Baseball Hits The Road For Weekend Series At Miami

Bowling Green State University Falcons (20-20; 10-8 MAC)
at
Miami University RedHawks (20-24; 10-8 MAC)
Friday | May 2 | 6:00 p.m. | LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
Saturday | May 3 | 3:00 p.m. | LIVE STATS
Sunday | May 4 | 1:00 p.m. | LIVE STATS
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)

The Pitching Matchups
Friday
Bowling Green: RHP Mike Frank • 3-5, 4.55 ERA, 65.1 IP, 61 H, 43 K
Miami: LHP Seth Varner • 6-2, 2.51 ERA, 75.1 IP, 64 H, 82 K

Saturday
Bowling Green: LHP Brett Fitzwater • 1-1, 5.66 ERA, 20.2 IP, 16 H, 12 K
Miami: RHP Nathan Williams • 3-6, 6.68 ERA, 60.2 IP, 73 H, 38 K

Sunday
Bowling Green: LHP Andrew Lacinak • 4-3, 4.13 ERA, 52.1 IP, 50 H, 23 K
Miami: TBA

The Starting Lineup
• Bowling Green enters the weekend with an overall record of 20-20. The Falcons are 10-8 in Mid-American Conference play.
• Since starting the season 6-16 (0-4 MAC), BGSU has won 14 of their last 18 games, including a record of 10-4 in that span in MAC play.
• Danny Schmitz is in his 24th season as the head coach at Bowling Green. He has a career record of 632-601-1.
• Schmitz is assisted by pitching coach Rick Blanc (7th season), hitting coach Mike Huling (2nd season), volunteer coach Garrett Gray (1st season), and undergraduate coach Drew Kuns (2nd season).
• The Falcons are hitting .284 as a team with an earned run average of 4.83.
• Brian Bien and T.J. Losby lead the Orange and Brown with a 3.55 batting average.
• Bien, Losby, and Jeremy Shay have started all 40 games this season. Patrick Lancaster is the only other Falcon who has played in all 40 contests.
• Jason Link has a 1.98 ERA in 27.1 innings pitched this season. He has one save in 13 appearances.
• BGSU is 11-13 on the road this season, but has won eight of their last nine away from home.

A Look At The RedHawks
• Miami enters this weekend with an overall record of 20-24 on the campaign. They have an identical 10-8 record to BGSU in MAC play.
• Danny Hayden is in his first season as the skipper at Miami. He came to Oxford after serving as an assistant at Xavier.
• As a team, Miami is hitting .278 with an earned run average of 5.47.
• No Miami players have played in all 44 games this season.
• Dan Walsh, a senior infielder, leads MU with a 3.51 batting average. He has scored 30 runs and driven in 27 on the season.
• Max Andresen (.310), Steve Sada (.305), and Ryan Elble (.304) are also hitting over .300 for the RedHawks on the season.
• Seth Varner, Friday night's projected starting pitcher, has been one of the best pitchers in the MAC this season. Varner is 6-2 with a 2.51 ERA. He has started 11 games, striking out 82 batters in 75.1 innings pitched.
• The RedHawks have stolen 49 bases in 85 attempts this year. On the flip side, they have allowed 67 stolen bases on just 80 attempts this year.

A Look Around The MAC
• Bowling Green enters the final stretch of Mid-American Conference play with a record of 10-8. After starting 0-4 in MAC play, the Falcons have gone 10-4.
• The Falcons, at 10-8 overall, currently sit in a fifth place tie with Miami. Ball State leads the MAC with a 14-3 mark, while Kent State and Central Michigan are tied at 12-6.
• BGSU has the league's third-best batting average (.283) and eighth-best ERA (4.85).

