Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
High Point University
Falcons Hit The Road To Begin Spring Break Trip At High Point
March 06, 2014 | Baseball
BGSU takes on Panthers in three game set this weekend
Bowling Green Falcons (2-7, 0-0 MAC)
at
High Point Panthers (8-5, 0-0 Big South)
Saturday, Mar. 8, 1:00 pm Live Stats | Video
Saturday, Mar. 8, 4:00 pm Live Stats | Video
Sunday, Mar. 9, 1:00 pm Live Stats | Video
Game Notes (.pdf)
The Pitching Matchups
Saturday
Bowling Green: RHP Cody Apthorpe • 1-2, 3.52 ERA, 15.1 IP, 15 H, 7 K
High Point: RHP John McGillicuddy • 0-1, 1.64 ERA, 22.0 IP, 14 H, 10 K
Saturday
Bowling Green: RHP Mike Frank • 0-1, 2.08 ERA, 13.0 IP, 13 H, 10 K
High Point: LHP Mike Krumm • 2-1, 3.00 ERA, 18.0 IP, 15 H, 13 K
Sunday
Bowling Green: LHP Andrew Lacinak • 0-1, 4.38 ERA, 12.1 IP, 12 H, 4 K
High Point: RHP Andre Scrubb • 0-2, 4.86 ERA, 16.2 IP, 13 H, 16 K
Around The Bases
• Bowling Green State University is in its 95th season of baseball. The Falcons have an all-time record of 1,565-1,352-27 and are currently 2-7 in 2014.
• BGSU returns a starter at every position from the 2013 season, and will have 12 seniors on the 2014 roster.
• T.J. Losby, Jeremy Shay, and Cody Apthorpe will serve as captains in 2014.
• Head coach Danny Schmitz is in his 24th season at the helm of the Orange and Brown. He boasts a career record of 614-588-5.
• The Falcons are coming off the program's fourth ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2013.
• This weekend's series at High Point will begin Bowling Green's spring trip, where the Falcons will play nine games in nine days. This weekend will be the first time Bowling Green and High Point have played in program history.
A Look At High Point
• High Point enters the weekend with a record of 8-5, after defeating Elon on Wednesday by a final score of 2-1.
• The Panthers are coached by Craig Cozart, who is in his sixth season at HPU.
• Similar to the Falcons, High Point has a veteran squad, with 18 upperclassmen on the roster.
• The Panthers are batting .269 as a team with an on-base percentage of .347. The Panthers are led by Chris Clare, who is batting .395 in 11 games so far. Kyle Brandenburg will be another hitter in the HPU lineup to watch. He is batting .370 with four doubles and two triples. His .543 slugging percentage leads the team.
• On the mound, HPU has an ERA of just 2.54. Opponents are hitting just .197 against Panthers' pitching so far in 2014. The weekend rotation has a combined ERA of just 3.02, and has struck out 39 batters in 56.2 innings pitched.
Falcons Have Senior-Laden Squad
• Head coach Danny Schmitz welcomes back 12 seniors in 2014, which includes five pitchers and seven position players.
• The five senior pitchers bring 260 games of experience and 777.1 innings pitched to the table.
• The seven position players, who have all played in at least 100 career games, have played in 940 total games and compiled 2,944 at-bats.
Falcons Play Well At Georgia Tech
• Despite getting swept last weekend at perennial national power Georgia Tech, the Falcons played well in all three games.
• In Friday's contest, Bowling Green scored two second-inning runs to take an early lead, but the Yellow Jackets would respond with three runs in the third. GT then held on from there for a 3-2 win.
• On Saturday, the Falcons would commit a costly error in the bottom of the third, allowing four unearned runs en route to an 8-3 loss.
• GT would finish off the sweep on Sunday with an 8-5 win, but it wasn't without a fight from the Falcons. Bowling Green took a 3-2 lead early on, and would close to within 6-5, before eventually falling to the Yellow Jackets.
Chasing Records In 2014
• Both Mike Frank and Cody Apthorpe enter the weekend inside the top 10 for innings pitched all time. The all-time record is 295.0 innings by Kip Young. Apthorpe, who is 6th with 240.0 innings pitched, is just in front of teammate Mike Frank (237.2) in the all-time record book.
• Jeremy Shay currently sits at 35 career doubles. He is three shy of the all-time top 10.
• Kubuski is the active leader in games played with 157. He is 33 games from moving into a 10th-place tie all-time.
• Two Falcons are in the top 10 all-time for putouts. T.J. Losby, currently 5th with 806, is just 232 putouts from a first place tie all-time. Jeremy Shay currently sits in a tie for 8th all-time with 732 putouts.
