Spencer Paces Falcons With First Inning Granny in 19-4 Spanking of WMU

Wednesday, April 21

Bowling Green, Ohio

3:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Western Michigan University

Derek Spencer (above) hit a first-inning grand slam to pace the Falcons onto a deomonstrative 19-4 win versus WMU on Wednesday.

Spencer Paces Falcons With First Inning Granny in 19-4 Spanking of WMU

April 21, 2010 | Baseball

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Box score
Updated statistics

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Bowling Green scored in six of their eight at-bats and scored at least four runs in three innings in their shellacking of MAC-West foe Western Michigan in Wednesday's non-conference showdown. Paced by a first inning grand slam from Derek Spencer, the Falcons scored 11 times by the end of the fourth inning and saw 16 hitters take to the plate by game's end as they cruised to a 19-4 victory.

Of the 16 different Bowling Green batters that received at least one at-bat, 13 recorded a hit and 14 got on base at least once. Tyler Elkins, Jon Berti and Dennis Vaughn all had three hits on the day to lead the team individually. With Berti's trio of base-knocks, it was the seventh time he had had three or more hits in a game this season and was his team-leading 18^th multi-hit game of the year. Elkins also plated his teammates three times on the day, good for his team-leading seventh multiple-RBI game of the season.

Spencer led the teams in RBI on the day with four which he acquired in the first inning with one swing of the bat with his first career grand slam. Brandon McFarland in his second straight start had three RBI on a three-run home run in his only at-bat of the day in the seventh inning. It was also his first home run of the season and his first round-tripper since May 23, 2008 against Ohio after missing last season with an injury.

Mark Galvin notched a pair of hits, extending his current hitting streak to 11 games. His personal best is set at 14, which he accomplished between March 10 and April 3 last season.

The bottom of the order came through for head coach Danny Schmitz once again against the Broncos. Hitters six through nine hit a combined 10-for-19 (.526) on the day, scored 10 of the Falcons 19 runs and recorded 10 RBI while drawing five walks.

Freshman Nick Bruns earned the start for Bowling Green and went five innings before giving ground to the Falcon bullpen. After Bruns allowed four runs in his outing, the Broncos did not score again and were held to a mere two hits over four innings. Regular weekend starter Michael Frank and relievers Patrick Martin and Ross Gerdeman all pitched one inning of work and allowed only two baserunners over that time. Patrick O'Brien and Dan Parons formed a righty-lefty combination to finish off the Bronco half of the ninth inning to finish the game and give Bruns his second win of the season. Bruns has now earned a win in his last two pitching outings, getting his first against Toledo on April 17. This win is his first win received during a start.

The Bowling Green reserves combined for a positive outing in the offensive melee as well. Of the seven non-starters that saw time in the game, the group went 5-for-7, had one walk, registered two runs and three RBI.

Bowling Green set the tone of the game with a no-out grand slam from Spencer before Berti later singled, stole third and scored via a throwing error on the stolen base. After adding a run in the second on Vaughn's first triple of the year, the Falcons scored three more times in the third on a trio of rub-scoring singles to make the score 8-2 in favor of BGSU.

The Brown and Orange then score twice more on four singles on the fourth inning before being silenced for the first time of the game in the fifth inning. Bowling Green scored eight times, four in each inning, in the sixth and seventh frames. In each inning, the Falcons had more runs than hits after a four-run, two-hit sixth inning and a four-run, three-hit seventh.

Despite the win not counting toward their conference mark, Bowling Green (15-18-1) increases their current winning streak to five with their 15^th win of the season and sent Western Michigan (9-27) home with their 27^th loss of their season.

The Falcons will prepare for a trip to Athens, Ohio to play the Ohio Bobcats (11-23, 6-6) in a three-game, weekend series that will have serious conference implications. To date, the Falcons and Bobcats are tied for second place in the Mid-American Conference East Division. Ohio has won eight of their last nine games and come off of a 2-1, 11^th inning win over the University of Cincinnati on Tuesday. Live stats and OU audio will be provided through Gameday Central for Falcon fans this weekend. Friday's game will begin at 6:00 p.m. ET while Saturday will feature a 3:00 p.m. first pitch and Sunday a 1:00 p.m. start.

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