Falcons Open Up Weekend Series With 5-4 Win Over Ohio

Friday, April 15

Bowling Green, Ohio

3:05 PM EST

Bowling Green State University

Ohio

April 15, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: HTML | PDF

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University baseball team opened up a crucial three-game weekend series against Ohio University with a 5-4 victory at Steller Field on Friday (April 15) afternoon. The Falcons jumped out to a 5-1 lead, and held off a furious Ohio rally in the late innings to secure the victory. The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Falcons.

With the victory, Bowling Green improves to 12-22, and 3-7 in Mid-American Conference play. The Orange and Brown also improved to 3-1 at home in conference play. Ohio falls to 15-18 (4-6 MAC) with the loss.

"This was a great college baseball game," said head coach Danny Schmitz. "We jumped out to a nice lead with some clutch hitting, and we remained mentally tough when Ohio put a lot of pressure on us late in the game. We made some physical mistakes, but that's going to happen. The key was that we battled through our mistakes. This is a huge weekend for us, and I'm glad that we got the first game. I'm proud of our guys for their effort today."

With Bowling Green leading 5-1, Ohio struck for three runs in the top of the eighth inning. Devin Daugherty, who shutout Ohio in the sixth and seventh, was charged with all three runs. But Kody Brown entered, and kept Bowling Green's lead intact. Although Brown allowed an RBI single that cut BGSU's lead to a single run at 5-4, he induced a fly out with the tying run at third base to end the inning.

Tony Landi went on to induce three consecutive fly outs in the ninth to secure the victory, earning his sixth save of the season in the process. Landi's perfect ninth was the only frame all game that Ohio didn't put at least one runner on base.

Bowling Green starter C.J. Schildt gutted out five innings, and picked up the first Mid-American Conference win of his career. The southpaw worked around five walks and three hits, allowing just one run, which was unearned. Schildt struck out three batters and induced a pair of massive inning-ending double plays.

In the first, with runners on first and third, Schildt started a 1-6-3 double play to get out of the jam unscathed. In the third, when Ohio got on the board to trim Bowling Green's advantage to 3-1, Schildt rolled another double play to leave the bases loaded. On the play, third baseman Derek Drewes stepped on third before firing over to first to complete the twin killing.

Early on in the ballgame, the Falcons executed Danny Schmitz's small ball game plan perfectly. Riley Minorik – who continued his hot hitting with a 2-for-3 day – led off the first inning with a single. Drewes moved him over to second on a sacrifice bunt. Matt Smith then notched an infield single, prior to Greg Basalyga driving in the first run of the ballgame with a sacrifice fly.

In the second inning, Bowling Green played small ball again en route to a two-run frame. R.J. Williams and Kory Brown started the inning with back-to-back singles, putting runners on the corners. A balk then scored Williams, and moved Brown into scoring position. After Logan Giddings -- who also turned in a 2-for-3 game – moved Brown to third on a sacrifice bunt, Nick Glanzman squeezed him home with another sacrifice bunt, putting the Falcons on top by a score of 3-1.

The very next inning – after Ohio scored in the top of the third – Bowling Green took a 4-1 lead by capitalizing on a pair of Ohio mistakes. With two outs and nobody on, Smith reached base on a fielding error by shortstop Tyler Finkler. After a wild pitch moved Smith into scoring position, Basalyga knocked in his second run of the game with a single into right field.

Smith concluded Bowling Green's scoring on the day with a two-out RBI single in the fifth. Drewes kept the inning alive with a two-out single, and after he stole second, Smith shot a base hit into right field. He gave a huge fist pump back to the BGSU dugout, as Bowling Green inched its lead up to four runs.

Bowling Green's one-through-five batters (Minorik, Drewes, Smith, Basalyga and Williams) went a combined 8-for-15 with three runs and three RBI. Minorik, Drewes, Smith, Brown and Giddings registered two hits apiece.

The Falcons will resume the series with the Bobcats tomorrow after at Steller Field. The ballgame is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. The series will then conclude on Sunday with another 1:05 p.m. start time.