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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
CENTRAL MICHIGAN
BG Baseball Team Holds On For 14-10 Victory Over CMU
April 03, 2009 | Baseball
April 3, 2009
MT. PLEASANT, MICH. - The Bowling Green State University baseball team built a 14-0 lead Friday afternoon against Central Michigan and then had to hold on for a 14-10 Mid-American Conference victory over the Chippewas at Theunissen Stadium in Mt. Pleasant. CMU scored seven runs in the bottom of the eighth and three runs in the ninth to make it interesting before the Falcons gained the win.
Bowling Green, winners of nine of their last 13 contests, is now 12-12 overall and 3-3 in league play while the Chippewas are now 12-16 and 3-4 in MAC games.
BG opened the scoring in the second inning when junior Derek Spencer led off with a single up the middle and he was sacrificed to second. He advanced to third on a passed ball then senior Brian Hangbers drew a walk. Freshman Jon Berti then drove home Spencer with a single up the middle with Hangbers advancing to second. Both runners moved up one base on a passed ball and junior Mark Galvin drove in Hangbers with a ground ball to second.
BG starter Brennan Smith, who earned his fourth win of the season, worked his way out of a bases loaded one out jam in the second by getting the last two outs on strike outs looking and worked out of a jam in the fifth in which CMU had runners on second and third with one out. Smith wiggled out of the jam in the fifth on a strike out and a ground out.
BG, which had won only one of the last eight games in the series with Central Michigan, put two more runs on the board in the fourth as Spencer singled to left field and junior Logan Meisler did the same putting runners at first and second. After a strike out, Berti singled up the middle to score Spencer and both runners moved up a base on the throw. Galvin then singled up the middle to drive in Meisler with Berti thrown out at home.
The Falcons tacked on a couple runs in the seventh on a lead off double by Shay who was sacrificed to third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Elkins. Then with two outs, Spencer reached on an error and advanced to third on a single to left center by Meisler. Hangbers then singled through the right side to plate Spencer with the sixth run.
The Falcons then had their biggest inning of the season scoring eight runs on six hits in the eighth to make it 14-0. Key hits in the inning were a two-run triple by Martin and a two-run double by junior David Borcherdt while Spencer, junior T.J. Blanton and Shay also had RBI's in the inning.
CMU scored seven runs in the bottom of the inning on seven hits with a BG error leading to three unearned runs. The first five batters reached for the Chippewas in the inning with a three-run home run by Nate Theunissen the big blow early in the frame. Sam Russell had a two-run single to conclude the scoring in the inning.
In the ninth, Central Michigan scored three runs on three hits and had one runner on when freshman Ross Gerdeman, the fourth BG pitcher, retired CMU lead off hitter Billy Anderson on a fly ball to center field to end the game, which lasted 3 hours 25 minutes.
Smith went the first seven innings allowing only four hits, all singles, while striking out six and walking two. Smith threw 115 pitches while lowering his ERA to 2.45. Senior Dusty Hawk, freshman Kacy Dwornik, who faced one batter, and Gerdeman all worked in the eighth inning. Smith retired 11 of the last 15 batter he faced.
Offensively, the Falcons got at least one hit from every spot in the order except one with Spencer, who started for the first time in the last six games nursing a hamstring injury, collecting four hits, three runs scored and an RBI. Six other players had two hits apiece with Martin, Berti and Galvin also driving in two runs. Nine different BG players had at least one RBI in the game.
Galvin extended his career best hitting streak to 14 games with his fourth inning single.
The two teams were scheduled to play single games on Saturday and Sunday to complete the weekend series, but because of the weather forecast for Sunday, they will try to play a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 12:35.