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 149 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
T.J. Losby           2011 - pres.   149
Jeff Warnock        2002 - 2005   144
Kelly Hunt            2001 - 2003   128
Dave Barkholz      2002 - 2004   115
T.J. Blanton          2009 - 2010   110

Rewriting The Record Books
• Redshirt senior Mike Frank is second all-time for innings pitched in his career with 290.0. He is just five innings shy of Kip Young's all-time record of 295.0.
• Frank is also tied for second with 203 career strikeouts. He is 29 shy of Young's all-time mark.
• Ben Singer is sixth all-time with 80 career appearances. He is 11 shy of the record.
• T.J. Losby (1,006) and Jeremy Shay (922) are both in the top five for career putouts. Losby is third all-time, while Shay is fifth. The all-time record is 1,038 putouts.
• Brian Bien is sixth in school history with 419 career assists.
• Jeremy Shay is eighth in school history with 43 career doubles. The senior first baseman has 11 doubles in 2014.
• Shay is the only Bowling Green player with over 100 career RBI and runs scored. Shay has 105 career runs scored and 107 career RBI. T.J. Losby has the most career RBIs on the current roster, with 113.

The Snow Out That Changed The Season
• Following a 9-0 loss on March 28 to Northern Illinois, Bowling Green was 6-16 overall and 0-4 in MAC play.
• The next day, snow and freezing rain in Indianapolis forced a cancellation and day off.
• BGSU has used that off day to their advantage, going 14-4 since that date to improve their record to 20-20.
• The Falcons have gone 10-4 in MAC play since that date, and have a record of 10-1 away from home (8-1 in true road games).
• The Orange and Brown has a batting average of .305 since that snow out, and has stolen 36-of-48 (75%) bases.

Speed Separating Falcons
• Bowling Green has stolen 56 bases through the first 40 games of the season, including 36 in the last 18 games.
• The Falcons are fifth in the MAC with their 56 stolen bases.
• BGSU has stolen more bases (56) than their opponents have attempted (49) in 2014.
• Three Falcons have stolen at least 13 bases this season, while another five players have at least two stolen bases.
• Brandon Howard leads the Falcons with 14 steals, while Brian Bien and Patrick Lancaster each have 13.

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.

BG Takes 2-of-3 From Kent State
• After losing a tough game on Friday thanks to an eighth-inning home run, BGSU bounced back nicely to defeat KSU 8-6 on Saturday.
• In Sunday's rubbermatch, the Falcons trailed 5-2 after six and a half innings, but scored 10 runs in the last two innings to win 12-5.

Thomas On A Tear
• Over his last nine games, senior Jake Thomas is batting .429 with 14 runs scored and eight RBI.
• Thomas has scored at least one run in each of those nine contests, and has registered a hit in all but one of those games.
• Thomas helped secure a series-clinching 12-5 victory over Kent State on April 27 by going 3-for-4 with three RBI and a triple.
• The senior drove in the game-winning run at Eastern Michigan (Apr. 30) with a one-out double in the 10th inning.

Link Keeping It Low
• Senior Jason Link lowered his team-leading ERA to 1.98 on the season after tossing a hitless seventh inning in the Falcons' 11-8 win at Eastern Michigan on Wednesday.
• Link helped even last weekend's series with Kent State at one game apiece by throwing a clean eighth inning in an 8-6 game, before Ethan McKenney earned the save.

Bien, Losby Setting The Standard
• With identical .355 team-high batting averages, junior Brian Bien and senior T.J. Losby have helped pace the Falcon offense.
• The pair -- who are the only Falcons along with Jeremy Shay to have started in all 40 games -- have combined for 121 total bases, 103 hits, 53 runs and 48 RBI.
• The two have complemented each other nicely throughout the season. Losby has knocked in 30 runs to Bien's 18 and has earned 62 bases to Bien's 59, while Bien leads Losby in hits (54-49) and in runs (31-22).

BG Among The MAC's Leaders
• Brian Bien and T.J. Losby are tied for sixth in the MAC with identical .355 batting averages.
• Brandon Howard's 14 stolen bases currently sit inside the top 10.
• Jeremy Shay is tied for fifth in the MAC with 28 walks this season. He is also eighth in the conference with 33 runs batted in.
• Shay is also inside the top 10 for both on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He is second in the MAC with an OBP of .460, while his slugging percentage of .482 is seventh.
• Ethan McKenney is tied for sixth in the MAC with four saves this season.
• As a team, the Falcons are seventh in the MAC with a .960 team fielding percentage.

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