Falcons Fall In Back-And-Forth Series Opener

Friday, April 25

Bowling Green, Ohio

4:05 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

17-20, 8-8

Kent State University

28-13, 12-4

Kent State

Bowling Green

April 25, 2014 | Baseball

Box Score

By: by Scott Swegan, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: HTML

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio—The Bowling Green State University baseball team dropped the series opener on Friday night to Kent State, falling in a back-and-forth affair by a final score of 7-5. An eighth-inning home run by KSU's Cody Koch proved to be the difference in the ballgame. With the loss, the Falcons are now 17-20 on the season and an even 8-8 in Mid-American Conference play. The defeat snapped a five-game winning streak for the Orange and Brown.

After an hour delay due to rain on Friday morning, the Falcons and Golden Flashes played a scoreless first two innings. Bowling Green had chances in the early going, stranding five runners on base in the first two frames.

Kent State got on the board against Falcon starting pitcher Mike Frank in the top of the third, breaking through for two runs in the inning. With one out in the inning, Frank would walk a batter and hit a batter. Both free passes proved to be costly, as they would come around to score giving Kent State a 2-0 lead.

The Falcons quickly responded in the bottom of the third. Jeremy Shay would walk to begin the inning, and advanced to second on a wild pitch with one out. With two outs, Shay would score on a seeing-eye single by Patrick Lancaster through the right side of the infield to cut the deficit in half. Lancaster would advance to second on a wild pitch to next batter Trey Keegan. After a steal of third, Lancaster would cruise home on a single to left field by Keegan.

With the score deadlocked at two runs apiece, the Golden Flashes would start quickly again in the top of the fourth. Koch led off the inning with a wind-aided double off the wall in right field, and T.J. Sutton's home run over the fence in right field would give KSU a 4-2 lead later in the inning.

With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the fourth, Jake Thomas was hit by a pitch to give the Falcons a base runner. Shay would then step to the plate against Kent State's Eric Lauer, delivering a 2-0 pitch off the scoreboard in right field to tie the game. It was Shay's second home run of the season.

Both teams would be held scoreless in the fifth, before BGSU would break the tie in the home half of the sixth. With two outs and Thomas on second, KSU would miss on a pickoff attempt. Thomas would advance to third on the throwing error, and score on T.J. Losby's poke through the right side of the infield.

The Falcons held on to their 5-4 lead into the top of the eighth, as Frank cruised through innings five, six, and seven.

The Golden Flashes, after a foul out to begin the eighth inning, would get back-to-back singles against Frank to begin their rally. After a mound visit from pitching coach Rick Blanc, Frank would get a fly out to center field for the second out of the inning.

With runners on the corners and two outs, Koch—the KSU cleanup hitter—would deposit the first pitch he saw from Frank over the left field fence for the go-ahead, three-run home run.

The Kent State bullpen would take over from there, retiring the final 10 Falcons to hang on for the win. Mike Frank (3-5) was tabbed with the loss, while Dan Kopcak (3-0) picked up the win for Kent State. Eric Dorsch shut the door for his 10th save of the year.

The Falcons and Golden Flashes will play the second game of their weekend series on Saturday, beginning at 1:00 p.m. inside the friendly confines of Warren E. Steller Field.