Sophomores Spotlighted in Falcons’ Third Straight Win

Friday, March 11

Auburndale, Flor.

3:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

North Dakota State University

March 12, 2011 | Baseball

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

WINTER HAVEN, Flor. -- Cody Apthorpe and Matt Pitzulo's performances on Friday afternoon aided Bowling Green Baseball to their third straight victory. The Falcons defeated North Dakota State University, 8-4, in a game that reunited current BGSU head coach Danny Schmitz with one of his former assistant coaches, Todd Brown, who now heads the Bison baseball team.

March 11, 2011 -- Final
	R	H	E
North Dakota State	4	12	1
Bowling Green	8	10	1

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

Matt Pitzulo (Poland, Ohio) led the Falcons offensively with a 4-for-5 day at the plate, registering four RBI and scoring one run. He hit safely in his first four at bats of the day and homered in the fourth inning, giving Bowling Green a 5-2 lead with the three-run bomb.

Cody Apthorpe (Windham, Ohio) allowed two runs in the first two innings of the game but the sophomore right-hander shut down the Bison in his final two innings in his first win of the season. He finished his five-inning stint allowing two runs (both earned) on seven hits and striking out three hitters. Ross Gerdeman (Fort Jennings, Ohio) followed Aprthorpe with 3.2 innings of relief work, allowing two runs of that time. Nick Bruns (St. Henry, Ohio) cleaned up the final out of the game.

Freshman Logan Walker (Richmond, Vir.) set the tone by leading off the game with a homerun, his first of his career. Bowling Green added another run in the second inning on the first of Pitzulo's four RBI on a two-out single, scoring Andrew Kubuski (Elyria, Ohio). Back-to-back home runs from Pitzulo and Berti in the fourth gave BGSU a 5-2 lead before a pair of runs in the sixth plus a Ryan Schlater (St. Paris, Ohio) solo home run gave the Falcons their eight runs, more than enough to secure a victory. All home runs hit by the Falcons in today's game were either a first for the season or of a career.

Currently the Falcons are 4-7 on the season and have won three of their five games while playing in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. They will play their final game of the invitational Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. when a pair of Falcons face off against one another. Bowling Green and the Air Force Academy will meet in Winter Haven, Florida for BGSU's final game of their spring break trip stay.

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.