Saturday, May 21
Buffalo, New York
1:00 pm
Bowling Green State University
2
at
3
University at Buffalo
Falcons Clinch Tournament Berth with Win in Buffalo
May 21, 2011 | Baseball
BSGU earns eighth seed in the MAC Tournament with a decisive regular season finale win today.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Falcons' tournament destiny was placed in their hands heading into the final day of the regular season. Ohio had done its part by winning two of three games against Miami. Bowling Green needed to win just one of its two games of a doubleheader against Buffalo. After dropping game one in extra innings, Bowling Green stamped its RSVP to the Mid-American Tournament with a dominating 11-3 win in the season finale.
With the win, Bowling Green clinches the eighth and final seed in the tournament and will match up against top-seed Kent State in the opening round. The Falcons will play KSU on the opening day of the tournament at a time to be determined tomorrow afternoon.
GAME ONE - box score (.html) | box score (.pdf) | play by play (.pdf) | Final season statistics (.html)
In game one the teams combined for 23 hits but only five runs in the Falcons loss. Both teams traded runs in the second and third innings, but it took a walk-off, solo home run in the bottom of the twelfth inning by UB's Eric Bryce to claim a Buffalo victory.
Bowling Green lit the scoreboard up first benefitting from a RBI double to center field hit by senior Ryan Schlater (St. Paris, Ohio) in the top of the second inning. The hit scored Clay Duncan (Norwalk, Ohio) who had hit a one-out single up the middle.
Cody Apthorpe (Windham, Ohio) allowed a run in the bottom half of the inning, also on a run scoring double. He hit Eric Bryce to put a runner on board before allowing the extra base hit Daniel Scahill to score the tying run.
Jon Berti (Troy, Mich.) broke the tie in the Falcons' next at bat, chipping in the team's second extra base hit of the inning. Patrick Martin (Oregon, Ohio) found a hole in right center field to lead the third off with a double before rounding the bases and scoring on Berti's RBI triple to the same gap.
The lead did not last long after Buffalo tied it up again in the bottom half of the third. Andrew Smietana led the inning off with a single then stole second base. After a single advanced Smietana to third, Michael Burke plated him with an infield single to the left side.
The teams went scoreless for the next eight innings and took the 2-2 score well into the tenth inning before the decisive run was scored. Nick Bruns (St. Henry, Ohio) was in his second full inning of relief after entering in the tenth inning before Eric Bryce took a 3-2 offering and sent it over the center field fence for a walk-off, solo home run to win the game for Buffalo, 3-2.
BGSU starting pitcher Cody Apthorpe went 5.1 innings and allowed two runs on eight UB hits. He struck out seven Bulls hitters and walked only one. Ross Gerdeman (Fort Jennings, Ohio) steadied the ship with four innings of scoreless baseball, allowing only three hits and a walk to accompany four strikeouts.
Leading the Falcons offensively in game one was freshman Andrew Kubuski (Elyria, Ohio), who tallied three hits on the day. Berti went 2-for-4 with one RBI on the day.
GAME TWO - box score (.html) | box score (.pdf) | play by play (.pdf)
The Falcons scored runs in each of their first five innings and totaled 11 in the eight-run victory over Buffalo in game two of the doubleheader. Of their 11 runs, only five were earned after the Falcons benefitted from six Buffalo errors during the game.
Six Falcons had multi-hit days, including Matt Pitzulo (Poland, Ohio) who had four in the game with one RBI. The two through four hitters in the BGSU lineup went a combined 10-for-16 (.620) on the day with three runs batted in and five runs scored.
In the first of three consecutive innings in which the Falcons scored twice, Matt Pitzulo plated Jon Berti on a RBI single to right center field then later came around to score on a fielder's choice struck by Clay Duncan, giving the Falcons an early 2-0 lead.
The Falcons doubled up their lead when Berti hit a two-out single to center field, scoring Patrick Lancaster (Woodhaven, Mich.) and Andrew Kubuski, the first of their six unearned runs.
Buffalo matched Bowling Green with two runs in the bottom of the second, but the run parade continued as another pair of Falcons crossed the plate in the top of the third. Bowling Green led the inning off with a pair of singles followed by set of run-scoring singles from Alex Davison (Grand Ledge, Mich.) and Jeremy Shay (Garden City, Mich.), extending the lead to 6-2.
A Jeremy Shay RBI single in the fourth complimented three more BGSU runs in the fifth to help the Falcons take a commanding 10-2 lead. Two Buffalo errors in the inning aided in Ryan Schlater, Andrew Kubuski and Patrick Lancaster scoring in the three-run fifth. The Brown and Orange added one more insurance run in the seventh courtesy a double by Jon Berti and a ground ball double play allowing him to score to take a 11-3 lead into the ninth. Matt Malewitz (Grand Rapids, Mich.) tossed a perfect frame toward the win.
The BGSU pitching staff limited Buffalo to just three runs on ten hits on the day. Led by senior Charles Wooten (Elmore, Ohio), the four-man staff combined for 15 strikeouts. Eleven of those were tossed by Wooten (5-6) in his six innings of work, setting a new career high in that category. His only blemish was a two-run home run in the second inning, before he went on the hold the Bulls scoreless for the duration of his stay on the mount. Except for the third inning, the righty struck out at least one UB hitter, four times striking out at least two. He struck out the side twice in consecutive innings during the fourth and fifth frames. All of his 11 punch outs were swinging third strikes.
Michael Frank (Maumee, Ohio), Ben Singer (Midland, Mich.) and Matt Malewitz closed out the remaining three innings toward the win. Frank and Singer each struck out two hitters in their lone inning of work.
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.
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