 strikeouts in 28.2 innings while allowing only 20 hits with opposing batters hitting only .196 against him. In his last four starts, covering 21.0 innings, Smith has allowed just three runs, all earned, for a 1.29 ERA. Smith has 24 strikeouts in his last four starts and is averaging 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings.
ELKINS KEEPS HITTING
Junior Tyler Elkins, who has started at first base, as the designated hitter, and as the catcher this season, hit safely in all four games last week to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. Last week, he hit .579 (11-of-19) with five RBI and five runs scored. He had a .737 slugging percentage in the four games and a .636 on-base percentage. During his streak, he has hit .466 (27-of-58) with nine RBI and 14 runs scored. Elkins, who transferred to BG from John Logan CC before last season and sat out the 2008 campaign after having surgery, leads the team in batting average (.444), doubles (6), slugging percentage (.587), hits (28) and on-base percentage (.485). He has eight multi-hit games this season, all during his streak, with a high of four hits in the Friday victory over Western Michigan.
BGSU BLOOP SINGLES
Junior second baseman Logan Meisler hit .556 (10-of-18) with four RBI and three runs scored last week...he hit safely in all four games to extend his hitting streak to five games...he has hit safely in 14 games this season and is second on the team hitting .415...junior outfielder Mark Galvin hit .389 (7-of-18) last week extending his hitting streak to eight games, equalling his career best...Galvin has hit .394 (13-of-33) during his hitting streak...senior shortstop Ryan Shay hit .294 (5-of-17) last week with six RBI, six runs scored and a pair of home runs...Shay has hit safely in 59 of his last 70 games dating back to the beginning of last season...Shay has moved into BG career categories for at-bats (608, 8th) and doubles (40, t-7th) while he needs 10 run scored to move into the 10th spot in that category and he needs four hits to move into the #10 spot for that category...his 478 career assists is third on the BG list...senior Brian Hangbers scored a team-high nine runs last week in the four games...BG had seven batters hit by a pitch in the Sunday game against Western Michigan...the Sunday game with Western Michigan was the first time in the last seven games in which BG did not get at least 10 hits...BG had hit .373 (87-of-233) as a team in the six games prior to Sunday...the Falcon pitching staff has yielded 15 or more hits in five of the last six games with the opposition hitting .363 (86-of-237) over the period...the Falcons are hitting .319 as a team and averaging 6.6 runs pre game while the opposition is hitting .321 and scoring 9.2 runs per outing...BG had four double plays last week to raise their season total to 23 (1.28 per game)...last season the Falcons led the MAC in twin-killings (59) and were 14th in the nation with a 1.13 average per game...the BG opposition has scored 10 or more runs in half of the 18 games this season.
NEXT WEEK
The Falcons have a mid-week game at Michigan on March 31 before heading back out on the road for a weekend series at Central Michigan on April 3-5.
