Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
OHIO
Falcons Complete Sweep With 9-7 Victory Over Ohio
May 03, 2009 | Baseball
May 3, 2009
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BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - The Bowling Green State University baseball team used a strong outing by freshman Kacy Dwornik, in his first start of the season, and some strong late-inning relief work to post a 9-7 win over Ohio Sunday afternoon at Steller Field. The Falcons completed the sweep of the Bobcats - Bowling Green won the Friday game by a 12-9 count and were 13-7 victors in the middle game of the series - to move into second place in the East Division of the Mid-American Conference, one game behind front-runner Kent State, a 16-8 winner at Buffalo Sunday.
Kent State leads the East Division with a 14-6 record while the Falcons are at 13-7. Miami and Ohio are one-half game back of BG tied in third place with 13-8 marks with two weeks left in the regular season. Kent State and Bowling Green tied for the East Division title last season with league-best 16-8 records.
In the game Sunday, the Falcons recorded their second sweep of the season in their seventh weekend of MAC play. BG took all three games from Ball State at home earlier this season.
BG has now swept the regular season series with Ohio each of the last two seasons and the Falcons have won nine of the last 11 meetings between the two programs.
Dwornik was certainly the story on this day going 6.1 innings allowing seven hits and four earned runs while striking out seven in his 14th appearance of the season. BG has been looking for someone to fill the slot as the Sunday starter in league play, and Dwornik probably earned himself another shot with his performance in getting his third victory of the season.
The freshman left-hander had pitched well in his last five outings - 13 innings or work with a 2.77 ERA - to earn the starting assignment. He also picked up the save in the Friday's victory over Ohio getting the last out of the game with the tying run at the plate.
Bowling Green put three runs on the board early against OU starter Bryce Butt. BG scored one run in the first inning as shortstop Ryan Shay reached on one of four errors by OU in the game and advanced to second when Butt threw away a pickoff throw at first base. After a ground out moved Shay to third, catcher Tyler Elkins singled up the middle to drive in Shay and extend his hitting streak to 14 games.
BG tacked on two more in the second as another OU error played a part in the Falcons scoring. With two outs and a runner on first, center fielder T.J. Blanton reached on a fielding error to keep the inning alive and Shay made them pay as he followed with a two-run double to center field to make the score 3-0.
Ohio got one back in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by catcher Chris Klimko, the first of his three RBI on the day.
But, BG pushed four runs across in the bottom of the frame on five hits. Left fielder Jon Berti led off with a double to right center. Right fielder Mark Galvin drove him home with a single up the middle. Blanton then singled through the right side, but Galvin was cut down at third on a strong throw by Bobcats right fielder Hayden Johnston, with Blanton moving to second on the throw. Shay then singled to left field and the ball was misplayed and rolled all the way to the fence allowing Blanton to score and Shay ended up on second. First baseman Brian Hangbers then uncorked his sixth home run of the season to left center field to make it a 7-1 game. Berti's hit extended his hitting streak to 10 games while Hangbers round-tripper was the 29th of his career moving him into seventh place on the all-time BG list.
BG added another run in the fifth as designated hitter Dennis Vaughn, who hit .583 in the weekend series, drew a walk to lead off. He advanced to second on one of the three balks on the day by OU reliever Adam Goodpasture, and came home on a Galvin single up the middle.
But, the OU bats came alive to make things interesting in the final three innings. It started with a four-run seventh inning as Klimko led off with a home run to right center, and after a walk and a BG error, left fielder Mark Krauss hit his 20th home run of the season, tying the OU single-season record, to make it a 9-5 game.
The Falcons got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Blanton sacrifice fly, and had the bases loaded with two outs, but catcher Ryan Schlater flew out to end the threat.
OU scored twice in the eighth to complete the scoring as Klimko led off with a home run in the second successive inning and consecutive doubles by shortstop Bobby Martin and second baseman Zach Keen plated the other run. All of that came with no outs, but BG reliever Dusty Hawk retired the side on a line out and, after Krauss walked, a double play.
OU got two runners aboard in the ninth with two outs, but Hangbers was brought in and got pinch hitter Trace Voshell to pop out to BG second baseman Logan Meisler in short right field for the final out notching his second save of the season.
Butt was the losing pitcher for Ohio allowing eight hits and five earned runs in 3.1 innings of work before he was ejected in the fourth inning for hitting Schlater with a pitch.
Shay was 2-for-4 on the day with a pair of RBI while Hangbers and Galvin were both 2-for-3 and drove in two runs each. Second baseman Brandon Besl had three hits for the Bobcats while Klimko had three hits and three RBI and Krauss had two hits and three RBI.
With the win, BG, which has won five of its last six in MAC play and six of its last eight overall, improved to 23-18 while Ohio fell to 22-19 on the season.
