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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Kent State
Falcons Take First Game Of Series With Kent State
April 17, 2009 | Baseball
April 17, 2009
KENT, OHIO - The Bowling Green State University baseball team broke a nine-game losing streak with Kent State Friday afternoon behind the complete-game pitching of Brennan Smith and a 15-hit offensive attack to post a 9-2 victory over the Golden Flashes. With the win, their eighth in the last 10 games, the Falcons improve to 17-14 overall and 8-4 in Mid-American Conference play while Kent State, who came into the game having won 10 of their last 11 contests, fell to 26-8 and 9-3 in conference action.
Kent is 24th in the country according to the latest Collegiate Baseball Newspaper national poll and was the MAC East Division leader before league play on Friday.
The Falcons got things going in their first at-bat against Kent State starter Brad Stillings, who pitched a no-hitter in his last outing one week ago against Toledo. BG scored four runs on four hits to take the early advantage.
With one outin the opening inning, freshman Patrick Martin drew a walk with one out and scored on a double by junior Tyler Elkins to left center. After a ground out that moved Elkins to third, junior Logan Meisler singled up the middle with two outs and senior Brian Hangbers followed with his third home run of the season to center field.
Hangbers homer was the 26th of his career moving him into at tie for ninth on the BG career list.
Kent looked like it might come right back and get on the board in the bottom half of the first inning as the first two batters singled, but BG starter Brennan Smith got out of the frame without any damage, much like he did over the first half of the game.
Kent got a run in the second on an RBI single by #9 hitter Cory Hindel with two outs. BG then got that run back in the top of the fourth when junior T.J. Blanton doubled to left center with two outs and scored on a throwing error by the Golden Flashes on senior Ryan Shay's grounder to short.
KSU's Anthony Gallas hit a two-out solo home run in the fifth to close the gap to 5-2, but as things turned out, that would be the last offense Smith would allow.
BG came right back in the sixth inning as junior Mark Galvin singled to right field to lead off the frame, and after an out, Shay hit his fifth home run of the season to right field. BG added another run later in the inning as Martin, Elkins and junior Derek Spencer had consecutive singles chasing Stillings.
The Falcons scored a single run in the ninth as Elkins doubled for the second time in the game and advanced to third on a fly out. He scored BG's last run on a passed ball.
Elkins ended the day 3-for-5 with two runs scored in addition to his one RBI while five other BG players had a pair of hits, including Hangbers (2-for-4) and Shay (2-for-5), who both drove in two runs.
But, Smith was the story again holding Kent's offense, third in the MAC with a .315 team batting average to eight hits and just two runs while completing a game for the first time in his career. In winning for the sixth time in his last seven starts, Smith did not walk a batter and had four strike outs.
Kent had all eight of their hits in the first five innings before Smith settled in an retired the last 13 batters he faced - 10 on ground ball outs along with three strike outs.
The two teams meet again Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Schoonover Stadium for the middle game of the three-game series as sophomore Matt Malewitz (2-1, 3.24 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Falcons against Kent's Kyle Smith (3-2, 4.04 ERA).
