Baseball Begins Spring-Break Trip At Elon Tournament

SCOUTING THE PHOENIX
The Elon Tournament hosts will enter Friday's game with a record of 3-6. After being swept in four games by Wright State – who played in the NCAA Tournament last season – to open the year, the Phoenix were defeated by UNC Greensboro before sweeping La Salle in three games last weekend. Elon will travel to East Carolina on Wednesday to play the 16th-ranked Pirates. To date, the Elon offense has been effective, as the Phoenix are hitting .286 as a team with five players hitting above .300. Kyle Jackson has led the attack, batting .500 with six home runs and 14 RBI in nine games. The bullpen has also been a strength, but four of five players who have started games have an ERA above 5.30. Elon finished the 2015 season with a 25-29 record, including a 13-11 mark in the CAA.

SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
Appalachian State is off to a slow start, having won just one of nine games to open the season. Aside from a 12-run outburst in a win over Quinnipiac, the Mountaineers have scored three or less runs in every game. Three plays for ASU are hitting over .300, and the Mountaineers own a .230 team batting average. Tanner Mann-Fix (.452), Jason Curtis (.313) and Colin Schmid (.306) have combined for 10 RBI, 11 extra-base hits and seven runs. The pitching staff has been roughed up to the tune of a 6.39 team ERA. ASU has been giving up 7.44 runs per game, and 9.67 hits per game. The Mountaineers went 16-36 in 2015, while going 8-21 in the Sun Belt.

SCOUTING THE SEAWOLVES
Stony Brook defeated Dayton to open the 2016 season, but lost its next five games, including a three-game sweep by Baylor where they were outscored by a combined mark of 42-11, before picking up a win on March 1 over NYIT. The Seawolves own a .268 batting average, and have two players hitting over .300. Jeremy Giles is hitting .400 with three RBI, while Jack Parenty is batting .321 with eight RBI. The Stony Brook pitching staff has struggled out of the gates, owning a 8.38 team ERA. The Seawolves are led by manager Matt Senk, who, like BGSU skipper Danny Schmitz, is in his 26th season with the program.

SCHMITZ SAYS…
"We are excited to start our annual spring-break trip," said head coach Danny Schmitz. "This is always a fun trip because we bring our entire roster. The Elon Tournament offers great competition, and allows us to play a different opponent each day."

THE SPRING-BREAK TRIP BEGINS
The Falcons begin their annual spring-break trip this weekend in Elon, North Carolina at the Elon Tournament. Bowling Green is always able to bring the entire roster on the trip. After three games in Elon, BGSU will bus down to Emerson, Georgia to compete in the Perfect Game Tournament. The Falcons have participated at the RussMatt Invitational in Winter Haven, Florida over the last seven seasons. In Emerson, the Falcons will play four different opponents – Alabama State, Presbyterian College, Savannah State and Nebraska-Omaha.

"MULTIPLE-HIT GAME" GLANZMAN
Nick Glanzman continued his red-hot start to the 2016 season over the weekend in Seattle. After a pair of multiple-hit games in the Falcons' first two games of the season at East Tennessee, Glanzman recorded two knocks in each of BGSU's first two games at Seattle. The redshirt-junior then registered one more hit the third game of the series, before being robbed of a pair of hits in Sunday's (Feb. 28) ballgame. With the bases loaded, the infielder smoked a ball that was stabbed by the third baseman, prior to launching a ball into center that was caught on a dive. In six starts, Glanzman owns a .409 average, racking up nine hits, three runs and two RBI.

KENDALL CRUSHES COMPETITION IN FIRST START
Redshirt-freshman Zach Kendall made his first-career start on Sunday (Feb. 27) in BGSU's 7-0 loss to Seattle. However, Kendall did not allow a single run over five innings of work. While facing 22 batters, Kendall gave up just two hits. In a game that was delayed twice due to a constant fall of rain, the righty worked around five walks, while also recording four strikeouts. Kendall induced seven ground balls, and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning. Kendall pitched three innings at East Tennessee, and owns a 1.12 ERA on the season.

THE DAUGHERTY BROTHERS
The Daugherty brothers – senior right-handed pitcher Devin, and infielder/outfielder Cam – have gotten off to impressive starts to open the 2016 season. Devin had made three appearances from out of the bullpen, totaling seven innings, and has yet to allow an earned run. He threw four shutout innings on Opening Day at ETSU. Cam, on the other hand, is hitting .273 over all at-bats. He earned his first three starts of his collegiate career over the weekend in Seattle, and will enter Friday's game at Elon on a two-game hitting streak. He registered a three-RBI double in a pinch-hitting role in the Falcons' 7-1 win at East Tennessee on Opening Day.

