Falcons Outslug Miami To Take Weekend Series

Sunday, April 5

Bowling Green, Ohio

1:05 pm ET

Bowling Green State University

9-17, 3-6

Miami (OH)

5-23, 3-6

Miami

Bowling Green

April 05, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

BGSU scored a season-high 18 runs on the power of a season-high 18 hits in the victory

By: by Scott Swegan, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: HTML | PDF

Head Coach Danny Schmitz Interview

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University baseball team exploded offensively on Sunday afternoon, earning their first Mid-American Conference series victory with an 18-12 win over the Miami RedHawks at Warren E. Steller Field. The Falcons had 18 hits in the effort, which tied a season high. With the victory, the Falcons improved to 9-17 on the campaign, 3-6 in MAC play. Miami fell to 5-23 on the season and 3-6 in MAC play.

"I was proud of our guys today," head coach Danny Schmitz started. "We scored those five runs in the first inning but we told the guys they had to keep playing. We knew with the wind blowing like it was it was going to be a hitters' day and five runs wasn't going to be enough. Give Miami a lot of credit that they didn't give up, but I'm proud of our guys that they showed a lot of character and toughness to keep attacking."

With the wind blowing straight out to centerfield at over 20 miles per hour for much of the afternoon, both offenses took advantage to the tune of a combined 30 runs, 30 hits, and six home runs. In total, the two teams combined for 11 extra-base hits.

Bowling Green scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a commanding early lead. Greg Basalyga hit a three-run, first inning home run for the second consecutive day to give the Orange and Brown a 4-0 lead. The Falcons would go back-to-back, as Jesse Rait lined a pitch over the fence in left field for his first career home run. Rait went 3-for-4 in the game with three runs scored, four RBI, two doubles and the homer.

Jesse Rait Postgame Interview

Miami bounced back though, as they put up four runs in the top of the third inning, including the first of two home runs on the day by right fielder Matt Honchel.

Bowling Green responded, though, as the Falcons put up a two-spot in the home half of the third to extend the lead back out to three runs, at 7-4. Trey Keegan, Matt Smith and Basalyga all reached base to load the bases with nobody out. Rait and Randy Righter both followed with sacrifice flies to score the two runs in the inning.

The middle three innings really turned the game into a slugfest, as each team scored in all three innings to make it a 12-10 game in favor of the Falcons. In the bottom of the fourth inning, senior Brandon Howard hit his first career home run, smashing a pitch over the wall in left-centerfield to give the Orange and Brown an 8-6 lead at the time. Howard went 2-for-4 in the game with three runs scored and three RBI. He added a triple in the eighth inning.

Brandon Howard Postgame Interview

After falling behind 10-9 in the sixth inning, the Falcons battled back and scored three runs in each of the next three innings to take a commanding lead over the RedHawks.

The Falcons did all of their damage in the sixth inning with two outs, as Basalyga doubled home Keegan from first to tie the game at 10-10. A Rait double into the right-centerfield gap scored Basalyga to put the Falcons ahead for good. Rait then came home on a Righter single to left field.

In the bottom of the seventh, after reliever Devin Daugherty set the RedHawks down in order, the Bowling Green offense continued their late-inning onslaught with three more runs. Brian Bien led things off with an infield single and was sacrificed to second base by Kory Brown. After a Howard sacrifice bunt moved Bien to third, Keegan was hit by a pitch to put runners at the corners with two away. Smith (single), Basalyga (single) and Rait (double) all followed with RBI hits to give the Falcons a 15-10 lead after seven innings.

Miami added a two-run home run in the eighth inning, closing the deficit to 15-12. The Falcons turned to lefthander Kody Brown, who worked out of the jam. Brown pitched 1.1 innings in Sunday's game, striking out two to earn his first career save.

In the bottom of the eighth, Bien and Brown scored on a triple to dead centerfield by Howard. Howard then scored on a sacrifice fly by Keegan to make it 18-12.

The Falcons will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Ypsilanti, Mich. for a showdown with the Eagles of Eastern Michigan University. The game will not count towards the MAC standings and is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m.

Notes
*The Falcons 18 runs scored in a game were a season-high

*Bowling Green's 18 hits tied a season-high, also done against Eastern Kentucky (Feb. 27)

*Both Brandon Howard and Jesse Rait hit their first career home runs in the game

*Greg Basalyga hit his third home run of the season – and week – in the game. He went 4-for-5 with two runs scored and a career-high five RBI

*True freshman Kody Brown earned his first career save

*All nine Falcons in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit, while five of them had multi-hit games

*Seven of the Falcons' nine in the lineup scored at least two runs in the game, while five players had at least two RBI

*The top six in the lineup combined to go 15-for-27 (.556) with 15 RBI and 16 runs scored