Leady and Falcons Bring Out the Brooms on Toledo

Sunday, April 18

Toledo, Ohio

1:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

University of Toledo

April 18, 2010 | Baseball

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Box score
Post game comments from head coach Danny Schmitz

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Though to win twice in a series against what was the best team in the Mid-American Conference coming into the weekend, a sweep was much sweeter in the minds of the Falcon baseball team. The much anticipated matchup between BGSU's Kevin Leady (5-1) and Toledo's Lincoln Rassi (4-2) provided nothing less than an exciting nine innings of rivalry ball. Leady and the Falcons prevailed led by the senior right-hander's eight innings of near-perfect pitching. An early spark from the Bowling Green offense and strong relief pitching in the ninth was just enough to hold off the Rockets, completing the weekend sweep with their 4-2 win on Sunday.

Leady gave up a two-out single in the first inning of the game, but through the next six innings he did not surrender a single hit. Between the start of the second inning and the ninth, the Luckey, Ohio native retired 19-of-22 batters but never allowed a single runner to reach past first base. After a fourth inning walk, Leady retired 11 straight batters before giving up only his second hit of the game. He finished the game having allowed four hits and two runs but struck out five to earn his fifth win of the season.

After both teams put up a zero in the first inning, the first time that had happened all series long, Bowling Green redeemed itself at the plate with three second-inning runs to jump out to an early lead against the Rockets. The Falcons did not record an extra-base hit the entire inning, but four different Falcons singled to bring three runs home. Derek Spencer led the inning off with one such single to right center field and was followed by Jon Berti being hit by Rassi. Tyler Elkins put the Falcons on the board with a single to score Spencer and on the throw, advanced to second to put two Falcons in scoring position. Matthew Pitzulo went the other way with a Rassi pitch to score another pair of runs for BGSU. After the second, Bowling Green sped out to a 3-0 lead.

The Falcons added a crucial fourth run in the fourth inning on a Ryan Schlater sacrifice fly ball to right field that scored Berti from third base.

Leady began the ninth inning in search for the complete game. After allowing a leadoff single and a run-scoring double to Jared Hoying, whom Leady had struck out twice earlier in the game, he forced a fly out for the first out of the inning. However after he walked three-hitter Chris Dudics on four pitches the call was made to the bullpen, ending a phenomenal day for the senior.

Patrick Martin entered to create a lefty-lefty matchup against Aaron Dudley but was taken for a single to load the bases. With two right-handed batters coming up, a second call to the bullpen was made and sophomore Ross Gerdeman entered. Logan Meiser and Jon Berti were tested defensively on a ground ball that was hit up the middle, potentially ready to make for a one-run ball game. Meisler, moving to his right, took a deep angle to the ball and fielded it while diving toward the bag and transferred the ball with his glove right to an outstretched Berti to get the runner at second and save an additional run from scoring. One run did score on the play, but the Falcons kept it at a 4-2 ledger. With runners on the corners and the go-ahead run at the plate, Gerdeman forced Dan Sherwood to fly out in foul territory to Spencer, ending the game.

The bottom of the order did it again for the Falcons, acquiring four of the team's six hits on the day. The 7-8-9 hitters went a combined 4-for-8 with a walk and accounted for all four Falcon RBI. Elkins went 2-for-3 with a run scored and a RBI to lead the Falcons offensively. Mark Galvin's sixth inning double extended his current hitting streak to a team-high nine games.

The Falcons' sweep of the Rockets was the first time Bowling Green had done so since 2006, also the last time they had won a three-game series with their arch-rival. More importantly, the Falcons put up a three-game swing in both standing columns, now possessing a 13-18-1 overall mark and now breaking the .500-mark with a 6-6 record against conference opponents.

Bowling Green now prepares for two non-conference, mid-week games against Dayton and Western Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Tuesday the Falcons will engage in a rematch with the Flyer at Warren E. Steller Field (Bowling Green, Ohio) with a 3:00 p.m. first pitch. They will return to their home diamond on Wednesday to take on the Broncos in a non-conference game, also set for a 3:00 p.m. start time.

Follow the Falcons all season long on the online home for BGSU Athletics, BGSUFalcons.com