Bowling Green State University Athletics
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BG Completes Sweep Of Ball State With Second Walk Off Hit in As Many Games
April 12, 2009 | Baseball
April 12, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - For the second game in a row, the Bowling Green State University baseball team got a walk-off hit to earn a hard-fought victory over Ball State at Steller Field. Freshman Jon Berti was the hero Sunday afternoon as he hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning that allowed the Falcons to come from behind and post a 9-7 victory.
The win gave the Falcons a sweep of the three-game series with the Cardinals and improved their record to 16-14 overall and 7-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Ball State, who came in to the weekend as the MAC West Division leader, leaves Bowling Green with a 15-15 overall mark and a league slate of 5-5.
Bowling Green, the defending MAC regular season and East Division champions, won the second game of their doubleheader Saturday on a walk-off single by senior Ryan Shay that gave the Falcons a 7-6 victory. The Falcons also posted a one-run victory, 3-2, in the series opener.
On Sunday, the Falcons scored five runs in the fourth inning to wipe out a 2-0 Ball State advantage and it looked like that one big inning might be enough for the victory. But, a ninth inning rally by Ball State forced extra innings setting up the late-inning dramatics.
Ball State scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to take the early advantage. BSU freshman Cody Elliott drew a walk with two outs in the third and eventually scored on a single by senior Nate Fields. In the fourth, sophomore T.J. Baumet doubled home junior Kory Benbow with two outs.
The Falcons took the lead scoring five runs, three of them unearned, on three hits in the bottom of the fourth. BG junior Mark Galvin had an RBI single to get things going in the frame as the Falcons found several different ways to score. Shay walked to force in a run with the bases loaded and then when freshman Patrick Martin hit a ball back to the pitcher with the bases loaded, BSU starter Cal Bowling threw wide of catcher Zach Dygert pulling him off the plate. Junior Tyler Elkins then plated a run with a fly ball to left field and Shay scored the final run of the inning on a wild pitch.
Ball State scored two in the sixth to make it a 5-4 game as BG made two errors in the inning that led to both runs being unearned. Baumet drove in one run with a ground out and another run scored on one of the errors.
BG got one of those runs back in the eighth inning when junior T.J. Blanton led off with a bunt single and Shay followed with a single by the third baseman and the Falcons ended up with runners on second and third as Blanton was running on the play. Then Berti, pinch hitting for junior David Borcherdt, hit a fly ball to left field that was just deep enough to drive in Blanton making it a 6-4 game.
But, the Falcons could not hold the lead in the ninth as consecutive walks, one by junior pitcher Kacy Dwornik and one by senior Dusty Hawk, with one out proved to be their undoing as both came home to score to even the game. Sophomore Kolbrin Vitek singled in the first run, and with two outs, freshman Ian Neilsen singled to right field collecting the tying RBI.
The Falcons got two runners aboard with one out in the bottom of the ninth when sophomore Ryan Schlater hit a line drive toward the left field line that was stabbed by Elliott after making a long run for the second out. BSU junior Morgan Coombs, who had come in the game in the eighth inning, then retired Galvin on a fly ball to right field and you felt like BG might have let one slip away as they faced their third extra-inning game of the season.
In the top of the 10th, a lead off walk again led to a Ball State run as Baumet earned the free pass and advanced to third when he stole second and Schlater's throw to second on the steal was misplayed and went into the outfield. Hawk then retired a batter on a strike out before Elliott's bunt toward first base was fielded by Elkins whose throw to the plate was too late to get Baumet and BSU had their first lead of the game at 7-6. Sophomore Charles Wooten then relieved Hawk, and after walking the first batter he faced to put runners on first and second, he got a line drive out by Fields that Shay, the BG shortstop, caught and threw to junior Logan Meisler at second to double off Elliott and end the inning.
Berti's blast in the bottom of the inning was set up by a lead off single by Blanton. Shay then hit a high fly ball to center field that BSU junior Jeremy Hazelbaker lost in the sun at the last moment and BG had runners at second and third with nobody out. Berti then hit a 1-0 pitch from Coombs over the left field fence, his second homer of the season, to give the Falcons the sweep of the three-game series.
Coombs, who was also the victim of Shay's walk off hit Saturday, pitched the final 1.2 innings and lost for the fourth time this season. Wooten, who was made the winner of Saturday's game by Shay's hit, also earned the win in this game improving to 3-1 on the season.
Blanton had three hits for the Falcons while Berti, a draft pick of the Oakland A's in last summer's amateur draft, drove in a career-high four runs. Nielsen, Baumet and Elliott all had two hits for the Cardinals with Baumet collecting two RBI.
The Falcons, winners of seven of their last nine games and 12 of their last 17, will return to action this week with one mid-week game, that starts a string of six straight games on the road, at Oakland University on Wednesday before facing East Division leader, Kent State, next weekend.
