Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Face Ohio State And Toledo In Mid-Week Road Games
April 20, 2009 | Baseball
BGSU Baseball Notes/Stats (Ohio State/Toledo Games) 
April 20, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -
This Week
Tues., April 21
Bowling Green at Ohio State (29-8)
Bill Davis Stadium (4,450) - 6:35 p.m.
Wed, April 22
Bowling Green at Toledo (16-18)
Scott Park Baseball Complex (1,000) - 3:00 p.m.
Fri. - Sun., April 24-26
Miami (20-15, 10-5 MAC) at Bowling Green
Steller Field (1,100) - Friday (3 p.m.) - Saturday/Sunday (1 p.m.)
TWO ROAD GAMES BEFORE FALCONS RETURN HOME
The Bowling Green State University baseball team will play non-league road games on Tuesday and Wednesday before returning home for an important Mid-American Conference weekend series with Miami. BG plays at Ohio State on Tuesday (6:35 p.m.) and continues on the road Wednesday at Toledo (3 p.m.). The weekend series with the RedHawks will feature single games on Friday (3 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).
SERIES INFORMATION
Ohio State has a 29-18-4 series edge over the Falcons, but the two programs have played just five times since 1994...the last series meeting came in 2004, an 8-1 Buckeye victory at home...the two teams met in Columbus in the NCAA Tournament in 1999 with OSU winning, 4-1...the last BG victory in the series was a 7-5 victory in 1987...OSU as won the last eight games since then...BG has a 109-81 series lead over Toledo...BG has won the last two, including a 15-11 win in the only meeting last season...UT took two of three from BG in 2007 to break a nine-game BG winning streak in the series...BG has won 11 of the last 13 series meetings...the Falcons are on the short end of an 81-55 series record with Miami...BG won the middle game of the three-game series at Miami last season to break a nine-game losing skid in the series...BG won 6-5 last season while Miami won 13-4 and 9-8 in 11 innings...the last time the two programs played a series in Bowling Green, Miami won all three games, two by one run...BG is 4-11 in the last 15 series meetings.
LAST WEEKEND
BG won the series opener at Kent State last weekend before dropping both ends of a doubleheader on Saturday. BG rode the complete game pitching of Brennan Smith and a 15-hit attack to post a 9-2 victory over Kent State, who was ranked 24th in the country. Smith allowed eight hits and struck out four in winning for the sixth time this season. Six BG players had multiple hits with junior Tyler Elkins collecting three safeties while seniors Ryan Shay and Brian Hangbers had two hits and pair of RBI each. BG scored nine runs in the first game Saturday, but a three-run homer by Kent's Anthony Gallas in the 10th inning made the Golden Flashes a 12-9 winner. Elkins had three hits in the game. Kent kept the momentum going in the second game starting the contest with four consecutive doubles on their way to seven runs in the first three innings and a 9-4 triumph. Junior Derek Spencer had three hits for the Falcons.
WHAT'S AHEAD
Beginning with their series this weekend against Miami, the Falcons close out the 2009 regular season playing 11 of their last 14 games at home, including three of their last four MAC series.
SMITH GETS ANOTHER WIN
Sophomore right-hander Brennan Smith pitched the first complete game of his career in winning for the sixth time this season, a 9-2 decision last Friday at Kent. Smith scattered eight hits, all in the first five innings, before settling down to retire the last 13 batters he faced without the ball going out of the infield - 10 ground balls and three strikeouts. With his performance, Smith is now 6-3 on the season with a 2.50 ERA, the best in the MAC, while in MAC play, he is 4-1 with a 2.25 ERA, also the best figure in the conference. Opposition hitters are batting .196 off him for the season, and .194 in league play, both MAC-leading averages. In his last eight starts, Smith has a 6-1 record with a 1.80 ERA over 50.0 innings. He has allowed only 30 hits, 23 of those singles, while striking out 48. He is averaging 8.65 strike outs per nine innings while allowing only 5.41 hits per nine innings over that period. Smith has now won six of his last seven starts. The Sandusky, Ohio native has been dominant in the games he has won compiling a miniscule 1.02 ERA in his six wins this season. He has allowed only 24 hits, 19 of those singles, in 44.0 innings of work while striking out 40, an average of 8.18 strike outs per nine innings, while over the same period he is allowing only 4.91 hits per nine innings. Smith has a 7.10 ERA in his three losses, two of those coming the first two weekends of the season.
