Falcons On Tournament Trail: First Stop, No. 1 Kent State

Wednesday, May 25

Chillicothe, Ohio

7:30 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

No. 1 Kent State

May 24, 2011 | Baseball

The eighth seeded Falcons will play top seeded Kent State on Thursday night in round one of the MAC Tournament.

By: by Ryan Gasser, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

	No. 8 Bowling Green Falcons (20-29, 11-14 MAC) vs. No. 1 Kent State Golden Flashes (39-14, 21-5 MAC) *VA Memorial Stadium • Chillicothe, Ohio*
Wednesday May 25, 2011 - 7:30 p.m. vs. No. 1 Kent State Matt Malewitz - r-Jr., LHP (2-2, 5.18) vs. David Starn - Jr., LHP (7-2, 2.07) Thursday May 26, 2011 - 12:30 or 4:00 p.m. vs. No. 4 NIU or No. 5 EMU TBA vs. TBA Friday May 1, 2011 - TBA - TBA TBA vs. TBA

THE FALCONS AT THE MAC TOURNAMENT
Since the inception of the Mid-American Conference tournament in the 1994 season, the Falcons have tallied a 14-18 overall record against the opposition. The Falcons have won two conference tournaments. They enter this year's bracket as the eight-seed after finishing the 2011 MAC season 11-14. Last year, the Falcons made a splash as the fifth seed, advancing to the semi-final round, eliminating Ball State with two wins versus the Cardinals, and defeating the eventual tournament runners-up CMU Chips.

THE FALCONS vs. KENT STATE
The Falcons and Golden Flashes have met twice this season with Kent State taking both games by scores of 17-10 and 8-0. The ten runs allowed is the second-most KSU has allowed all season, second only to when Louisville beat them, 11-2. The Falcons are 61-106 all-time against Kent State since 1936.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS ...
Track the Falcons through the 2011 MAC Baseball Tournament by visiting BGSUFALCONS.com. Links to the MAC Tournament Central are provided on the baseball home page. LiveStats will be available for all games of the tournament, including the Falcons' contests. Links to those contests' LiveStats can be found on the BGSUFalcons.com main page or on the baseball schedule page after clicking on each game. Follow the Falcons on Twitter - @WEAREBGbaseball. Audio broadcasts will be available for select games this weekend.

ON DECK ...

With a Falcon win, they will play with winner of Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan on Thursday at 4 p.m. Should they lose, BGSU will suit up against the loser of the NIU/EMU matchup and play at 12:30 p.m., all at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.

HOW IT CAME TO BE...
For much of the final months of the season, Bowling Green held a stronghold on the third place spot in the MAC East, good for an automatic playoff berth. As it came down to the last two weeks of the MAC regular season, the Ohio Bobcats were creeping on the Falcons' heels, just three games behind. Bowling Green had the best and worst of the conference remaining on the schedule in Kent State and Buffalo, respectively. After dropping two games to KSU and having the finale washed away by weather, and the Bobcats gaining ground on the Falcons and trimming their lead to 1.5 games entering the final weekend of the season. Ohio had to win 2-of-3 games against second place Miami and have BGSU be swept by Buffalo. After having the opening game between BGSU and UB rained out, it came down to the final day. Bowling Green fell in game one in extra innings, leaving the door open for OU. With a win, BGSU would seal their place in the MAC Tournament. They did just that with a demonstrative 11-3 win over Buffalo in the regular season finale, clinching their place in the tournament.

APRIL HAD BEEN KIND TO SCHLATER
Through the senior's first 18 games, the Johnny Bench Award nominee had batted only .212 on the season. In April, however, he has raised that average over 70 points to .285 over the 21 game span. He just had an eight-game hit streak snapped going 0-for-10 in a doubleheader versus Ohio but came back with a 3-for-3 performance in the series finale win. He has hit safely in 14 of the last 19 games with multiple hits in five of those. He also currently leads the team with four home runs, three of which have been hit this month. Schlater is hit a second-best .323 and slugged .487 for the month of April, good for third-best on the team.

MAC MONSTERS
After a 25 conference game slate, Bowling Green finished in the top half of the MAC in team batting average, hitting at a fourth-best .291 clip. Falcon shortstop Jon Berti is hitting a MAC-best .412 and is atop the conference in many other offensive categories. He is fifth in runs scored (24), third in total bases (61) and slugging percentage (.598), second in hits (42), tied for first in stolen bases (13) and triples (5) and tops the conference in on-base percentage (.483). Three Falcons are hitting .333 in conference play (Schlater, Duncan, Shay) and both Schlater and Shay have three home runs a piece to led the team. From the hill, Ross Gerdeman is leading the team in ERA (3.31) while Charles Wooten is not far behind with a 3.72 ERA. Wooten possesses a 4:1 strikeouts-to-walk ratio (36:9) in eight starts for the Falcons in conference play.

