Falcons Drop Midweek Contest To Youngstown State

Tuesday, March 28

Bowling Green, Ohio

3:05 PM

Bowling Green State University

5-16

Youngstown State

5-16

Youngstown State

Bowling Green

March 28, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: PDF | HTML

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University baseball team dropped a non-conference ballgame to Youngstown State University on Tuesday (March 28) afternoon by a score of 3-1. The contest, which was Bowling Green's first midweek home game of the 2017 season, was played at Steller Field.

The Falcons drop to 5-16 on the season with the loss, while Youngstown State, with the win, owns an identical 5-16 mark.

"It really has been the same story for us as of late. Our pitching and defense has been consistent, and both of those phases have been strong points for us for most of the season, but our offense is way too up-and-down," said head coach Danny Schmitz. "Your offense can overshadow a lot of things. You may not get a great pitching performance, or you may make a key error, but when you are scoring runs, those things never get talked about.

"But when you aren't scoring runs, each little mistake gets magnified, and that's where we are at right now. You just can't win games with the way we are swinging the bats right now. We have to go right back to work and get ready for a huge series this weekend against Northern Illinois."

The Falcons received a solid start from freshman southpaw Chandler Stillings. Stillings hurled four-straight scoreless innings to begin his outing, before allowing a sacrifice fly in the fifth, which allowed Youngstown State to break a scoreless tie.

In total, Stillings lasted 4.2 innings, allowing the one run on four hits while striking out one batter, and walking one batter. Fellow freshman Damon Egnor took over in the fifth, and left two batters on base by registering a strikeout.

Egnor allowed a sacrifice fly in the seventh, as he lasted 2.0 innings. His one run came on just one hit. He also struck out one batter, while issuing a single free pass. Nathan Lohmeier yielded an RBI double in the eighth, but struck out three batters over 2.1 innings. The freshman surrendered just one walk.

Bowling Green had its best offensive opportunity in the bottom of the eighth. After Derek Drewes and Randy Righter drew consecutive walks to start the inning, Greg Basalyga was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Joe McGuinness then pinch hit, and put BGSU on the board with a sacrifice fly.

Youngstown State recorded the second out of the inning, but then with two outs, Jake Wilson walked to load the bases for a second time. However, the Penguins escaped the jam by inducing a Riley Minorik pop fly in foul territory.

In the ninth, Cam Daugherty got on base with a one-out walk, and advanced to second on a wild pitch, but the next two Falcon batters were retired to end the ballgame. Bowling Green was out-hit in the game by a 6-4 margin. Both teams committed one error apiece.

Bowling Green will resume Mid-American Conference action this weekend against Northern Illinois. The three-game series will take place in DeKalb, Illinois at NIU's Ralph McKinzie Field. The first game of series on Friday (March 31) is set for a 4:05 p.m. ET start. The series will conclude with games on April 1 (2:05 p.m.) and April 2 (1:05 p.m.).