ELKINS HAS ANOTHER BIG WEEK
Junior Tyler Elkins led the Falcons offensively in the Kent State series hitting .533 (8-of-15) with a pair of RBI and five runs scored. Half of his hits were doubles as he had at least two hits in all three games. Elkins, who had a 13-game hitting streak earlier this season, has hit safely in his last six games compiling a .461 average (12-of-26) during the streak. He has hit safely in 25 of his last 28 games this season and leads the team with a .400 average, fourth in the MAC. He is hitting .413 in MAC play, seventh in the MAC. The Hamilton, Ohio native leads the team with 12 doubles, tied for seventh in the MAC, and is third with 22 RBI. His 17 RBI in MAC play is the top figure on the team and is tied for seventh in the MAC.
SHAY LEADS THE WAY
Senior shortstop Ryan Shay continues to lead the Falcon offense from his lead off position in the batting order. The All-MAC and All-Mideast selection last season had his nine-game hitting streak come to an end when he went hitless in four at-bats in the final game of the Kent State series. He went 20-of-40 (.500) during his hitting streak with 13 RBI and 13 runs scored. The Garden City, Mich. native had two or more hits in eight straight games during the hitting streak. For the season, Shay is now hitting .387, sixth in the MAC, with 29 RBI, second on the team, and 37 runs scored, tied for eighth in the MAC. In league play, he is hitting .393 with 16 RBI, tied for ninth in the MAC, and 17 runs scored, tied for seventh in the conference. He ranks among the BG career leaders in at-bats (674, 2nd), runs scored (144, t-7th), hits (223, 4th), doubles (46, 5th), assists (529, 2nd) and total bases (308, 9th). Shay has hit safely in 26 of 33 games this season, and 72 of his last 85 games dating back to the beginning of last season. He has two or more hits in 51 of those 72 games he has hit safely in over the last season and a half. Since the beginning of the 2008 season, Shay has hit .402 (140-of-348).
BGSU BLOOP SINGLES
The Falcons are hitting .326, the top figure in the MAC, as a team and averaging 7.1 runs per contest...the opposition is hitting .309 and averaging 8.2 runs...BG has won 11 of its last 15 games and 14 of its last 20...BG has had at least 10 hits in 24 games this season, including 18 of the last 22...BG is hitting .338 as a team in MAC play, which leads the league...freshman Jon Berti, who has started in left and right field this season in addition to shortstop and as the designated hitter, had three hits in five at-bats in the Kent series and leads the team with a .459 (17-of-37) average in league play...his average is third in the league for MAC games...Berti, who is hitting .365 for the season, leads the team with three game-winning RBI...Berti was a 36th round draft pick of the Oakland A's last summer...junior T.J. Blanton was 4-for-10 (.400) in the Kent State series with his home run in the eighth inning of second game of the series sending the contest to extra innings...it was his fifth round-tripper of the season to tie him for the team lead with Ryan Shay...Blanton is fifth on the team with a .355 batting average and he is hitting .373 in MAC play...he has hit safely in nine of his last 14 games and a total of 21 games this season...BG leads the MAC with 32 sacrifices thus far this season...the Falcons led for most of the first two games of the Kent State series before the 10th inning home run by KSU's Anthony Gallas won the second game and turned the momentum for the third game...BG led the entire way in the winning the first game of the series and led or was tied in the second game for all but one period, KSU took their first lead in the series in the bottom of the seventh before Blanton's home run to lead off the eighth sent the game to extra innings, until the game-winner in the 10th...
NEXT WEEK
The Falcons play mid-week games against Toledo (April 28) and Notre Dame (April 29) before hosting Ohio (May 1-3) in an important MAC East Division clash. The Toledo game is at home and scheduled for a 3 p.m. start while BG will play the Irish on the road in a 6 p.m. contest. The Ohio games will start at 3 p.m. (Friday) and 1 p.m. (Saturday and Sunday).