SINGER WITH A “K”
Freshman Ben Singer had a commendable streak snapped in his relief appearance on May 13. Previous to that day he had accumulated at least one strikeout in every one of his 14 relief appearances to that point. After that streak ended, he went two relief appearances without a strikeout before punching out a pair in the season finale against Buffalo. He has totaled 23 strikeouts in 17 appearances, spanning 25.0 innings. He had a season-high three strikeouts in one inning against Air Force (3/12) and another three strikeout day against Central Michigan (4/26) over three innings. He currently has a 5.04 earned run average and a 0-4 record.

WOOTEN FINISHES YEAR STRONG

Charles Wooten has finished the 2011 campaign as the Falcons' top starter, having not allowed more than three runs and two earned runs in his last five starts of the season. He went 3-1 in that time and watched his ERA drop almost 1.00, from 4.44 to 3.59 since April 24. He set a new career high in strike outs with 11 against Buffalo in the Falcons' playoff-clinching win and has tallied seven or more in four difference occasions since season's start. He is currently 5-6 with a team-high 62 strike outs and a low among starters, 18 walks.

YA DON'T SHAY?!
Freshman Jeremy Shay stepped in as the team's designated hitter beginning in late April and has seen some success at the plate. After notching only eight hits through 37 at-bats previous to April 23, Shay has gone 17-for-51 (.333), including ten runs scored, 14 RBI, 29 total bases, three home runs and three doubles. Those numbers make him best on the team over that span of time in RBI, total bases, home runs and slugging percentage (.569).

GERDEMAN'S GREATNESS
Out of the pen, the number-one option for the Falcons has become far and away, Ross Gerdeman. The Fort Henry, Ohio native has kept opponents scoreless over his last 11.0 innings in three games. He has allowed only two runs over his last 15.0 innings in six games. Since April 26, he has seen his ERA drop 88 points from 4.38 to a team-low 3.50, overall. Gerdeman tied career-highs in innings pitched (5.1) and strike outs (6) in a single outing in a long relief effort against Kent State on May 14. In his last outing against Buffalo, he went 4.0 innings, allowed no runs and three hits while striking out four.

MALEWITZ'S MAKEOVER ON THE MOUND
An All-MAC selection just two years ago in 2009, Matt Malewitz has reached the pinnacle of his return following Tommy John surgery following that season. Beginning the year on a slow rebound, his ERA ballooned to 10.61 at one point through two starts, four relief appearances and 10.2 innings of work. Beginning in mid-April, the Grand Rapids, Mich. native has turned his season around and will be the game one starter in the 2011 MAC Tournament. The beginning of his turnaround was on April 13 when he threw a season-long 6.1 innings against Dayton, allowing three runs on six hits and striking out a season-high six hitters. Against Ohio State (April 20) he threw six innings, allowing three runs on five hits in a win over the Buckeyes. In his last start against Wright State (May 21), he went five innings and allowed two runs in a win.

RIDING ON NINE
Senior tri-captain Clay Duncan is currently riding on a nine-game hit streak, his longest of the season and tying the second-longest hit streak posted by any Falcon this season (Andrew Kubuski). The streak is also the longest of Duncan's career, surpassing a previous best of five games. Frank Berry had the longest hit streak of the season, topping out at 11 games.

LOPSIDED LEAD STATISTICS
Every coin has two sides. Every story has two versions. As is with the Falcons in late innings. When the Falcons are ahead after six innings they are 17-0, however when they trail they are 3-25. When holding a lead seven innings deep, the Falcons are 16-1 but are 2-23 when trailing. Finally, after eight innings the Falcons are 18-2 when ahead but 0-23 when behind.

THE MAGIC NUMBER
How many runs does it take to ensure a win for the Falcons baseball team? Let's find out ... according to their regular season play it does not look good for 1, 2 or 3 runs (a combined 1-12 when BGSU scored 3 or fewer runs) but once you reach six runs and beyond, the numbers begin to alter. When the Falcons score five or more runs they are a combined 18-7 with three of those loses when being outscored after scoring 10+ runs.

For complete BGSU game notes, click here.