Rain Shortens Day for the Falcons, Tie Yale 7-7 After Five

Thursday, March 11

Winter Haven, Fla.

9:30 a.m.

Bowling Green State University

Yale

Derek Spencer (above) hit the game-tying two-run homerun to tie the game at seven with Yale before rains halted play Thursday.

March 11, 2010 | Baseball

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Box score
Updated season statistics

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- The local weather forecasts in Winter Haven, Flor. called for greater than 50 percent chances of rainfall Thursday morning and afternoon, and Mother Nature did not disappoint. What was supposed to be the longest day of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational tournament with a doubleheader scheduled with Yale University turned into the shortest day when rain stopped play after five innings, leaving the Falcons and Bulldogs in a 7-7 deadlock.

The game will be scored as an official game after five complete innings, so each team will receive a tie in the record books. It is Bowling Green's first tie game since the 2000 season when Bowling Green tied Temple 8-8 in Fresno, Calif. during that year's spring trip.

For the tenth time this short season, the Falcons scored first in the contest taking an early 1-0 lead in their first at-bat of the contest. Red-hot Jon Berti continued his success with a leadoff single against Brook Hart and was sacrificed to second base by a Ryan Schlater bunt. Senior Logan Meisler belted a single to right field, scoring Berti and giving Bowling Green the 1-0 edge.

Brennan Smith received the start for Bowling Green and looked sharp early, striking out two of his first three batters in the first inning. But the second inning was a struggled as he went through two-thirds of the inning before being lifted after giving up six runs to the Bulldogs of Yale.

Two of the first three Yale hitters had extra base hits before scoring four more runs with two outs in the inning. After Zach Tobolowski hit an RBI-single to right field and Andrew Kolmar added another run with a run-scoring triple. After Gant Elmore hit an RBI-single, Smith walked two Bulldogs before Trygg Larsson-Danforth hit a base-clearing triple, making the score 6-0.

Frank Berry entered for his second relief appearance this season and recorded the third out of the inning, retiring Yale after six runs scored.

Bowling Green retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the second inning after single, a walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases for Mark Galvin. His 5-4 fielder's choice scored Tyler Elkins from third. #T.J. Blanton then hit a sacrifice fly to score Dennis Vaughn# from third. Who had advanced on the previous play. Schlater stepped to the plate and with two outs hit a single to left that plated Galvin, slimming the lead to 6-4 in favor of Yale.

After a two-hour rain delay halted play, Berry returned to the mound for one-third of an innings before giving way to Ross Gerdeman. Gerdeman allowed only one run in his 2.2 innings of work, that on a solo homerun by Andy Megee in the top of the fourth.

Down by two runs heading into the fifth inning, Bowling Green squeezed in one last at-bat that proved to save them from a loss as the skies began to open up and the rains began to thicken again.

Robert Bruber started the inning on the hill for Yale but did not last long before the Falcons tied the game with one swing of the bat from All-MAC selection, Derek Spencer. After Logan Meisler drew a leadoff walk, Spencer cracked a pitch that flew through the falling rains and over the fences at Chain of lakes Stadium, tying the game with a two-run blast, 7-7. Between Gruber and Alex Young, the Falcons could not bring home Clay Duncan after he had a two-out single. Officials ended the game after the conclusion of the fifth inning with the game tied at seven runs.

The Sunshine State did not live up to its name for the rest of the day as inclement weather cancelled play for the rest of the day for the Falcons. The team will not make up its second game with Yale and will move on to its next opponent, the North Dakota State Bison.

The Bison (2-5-0) and the Falcons (3-7-1) will meet again Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Chain of Lakes Stadium. The Bison will play in their first game of the RussMatt Invitational after losing three-of-four games against Missouri State. NDSU is coached by former BGSU assistant coach Todd Brown, who spent eight seasons as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for the Falcons, is in his third year with the Bison and has a 33-65 record in his third season with the team.

Friday's forecast (weather.com) is calling for up to a 35 percent chance of morning showers that are scheduled to clear up by 10 a.m. only to remain mostly cloudy until the noon hour with a high of 69 degrees. If the game is played, it can be followed on the North Dakota State Gametracker and can be found on BGSUFalcons.com.

Bowling Green will conclude their tour of the RussMatt Invitational with a Saturday game against Indiana University of the Big Ten. Game time is set for 9:30 a.m. ET and can be follow on the IU Gametracker, also found on BGSUFalcons.com.