SZABO HURLS SCORELESS FRAME IN COLLEGIATE DEBUT
After eight freshmen made their debuts at East Tennessee, right-handed pitcher Mat Szabo was the lone freshman to make his debut over the weekend at Seattle. Szabo threw a scoreless sixth inning in Saturday's (Feb. 27) first game of the doubleheader. He did not yield a hit, walked two, and also earned his first-career strikeout.

97TH SEASON FOR FALCON BASEBALL, 26TH SEASON FOR DANNY SCHMITZ
The Orange and Brown have complied a 1,615–1,407–27 record across 96 seasons of baseball. Danny Schmitz has been at the helm of the program for 25 of those seasons, and will be beginning his 26th season as head coach this weekend. Schmitz owns a record of 663–638–5 at BGSU, guiding the Falcons to seven divisional crowns, four MAC regular-season titles, and three MAC Tournament championships. The Falcons' skipper won his 600th game at Bowling Green during the 2014 campaign, and currently sits with 662 victories – more than any active coach in the Mid-American Conference.

SCHMITZ ASSEMBLES STAFF FILLED WITH FALCONS
With the addition of 2014 BGSU graduate Jeremy Shay as volunteer assistant coach in the offseason, head coach Danny Schmitz's staff is now entirely made up of former Falcons. In fact, all three of Schmitz's assistants played for him during their careers at BGSU. All three also won a championship under Schmitz's guidance. Rick Blanc – who enters his 9th year on staff – was a part of the 1998 squad that won a MAC Tournament title, and participated in NCAA Regionals in Coral Gables, Florida. Ryan Shay – who completed his first season on staff in 2015 – won back-to-back MAC regular-season titles as a player in 2008 and 2009. Shay's brother, Jeremy, enters his first year on the coaching staff. Shay was a part of the 2014 team's Cinderella run late in the season that was capped by a MAC Tournament title and a birth in the NCAA Regionals in Louisville, Kentucky.

BGRSO TO PROVIDE FLAGSHIP COVERAGE FOR 2016 SEASON
On Feb. 9, the Bowling Green State University baseball program, along with the Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO), announced that flagship coverage for the 2016 season would be provided on WFAL Falcon Radio. Links to all broadcasts can be found on BGSUFalcons.com. Fans can locate the links by clicking on the baseball team's schedule, and locating the select game.

DRAFTING FALCONS
Trey Keegan and Brian Bien become the eighth and ninth players across the last decade to be selected in the MLB Draft. Keegan was picked in the 14th round by the Atlanta Braves, while Bien was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 31st round. Both began their professional careers in 2015. Bien was promoted from rookie ball to full season Single-A ball, and finished the year with a .315 batting average. Keegan hit .267 with a .343 on-base percentage for the Braves' rookie-level club.

FALCONS PICKED TO FINISH THIRD IN MAC EAST
The Falcons were picked to finish third in the East Division, according to the conference's coaches poll. With 43 points, BGSU was picked above Miami (37) and Buffalo (22), and below Kent State (63) and Ohio (55). Central Michigan was picked to win the West Division. Kent State was picked to win the MAC Tournament, garnering four votes. Bowling Green received one vote to win the tournament, along with Ball State, Miami, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan, while Central Michigan earned two votes.

FOUR CAPTAINS IN 2016
In early October, head coach Danny Schmitz announced that seniors Kory Brown, Devin Daugherty and Matt Smith, along with junior Greg Basalyga, would serve as the program's captains for the 2016 season. Brown served as a captain for the 2015 campaign, as well.

FORECASTING THE FALCONS' 2016 SLATE
Like most seasons, due to the harsh weather of Northwest Ohio, the Falcons will play 17 games away from home leading up to a March 15 contest vs. Central Michigan, which will serve as BGSU's home opener. In total, BGSU will play 56 games in 2016, with 19 of those ballgames taking place on Warren. E Steller Field. With the MAC's loss of Akron, the Orange and Brown will play 24 conference games. Bowling Green will also face a pair of teams that were ranked across most preseason Top 25 polls, when they travel to Michigan on April 6 and Florida State for a three-game set May 6-8.

BASEBALL INKS FIVE DURING EARLY SIGNING PERIOD
The Bowling Green State University baseball program announced the addition of five student-athletes during the early signing period. Alex Brinkman (RHP – Anna, Ohio – Anna), Damon Egnor (RHP – Paulding, Ohio – Paulding), Colton Flaherty (C – Newport, Michigan – Jefferson), Chandler Stillings (LHP – Findlay, Ohio – Findlay) and Jake Wilson (OF – New Lowell, Ontario, Canada – Nottawasaga Pines Secondary) will arrive on campus and join the program in the fall of 2016 as freshmen.

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