• Ben Singer is tied for seventh all-time with 70 career appearances. He is just 21 appearances shy of tying the all-time record.
• Mike Frank is 10th all-time for strikeouts in a career with 170, just five short of ninth.
Looking To Get Back On Track
• Bowling Green has started the season just 2-7, losing the last five contests.
• The Falcons started the season with a 1-2 weekend at Belmont, but won the first game of the series at Murray State to improve to 2-2. Since then, the Orange and Brown have lost five straight, by a combined 11 runs.
Falcons Have Tri-Captains In 2014
• Seniors Cody Apthorpe, T.J. Losby, and Jeremy Shay will serve as tri-captains in 2014.
Apthorpe and Losby were both captains last season. Apthorpe was also a captain in 2011, while Shay will serve as a first-time captain.
Losby A Leader In All Aspects
• T.J. Losby will serve as a tri-captain of the Falcons in 2014. He was also a captain during the 2013 campaign.
• Losby, who has become one of the best catchers in the Midwest, was named first team All-MAC and second team All-Midwest Region in 2013.
• The senior has also played in 118 straight games, dating back to 2011. He is one of just six players since 2001 to play in every game over the span of two consecutive seasons, which he did in both 2012 and 2013.
Player                Date             Consecutive GP
Ryan Shay         2006 - 2009   194
Jeff Warnock     2002 - 2005   144
Kelly Hunt          2001 - 2003   128
T.J. Losby          2011 - pres.   118
Dave Barkholz   2002 - 2004   115
T.J. Blanton       2009 - 2010   110
Lethal One-Two Punch
• Bowling Green's one-two punch of Patrick Lancaster and Brian Bien has been lethal at the top of Danny Schmitz's order in 2014.
• Lancaster leads the team with a .405 batting average. He has an on-base percentage of .463 with a team-high three stolen bases.
• Bien is second on the team with a .353 average. He has an on-base percentage of .410 and a slugging percentage of .441.
• Either Bien or Lancaster have led off in every game so far this season. The duo is 18-38 (.474) with the bases empty this season.
Lancaster Shines At Georgia Tech
• Senior centerfielder Patrick Lancaster had an outstanding weekend in Atlanta this past weekend.
• Lancaster went 6-for-10 while reaching base 10 times in 13 plate appearances. He was walked twice, hit by a pitch, and also reached on an error.
• Lancaster also stole a base and led the Falcons with four RBI.
Bien There, Done That
• Junior shortstop Brian Bien has consistently been a pain for opposing teams during his career, both at the plate and in the field defensively.
• Bien is currently batting .353, which is second on the team. He has the second highest slugging percentage on the team at .441, and the second highest on-base percentage at .410.
• Bien has a career batting average of .323, which is best on the Falcons. He has 14 extra-base hits and 14 stolen bases during his career.
Among The MAC's Best
• Bowling Green's numbers prove that it has played one of the toughest schedules in the MAC thus far, if not the toughest. Despite its 2-7 record (11th best in MAC as of 3/5), Bowling Green has the league's fifth-best batting average (.275) and second-best ERA (4.00).
• Individually, Patrick Lancaster is eighth in the MAC with a .405 batting average. He is tied for fifth with 15 hits.
• Mike Frank has the league's seventh-best ERA, at 2.08. Frank is ninth in the MAC with an opponent's batting average of just .245.
Roll Along You BG (Road) Warriors
• It is no secret, that when you are a northern school, you must travel in order to be able to play games early in the season.
• Bowling Green will play their first 18 games of the season on the road, with trips to Nashville, Tenn., Murray, Ky., Atlanta, Ga., High Point, N.C., Dayton, Ohio, and Winter Haven, Fla.
• Over those first 18 games, which span 31 days, the Falcons will travel 6,244 miles, according to Google Maps.
Schmitz's 2014 Staff Very Familiar
• Anyone involved with Falcon baseball knows Danny Schmitz, who returns for his 24th season in 2014.
• For the seventh consecutive season, assistant coach Rick Blanc will serve on Schmitz's staff as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.
• Mike Huling returns for his second season under Schmitz. Huling served as the volunteer assistant coach in 2013 before being promoted to assistant coach in 2014.
• Garrett Gray, an All-Horizon League player at Wright State, joins the coaching staff as the volunteer assistant coach in 2014.
• Drew Kuns will assist the program as an undergraduate assistant in 2014. Kuns, who played from 2010-12 under Schmitz, served in a similar capacity in 2013.
Looking Ahead
• Bowling Green will play six games at the Russ Matt Invitational next week in Winter Haven, Fla.
• After taking Monday off, the Falcons will play a doubleheader on Tuesday and single game Wednesday. Following a Thursday off day, BGSU will finish off the trip with two games Friday and one Saturday.
