Bowling Green Scares UK in Ninth Again; Lose 4-3

Saturday, February 27

Lexington, Ky.

2:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Kentucky

Jon Berti (above) led the Falcons with three hits and a run scored in Saturday's 4-3 loss to Kentucky.

February 28, 2010 | Baseball

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Box score

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- For the second time in as many days, the Bowling Green Falcons gave the Kentucky Wildcats a ninth inning scare before falling 4-3 on Saturday afternoon. Following an hour delay due to field preparation after inclement weather conditions on Friday, Bowling Green took an early lead but one big inning spoiled the day.

For the third consecutive game, the Falcons scored the game's first run on an RBI ground out from Tyler Elkins (Saint Henry, Ohio). After Jon Berti (Troy, Mich.) singled up the middle off of Kentucky starting pitcher Taylor Rogers and Logan Meisler (Port Clinton, Ohio) drew a walk putting men on first and second base, Dennis Vaughn (Kirtland, Ohio) sacrificed both runners to second and third. Elkins' grounder to the left side was enough to allow the speedy Berti to score from third and give the Falcons the 1-0 lead after their first at-bat.

Led by freshman Michael Frank (Maumee, Ohio) the Falcons kept the Wildcats off of the board after the first inning, but the second inning brought a deficit that would prove too much for the Falcons to overcome in the end.

Frank forced two fly outs and hit Keenan Wiley to put a man on first with two out in the bottom half of the second inning. Following G. Glad's flyout, L. Ray doubled to right field but a throwing error by Falcon outfielder Mark Galvin (Pickerington, Ohio) allowed Wiley to score and Ray to advance to third base. With the score 1-1, Wildcats, T. Black followed the double with an RBI single, scoring Ray, before stealing second base with Chris Bisson at bat. Bisson drew a walk to put runners on first and second base to lead into C. Wright's two-RBI double to left-center field. On the double, both Ray and Bisson scored giving Kentucky a 4-1 advantage.

After allowing three hits in the second inning and four hits combined in the first two innings, Frank settled down and did not allow another run and only surrendered two additional hits in his remaining four innings of work. Frank finished having thrown six complete innings, allowing four runs (all earned) and striking out a pair of Wildcats before giving way to the Falcon bullpen in the seventh inning.

Charles Wooten (Elmore, Ohio) kept the Falcons in the game tossing two innings of scoreless relief in the seventh and eighth innings and allowing only three baserunners. The Wildcat pen also kept the Falcon bats quiet. After Rogers finished his six inning, one run performance Jordan Cooper and Braden Kapteyn pitched the final three innings to close the deal, but not without getting a scare from the Falcon offense whom nearly succeeded in coming back from the three-run deficit in the ninth inning.

The Falcons did all of their damage with two out in the top of the ninth inning following a Galvin single and four-six-three double play turned by the Wildcats. Kentucky's reliever, Cooper, seemed to be cruising to a three-run victory but lost control and allowed the Falcons an opportunity to close the gap.

Freshman Matthew Pitzulo (Poland, Ohio) drew a two-out walk before T.J. Blanton (Sandusky, Ohio) singled down the left field line. Jon Berti loaded the bases with his single through the left side of the infield to set the field for Logan Meisler. Needing a change on the hill, skipper Gary Henderson made the call to the bullpen for Kapteyn to try to close out the game for UK.

Meisler tallied an RBI single through the right side of the diamond, scoring Pitzulo and cutting the deficit to two runs before Dennis Vaughn drew a walk, scoring Blanton from third. With the bases still full and two outs, the Falcons now only trailed Kentucky by one run with Tyler Elkins at bat. Elkins, however, was forced into grounding out to second base, ending the game.

Jon Berti led the Falcons from the top of the order going three-for-five and scoring the game's opening run. Seven of the Falcons' nine starting hitters recorded at least one hit on the day with the two-three-four hitters generating all three runs batted in on the day.

With the loss, the Falcons remain without a win through five games (0-5) heading into the final game of the three game set with Kentucky. Kentucky remains perfect, improving to 5-0 on the young season. Sunday's game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Catch the game online through BGSUFalcons.com with live stats, game audio or video provided by the University of Kentucky.