Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons At Michigan Tuesday In Only Mid-Week Game
March 30, 2009 | Baseball
March 30, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -
BGSU Baseball Notes/Stats (Michigan Game) 
This Week
Tues., March 31
Bowling Green at Michigan (16-7, 2-1 Big Ten)
Fisher Stadium (2,500) - 3 p.m.
Fri. - Sun., April 3-5
Bowling Green at Central Michigan (11-14, 3-3)
Theunissen Stadium (2,046)
Friday (3:05 p.m.); Saturday (2:05 p.m.); Sunday (1:05 p.m.)
FALCONS HAVE FOUR GAMES IN MICHIGAN
The Bowling Green State University baseball team has one mid-week game against Big Ten foe Michigan this week before staying on the road for a Mid-American Conference series against Central Michigan. The game against Michigan will begin at 3 p.m. while the games for the Central Michigan series are set for 3:05 (Friday), 2:05 (Saturday) and 1:05 (Sunday) starts.
SERIES INFORMATION
Michigan has a 38-12-1 edge in the series with Bowling Green...the Wolverines have won the last eight meetings between the two programs...the two teams last played in 2006 when UM was a 7-4 winner at home...BG's last win on the road in the series was a 16-3 decision in the 1997 season, which was also the last win by the Falcons...Central Michigan has a 55-34-1 edge in the series with the Falcons...BG won the opening game of the three-game series last season at home, 10-3, before CMU took the final two games by scores of 6-2 and 10-6...BG is 4-6 in its last 10 games played in Mt. Pleasant...since 2003, BG is 7-10 against CMU with a 3-5 mark in games played on the road...BG took one of three games in 2006 from the Chippewas, the last time they played in Mt. Pleasant.
LAST WEEK
BG scored 10 runs in both mid-week games - a 10-5 win over Findlay on Tuesday and 10-6 victory over Cleveland State on Wednesday. The Falcons scored in every inning except one to post the win over Findlay. Charles Wooten started and got his first win of the season while freshman Steven Barrett made his Falcon debut and pitched two perfect innings for the save. Eight different players had RBI with senior Ryan Shay and junior Mark Galvin both having two hits and one RBI. The Cleveland State game started a little over one hour late because of rain, but the Falcons scored five runs in the first inning and three in the third on their way to the win. Junior T.J. Blanton led the offense with two home runs and four RBI while sophomore Richie O'Brien picked up his second win of the season in relief and senior Brian Hangbers pitched out a jam in the eighth and had a perfect ninth to get his first save of the season. BG then split two games at Northern Illinois losing a 6-4 decision in the opener before taking the second game 8-0. The Sunday contest was not played because of snow and cold weather. Sophomore Brennan Smith started and suffered the loss in the first game as NIU scored four in the fourth and two in the eighth for the win. Senior Ryan Shay had four hits and two RBI for BG. BG won the second game, 8-0, behind the three-hit pitching of sophomores Matt Malewitz and Wooten while junior Tyler Elkins had a pair of hits and three RBI.
IN MIDST OF ROAD SWING
After starting the season with six road games and then eight games on their spring trip to Florida, the Falcons came home to play six straight. Beginning with their MAC series against Northern Illinois last weekend, BG plays six-in-a-row on the road and 13 of their next 17. The Falcons then end their 2009 schedule with 11 of their last 14 games at home, including three of its last four MAC series.
GALVIN EXTENDS HITTING STREAK
Junior outfielder Mark Galvin hit safely in all four games last week to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games. Galvin hit .357 (5-for-14) last week and he is hitting .383 (18-of-47) during his streak with 10 RBI and seven runs scored. Galvin has hit safely in 14 games this season and has a .304 batting average in the 20 games he has played. He is a career .311 hitter.
SHAY HAS BIG WEEK
Senior shortstop Ryan Shay hit safely in all four games last week going nine-for-17 (.529) with three RBI and three runs scored. Shay had four hits in the loss to Northern Illinois last Friday equalling his career high for a game. Shay has hit safely in 17 of 22 games this season and 63 of his last 74 games dating back to the beginning of last season. He is hitting .375 for the season. Shay is among the BGSU career leaders in at-bats (625, 7th), hits (203, 10th), doubles (41, t-6th) and assists (485, 3rd). He needs seven runs scored to move into the #10 spot in that category. He has batted in the lead off spot 68 times in the last two seasons and has reached safely in 37 of those games (29 hits, six walks, one hit by pitch, one error).
ONE TO 500
BGSU head coach Danny Schmitz needs one win to join elite company in Mid-American Conference history. The BG field boss has 499 wins in his 19 seasons at the helm and one victory would make him only the fifth baseball coach in league history to reach the 500-win milestone. Schmitz has a 499-453-4 record with his teams having won three regular season MAC titles, five MAC East Division championships and two MAC Tournament titles. He has eight teams qualify for the league tournament.
SPENCER SITS OUT WEEKEND
Junior third baseman Derek Spencer, BG's RBI leader, sat out both games of the Northern Illinois series after suffering a slight hamstring pull early in the Cleveland State game. He is day-to-day but is expected to play sometime this week. Spencer is tied for 10th in the MAC with 22 RBI while hitting .333 with six extra-base hits.
BGSU BLOOP SINGLES
The Falcons are hitting .320, the top figure in the MAC, as a team and averaging 6.8 runs per contest...the opposition is hitting .307 and averaging 8.3 runs...BG has won eight of its last 12 games tothe BG pitching staff is coming off its best week of the season compiling a 3.34 ERA in the four games with 25 strikeouts in 35 innings while holding the opposition to only a .238 batting average...sophomores Matt Malewitz and Charles Wooten combined on the shutout of Northern Illinois last Saturday, the second shutout of the season for the pitching staff...Malewitz, who has the other BG shutout, started and went 7.2 innings allowing three hits with six strike outs while facing only four batters over the minimum...Wooten came on with two outs and one runner on and recorded a strike out...he yielded a walk in the ninth but retired the side without any damage to complete the shutout...freshman Jon Berti started three of the four games last week and batted .444 (4-of-9) with four RBI, five runs scored, his first home run and triple, two stolen bases, a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .667 one-base percentage...junior outfielder T.J. Blanton had two home runs, a double and triple for a 1.083 slugging percentage last week...Blanton is tied for 10th in the MAC with four home runs while he is tied for third with two triples and ninth in slugging percentage at .652...the Falcon starting duo of sophomores Brennan Smith and Matt Malewitz are 1-2 in the MAC in opposing batting average limiting the hitters to .200 and .211 averages, respectively...Malewitz is third in the conference in ERA while Smith is eighth...Malewitz is fourth in the MAC in innings pitched while Smith is eighth.
NEXT WEEK
The Falcons play a pair of nonleague games against Eastern Michigan (April 7-8) before hosting Ball State on April 10-12.
