Bowling Green Falls To Central Michigan In 13-Inning Marathon

Friday, April 21

Bowling Green, Ohio

3:05 PM

Bowling Green State University

9-24, 0

Central Michigan

20-17, 0

Central Michigan

Bowling Green

April 21, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: PDF | HTML
Photo Gallery: Ruben Kappler (BGSU Marketing & Communications)

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University baseball team erased a 4-1 deficit, and battled back to take a lead, before dropping a 8-7 contest to Central Michigan University in 13 innings. The marathon of a ballgame lasted four hours and 16 minutes.

The Falcons tied the score at 7-7 in the seventh inning, but the Chippewas got an RBI single in the 13th to deal BGSU its second heartbreaking defeat of the week. On Wednesday (April 19), Youngstown State stole a 6-5 victory from Bowling Green with a two-run, walk-off home run.

"I am so proud of our guys," said head coach Danny Schmitz. "We battled our butts off today, and I couldn't be more proud of the team. I don't know what to say to them. We feel completely snake bit right now. Central Michigan deserves the credit, and they were able to execute, and we just couldn't scratch across another run. It was a great college baseball game, but this is just a really, really tough one to take.

"Our guys have just been fighting like heck, and we lose on a walk-off home run on Wednesday, and then we take the top team in the conference to 13 innings. It's tough. We want it really bad, and we are so close. But I told them after the game that we still have a chance to take this series. It's going to be tough to bounce back after a game like that, but each MAC game becomes the most important game of our season as we move towards the end of the year. We don't have any time to sulk, and we'll need to pick ourselves off the ground, and find a way to win a ballgame tomorrow."

Bowling Green trailed by scores of 3-0, 4-1, 6-5, and 7-6, but battled back each time. In five of the first seven innings of the game, the Falcons went to bat with Central Michigan ahead. Jake Wilson put Bowling Green on the board in the third, after CMU plated two in the second and one in the third to take a 3-0 lead. His RBI single scored Jeff Scott.

In the fourth, after the Chippewas took a 4-1 lead, Bowling Green hit two home runs en route to a four-run inning, which saw the Falcons take a 5-4 lead. Derek Drewes started the rally with a walk, and then Bowling Green's next batter, Randy Righter, clubbed a two-run shot. The opposite-field home run to right field was Righter's third of the year.

Cam Daugherty went on to coax a two-out walk, and after working a full count, Scott smashed a home run to left-center to give the Orange and Brown a 5-4 lead. Scott's two-run blast marked his fourth home run of 2017. The Chippewas scored a single run in the fifth and sixth to take a 6-5 lead, but Greg Basalyga tied the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth. He led off the frame with a single up the middle, and later scored on a passed ball.

Both teams continued to trade blows, as CMU grabbed a 7-6 lead in the seventh, but in the bottom of the frame, Righter beat out a double play to knot the score at 7-7. Righter earned his third RBI of the game on the play.

Central Michigan plated the winning run in the 13th. CMU started the inning with a single, moved its runner to second with a sacrifice bunt, and then scored on base hit up the box. Bowling Green went 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning.

Kody Brown was completely dominant in relief for the Falcons. In a career outing, Brown logged a career-high 4.2 innings, while not giving up a run, and allowing just two hits. He struck out a career-high four batters, which doubled his previous career high, and he did not allow a single walk.

Brad Croy also pitched well in relief, allowing one run on two hits over 2.1 inning of work. Tyler Anderson got the start for BGSU, and battled through 5.0 innings, surrendering four earned runs in the process.

The Falcons fall to 9-24 with the loss. Bowling Green is 4-9 in Mid-American Conference play. MAC-leading Central Michigan improves to 20-17 (9-1 MAC) with the victory.

Bowling Green and Central Michigan will resume the series with a 1:05 p.m. start from Steller Field tomorrow. Tomorrow's game will air live on BCSN, and will also be streamed on ESPN3. The series will conclude with another 1:05 first pitch on Sunday (April 23).