Offense Explodes To Earn Series Victory Over WMU

Sunday, April 6

Toledo, Ohio

12:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

9-17, 3-5

Western Michigan University

13-13, 4-4

Bowling Green

Western Michigan

April 06, 2014 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: by Scott Swegan, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics Game One: HTML
Final Statistics Game Two: HTML

TOLEDO, Ohio—The Bowling Green State University baseball team split a doubleheader against Western Michigan on Sunday afternoon, earning the series victory. The series was played at Mercy Field. It is the second straight weekend in which the Falcons have won a Mid-American Conference series, improving their overall record to 10-17 and MAC mark to 4-5.

Game One: Western Michigan – 6 | Bowling Green – 2
The Broncos used a four-run bottom of the third inning to steal momentum from the Falcons in the first game of the afternoon. After taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, WMU would counter with five unanswered runs.

In the top of the third, Jesse Rait would lead off with a single. After advancing to second on a balk, Jeremy Shay would walk with two outs to put two runners on for T.J. Losby. Losby would deliver a clutch, two-out, two-strike single to score Rait and put the Falcons on top early.

BGSU starting pitcher Andrew Lacinak would run into trouble in the bottom of the third, much of it self-induced. After a strikeout to start the inning, he would hit three of the next four batters. A line drive off the lefty's torso would not help matters, and WMU would score four runs in the bottom of the third to knock Lacinak out of the game.

Western Michigan would add single runs in the both the fifth and seventh innings. In the bottom of the fifth, right fielder Jared Kujawa would find a pitch to his liking and drive it off the scoreboard for a two-out solo home run.

The Falcons would score their second run of the game in the top of the seventh, as Logan Walker came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Kubuski. That would be all she wrote for the Falcon offense in game one, however.

Game Two: Bowling Green – 12 | Western Michigan – 9
The Falcons jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the top of the first in the second game, roughing up WMU's Keegan Akin for eight earned in five innings of work.

In the top of the first, Brian Bien would begin the game with a perfectly-executed push bunt to reach base with a single. Kubuski would follow by fouling off several pitches before reaching on a hit by pitch. Shay would walk to load the bases, and a plethora of hits would follow. Losby singled up the middle to score the first run, and he was followed by a Brandon Howard single up the middle to give the Orange and Brown a 2-0 lead. After Patrick Lancaster's single scored Shay, WMU would take a mound visit already trailing 3-0 with the bases loaded and nobody out.

With bases full of Falcons and nobody out for second baseman Logan Walker, he would step up to the plate and deliver a fly ball into the gap in left center field. Western Michigan left fielder Steve Buglione would make a nice tumbling catch on the play, but that would allow for two Falcons to score on the two-RBI sacrifice fly by Walker. On that play, Losby scored from third and Howard would never stop from second, motoring around the bases to give the Falcons a 5-0 lead.

In the top of the second, Brian Bien once again would lead off with a single. He was sacrificed to second by Kubuski, advanced to third on a stolen base, and scored on a wild pitch to manufacture a run and give BGSU a 6-0 lead.

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Devin Daugherty improved to 2-1 on the season by pitching five innings for the win. He wouldn't allow a baserunner until two were out in the third, via a hit by pitch. WMU would get their first hit in the top of the fourth, scoring a run to cut the Bowling Green lead to 6-1.

The Falcons would tack on two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth, taking a 12-3 lead before coasting to the 12-9 victory.

Losby and Bien paced the Falcon offense, as Losby went 5-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Bien was 3-for-5 in the game with three runs scored and two RBI. Howard, Lancaster, and Walker all added two RBI, while Kubuski and Shay both scored two runs.

The Falcons, who have won 4-of-5, will finally return to Bowling Green where they are supposed to play the next four at Warren E. Steller Field. BGSU will host arch-rival Toledo on Tuesday for a nonconference, midweek showdown before playing host to Central Michigan next weekend in MAC play.