Hilltoppers Sweep Falcons With 12-3 Victory

Sunday, February 20

Bowling Green, Kentucky

1:00 pm CT

Bowling Green State University

Western Kentucky University

February 20, 2011 | Baseball

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

Sunday -- Feb. 20, 2010

R H E

Bowling Green 3 9 2

Western Kentucky 12 18 0

BOWLING GREEN, KY. -- The Falcons spent their last day in Bowling Green, Ky. playing in the series finale against Western Kentucky University. A fast start by the Hilltoppers set the tone for the entire game as the Falcons were the victims of a weekend sweep after their 12-3 loss on Sunday afternoon.

Box score (.html) | Box score (.pdf) | Updated statistics (.html) | Play-by-play (.pdf)
Scorepages (.pdf) - BGSU | WKU

Michael Frank (Maumee, Ohio) earned the start for Bowling Green but his first action of the season was not successful. He allowed seven runs (six earned) over 1.1 innings on the hill. Of the 12 batters than Frank (0-1) faced in his start, he allowed seven base hits while striking out only one batter.

Six different pitchers took to the hill for BGSU, including Matt Malewitz (Grand Rapids, Mich.) who had not pitched since the 2009 season due to an arm injury. In his one inning, he allowed one hit and a run during the fifth inning.

Freshman Kevin Delapaz (Plymouth, Mich.) and Patrick Martin (Oregon, Ohio) combined for a scoreless seventh and eighth innings. In Delapaz's first action wearing Brown and Orange, he walked three batters but did not allow any Hilltoppers to cross the plate, getting himself out of a bases loaded jam by striking out WKU shortstop Logan Robbins, looking. Martin struck out two of his six batters faced, walked one and allowed two hits in a scoreless eighth inning.

With Jon Berti receiving the day off, the middle infield had an all-freshman look to it with Logan Walker playing second and Brandon Howard taking reps at shortstop. Howard had three assists and two putouts with no errors while Walker added one putout on the day. Howard finished the day 1-for-4 on a second-inning single and later scoring on a passed ball.

Senior captains Frank Berry (Virginia Beach, Vir.) and Clay Duncan (Norwalk, Ohio) finished with a pair of hits on the day while five other Falcons had one hit, including two more freshmen who registered their first collegiate base hits. Patrick Lancaster (Woodhaven, Mich.) and #T.J. Losby# (Bryan, Ohio) each had singles with Losby coming off the bench in a pinch-hit situation in the seventh inning.

Bowling Green did all of its scoring in the first two innings taking an early lead in the top of the first. Freshman Andrew Kubuski (Elyria, Ohio) earned his first start in centerfield and walked as the leadoff hitter for the Falcons. After the next two hitters had been hit by a pitch and walked, respectively, Kubuski finished the final 90 feet on a fielder's choice off the bat of senior Ryan Schlater (St. Paris, Ohio). Western Kentucky responded with a four-run bottom half and took a 4-1 advantage.

The Falcons posted two more runs in the top of the second. A three singles, two of which were infield singles, Kubuski batted around Frank Berry on a ground out to the right side. Howard made it a one-run game after scoring from third on a passed ball.

With a 4-3 score going into the bottom of the second inning, the Hilltoppers scored three more runs to make it 7-3 after two innings. They went on to score one run in each of the next three innings and added two more in the sixth inning to take a nine-run lead, 12-3, a score that remained until it went final.

Bowling Green starts its season 0-3 for the third straight year. The Falcons next play Murray State University (Murray, Ky.) when it returns to the Bluegrass State on Feb. 25 for another three-game set with the Racers (0-3). Murray State is also winless in three games after being swept by UNC-Asheville by a three-game run total of 37-22.

Full coverage of Falcon baseball and all 18 varsity sports can be found on the official online home of BGSU athletics, www.BGSUFalcons.com. Be sure to follow the Falcons on Facebook by searching “BG Warriors” or follow them on Twitter through www.twitter.com/WEAREBGBASEBALL.