FranKKKKKKKKKKKK Dominates Broncos In Complete Game Victory

Saturday, April 5

Toledo, Ohio

12:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

9-16, 0

Western Michigan University

12-13, 0

Bowling Green

Western Michigan

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

April 05, 2014 | Baseball

Box Score

Senior right-handed pitcher strikes out career-high 12 in 3-1 win

By: by Scott Swegan, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: HTML | PDF

TOLEDO, Ohio—Mike Frank was nothing short of spectacular on Saturday afternoon at Mercy Field, as he pitched a complete-game in a 3-1 victory for Bowling Green. The senior, right-handed pitcher struck out a career-high 12 Western Michigan Broncos in the win. The victory improves the Falcons to 9-16 overall and 3-4 in Mid-American Conference play. It was their third consecutive victory.

The Falcon offense jumped on Western Michigan starting pitcher Steve Laudicina in the top of the first, as leadoff man Brian Bien singled to begin the game. After an Andrew Kubuski single, T.J. Losby would knock an RBI base hit to score Bien and give the Orange and Brown a 1-0 lead. A Brandon Howard single would load the bases, and Logan Walker would walk with two outs to increase the Falcons lead to 2-0 after just half an inning.

That would be all Frank would need. The redshirt senior was dominant, allowing just four hits on the afternoon while striking out 12 batters—six of them looking. The 12 K's tied a Mid-American Conference single-game high for the 2014 season, as WMU's Keegan Akin (who will start game three on Sunday) did it last weekend against Ohio.

Frank would strike out batters in seven of the nine innings, as he got two Broncos swinging in the bottom of the first. After a scoreless top of the second by the Falcons offense, Frank would get WMU's Cable looking to end the bottom of the inning.

The Falcons would extend their lead to 3-0 in the top of the third. Jeremy Shay led off the inning with a walk, and advanced to third on a single by Losby down the right field line. A Howard sacrifice fly would score Shay.

Frank would strike out six batters over the next four frames, increasing his total to 10 strikeouts through the first six innings. He did not strike out any Broncos in the bottom of the seventh, the first inning that he did not retire a WMU hitter on strikes in the game. He did, however, set them down one-two-three in the frame.

Frank, who improved to 2-4 on the season by winning his second consecutive game in dominating fashion, struck out two more Western Michigan hitters in the bottom of the eighth—both looking. He faced a season-high 32 batters in the game, throwing just 108 pitches to record his 27 outs and 12 strikeouts.

Western Michigan would get on the board in the bottom of the ninth, as a leadoff double turned into a run on a groundout later in the inning. Despite allowing a run, Frank finished off the dominating performance by himself to record his first complete-game of the season.

With his nine innings pitched on Saturday, Frank has now thrown 269.2 innings in his career. He sits third all-time for career innings pitched, just 25.1 innings behind all-time leader Kip Young. The righty from Maumee, Ohio moved into fourth-place all-time on Saturday with his 12 strikeouts. He now has 193 strikeouts in his career, just 39 behind Kip Young for the top spot all-time.

The Falcons and Broncos will return to the diamond on Sunday, as they will play a doubleheader to conclude the three-game series. Sunday's doubleheader will begin at 12:00 p.m. from Mercy Field in Toledo.