Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
BALL STATE
BG Baseball Team Completes Sweep With Come-From-Behind Victory
April 11, 2009 | Baseball
April 11, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - The Bowling Green State University baseball team completed a sweep of Ball State with a come-from-behind 7-6 victory in the nightcap of a doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Steller Field. Bowling Green, who took the first game by a 3-2 count, scored on run in the bottom of the eighth to take a 6-5 lead before Ball State tied the game on a two-out home run by Kolbrin Vitek in the top half of the ninth. But, the Falcons earned the win in the bottom half of the ninth on senior Ryan Shay's bases loaded single to right field with two outs.
Both starting pitchers, BSU senior right-hander Brendan Stines and BG left-hander Matt Malewitz, struggled through the early part of the game, but managed to stay in the game for at least six innings. Stines pitched six complete innings allowing 10 hits and four earned runs while Malewitz lasted 6.2 innings and allowed five earned runs.
Ball State scored in two of the first three innings while the Falcons kept chipping away at the Cardinals scoring in all three of the opening frames. BSU held a 5-4 edge after three innings.
BSU's Ian Neilsen had a two-run single in the first inning and he had a triple in the third inning to plate one of the three runs for the Cardinals. BSU's other two runs in the third inning came home on a single and a ground out.
Bowling Green scored in the first on a lead off double by senior Ryan Shay, a sacrifice bunt by freshman Patrick Martin and an RBI single up the middle by junior Tyler Elkins. In the second, senior Brian Hangbers doubled with two outs to left field. He came home when freshman Jon Berti's infield single was thrown away at first base allowing Berti to advance to second where he scored on junior Mark Galvin's double down the left field line.
In the third, junior Derek Spencer led off with single and advanced one base on a throwing error by Ball State. He moved up one base and a ground out and scored on a ground out by Hangbers.
Both pitchers settled down in the middle innings, allowing only three hits between them in the fourth through sixth innings. But, BG used one of those hits, a Shay single to right field, to even the score at 5-all.
In the Bowling Green sixth, Galvin was hit by a pitch with one out, but erased on a fielder's choice with junior T.J. Blanton reaching. Blanton then stole second and Shay drove him home with his single on a 1-1 count.
The Falcons had a chance in the seventh inning to take the lead, but Galvin grounded out to first with the bases loaded and two outs.
Ball State had its first two batters in the eighth reach base on walks before BG sophomore reliever Charles Wooten, who had come on in the seventh to get the last out of that frame with a strike out, retired T. J. Baumet on a strike out and he then induced BSU designated hitter Nathan Koontz into a inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play to end that threat.
The Falcons took their first lead of the game in the eighth on a lead off single from Blanton who came around to score on a two-out triple to left center by Elkins off BSU's top reliever, junior right-hander Morgan Coombs.
That set the stage for the late-inning heroics by Vitek to tie the game in the top of the ninth for the Cardinals, and the game-winning hit by Shay in the bottom half of the frame.
In the ninth for the Falcons, with one out Hangbers walked on a 3-2 count. Junior David Borcherdt pinch hit for Berti and responded with a single to left field moving Hangbers to second. Senior Ryan Price then pinch-ran for Hangbers and advanced to third on a single by Galvin to right field that also moved Borcherdt to second. After a fly out, Shay picked up his third hit of the game and second RBI on an 0-1 pitch to send the Falcon fathful home happy.
Wooten ended up with the win for the Falcons while Coombs suffered the loss.
Bowling Green improves to 15-14 overall and 6-4 in loop action with the victory while Ball State falls to 15-14 and 5-4. The same two teams will complete the weekend series at Steller Field Sunday afternoon with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
Prior to the first game of the doubleheader Saturday, BGSU head coach Danny Schmitz was presented with a momento to commemorate his 500th coaching victory. BG defeated Michigan, 8-3, on March 31 to help Schmitz reach the milestone that only four other baseball coaches in MAC history have achieved.
