Baseball Splits Doubleheader At Perfect Game Tournament

Saturday, March 12

Emerson, GA

2:30 PM EST

Bowling Green State University

Savannah State

March 12, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics
Game 1 (Savannah State): HTML | PDF
Game 2 (Nebraska-Omaha): HTML | PDF

Emerson, Ga. – The Bowling Green State University baseball team split a doubleheader at the Perfect Game Tournament on Saturday (March 12), winning the first game against Savannah State, before falling in the second game to Nebraska-Omaha. Both games were decided by a 10-1 score.

With the split, Bowling Green sits at 7-7 on the season, and are now 6-2 on the spring-break trip. The Falcons opened the trip by sweeping the competition at the Elon Tournament. In Elon, BGSU downed Elon, Appalachian State and Stony Brook.

"It really was a tale of two games for us today," said Danny Schmitz. "I thought we played great against Savannah State, but we didn't follow that up with a good effort against Nebraska-Omaha. We have a chance to finish the trip at 7-2 with a win tomorrow."

The win over Savannah State saw the Falcons out-hit the Tigers, 14-5. Zac Carey was tremendous in the win, logging a season-high 7.1 innings and allowing just five hits. He struck out six, and issued two walks while allowing one run.

Bowling Green plated two runs apiece in the first, third and sixth, before scoring one in the seventh and three in the eighth.

Kory Brown went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI, while Matt Smith went 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBI. Riley Minorik was the other Falcon with multiple hits, as he finished 2-for-5 with three runs scored.

Cody Callaway's lone hit was a two-run double. Joe McGuinness also had a two-run double. In his first-career at-bat, the left-handed hitting catcher pulled a two-bagger into right field in the eighth. Bowling Green's other run was driven in by Dan Ferguson.

After Carey's strong outing, Trevor Farrell finished things off and secured the win by throwing 1.2 innings of perfect baseball. The win pushed Bowling Green over .500 at 7-6 for the first time since the opening-day win at East Tennessee State University.

Game two against Nebraska-Omaha was dominated by Maverick starter Corey Binger, who threw a complete-game shutout, allowing just three hits and one run while fanning six and walking none.

Bowling Green's lone run was knocked in by Tyler Greiner. Greiner yanked a single into left field for his first knock of the 2016 season, and it pulled Bowling Green within one run at 2-1. BGSU was in the game into the fifth, as the score remained at 2-1, but the Mavericks erupted for five runs in the fifth to take a commanding 7-1 lead.

Nebraska-Omaha then plated two more in the sixth, and one more in the ninth. Falcon starter Andrew Lacinak did not get much help. Of the seven runs that were scored on him, only two were earned due to errors.

In relief, Mat Szabo (1.1 innings), Wes Rickenberg (1.0 innings), and Axel Bueter (0.1 innings) worked scoreless outings. Rickenberg struck out two in his season debut, while Bueter made his collegiate debut, and struck out the only batter he faced. Mitchell Schneider also made his collegiate debut, playing shortstop and getting one at-bat as a defensive replacement.

The Falcons will wrap up play at the Perfect Game Tournament, and finish off the spring-break trip tomorrow with a 12-noon first pitch against Presbyterian College. Bowling Green defeated the Blue House on Friday by a score of 6-1.