Bowling Green Hits The Road For Crucial Weekend Series At Ohio

SCOUTING THE OHIO BOBCATS
Ohio has lost three of its last four games, but the Bobcats are 3-3 across their last two conference weekends. On Tuesday (May 2), Ohio hit seven home runs, but lost a 15-14 slugfest at Morehead State. Senior outfielder Spencer Ibarra leads an offense that is hitting .276 as a team. Ibarra leads the club in batting average (.331), slugging percentage (.589), on-base percentage (.405), hits (58), runs (34), home runs (11), and total bases (103). Senior infielder Connor Callery (.320), sophomore infielder/catcher Rudy Rott (.304), and redshirt-junior infielder/right-handed pitcher Michael Klein (.301) are all hitting over .300, while Rott leads OU with 35 RBI. The OU pitching staff owns a 4.69 ERA, while teams are averaging 5.48 runs and 9.44 hits per contest against the Bobcats. Opponents are hitting .275 versus the Bobcats. Klein leads the team's starting rotation with a 3.50 ERA. Junior southpaw Butch Baird has recorded a team-high 50 strikeouts, and redshirt-junior lefty Gerry Salisbury has logged a Bobcat-high 60.2 innings.

SCHMITZ SAYS
"It goes without saying that this is an incredibly important weekend for us. Our backs are against the wall, and we'll need to play great baseball down the stretch here if we want to get into the tournament. I think our guys showed a lot of character in our Sunday game against Miami. That one felt like a do-or-die game, and we played a pretty complete ballgame. Ohio is a tough opponent, and we know it's not going to be easy to take a series on the road. Our guys will be done with final exams, and we should come out loose and completely dialed in this weekend. We can completely focus on baseball for the rest of the season, and I hope we take advantage of that."

A DECADE OF DOMINANCE OVER OHIO
Ohio leads the all-time series with Bowling Green, 89-74-1. However, the Falcons have dominated the series over the last decade. Bowling Green has won the three-game conference series with the Bobcats in each of the last five seasons, racking up a regular-season record of 10-5 versus Ohio across that time. The Bobcats last won the three-game series over Bowling Green during the 2011 season. Bowling Green swept Ohio in each of the three previous seasons leading up to Ohio's series win in 2011. Since the start of the 2007 season, Bowling Green has lost just one series to the Bobcats.

TIED FOR 10TH WITH TWO WEEKENDS TO GO
The Falcons have just six MAC games remaining, and will be the lone team across the final weekend of conference play with a bye. The Falcons (6-12; .333) are currently tied with Miami (5-10; .333) for 10th place. The top eight teams make the conference tournament. Two additional schools, however, Ohio and Buffalo, are both even on wins with BGSU at 6-9 (.400). Toledo (7-8; .467) has just one more win than the Falcons, and a very difficult schedule to end the regular season, while Western Michigan, which Bowling Green will play next weekend, is 8-10 (.444). The Falcons own the tiebreaker with Northern Illinois, but the Huskies are 8-7 (.533).

BGSU BASEBALL #MACTION ROOTING GUIDE
With BGSU's tournament fate not completely in its own hands, the Falcons could use some help over the final three weekends of the MAC schedule. Below is a breakdown of results that would be beneficial to Bowling Green this weekend. For this exercise, we'll ignore a few matchups that won't impact BG's tournament hopes as much.

Buffalo (6-9) at Miami (5-10): This is the only series of the weekend where there's no clear cut decision for Falcon fans. It's probably best if there is no weekend sweep. If Miami were to win the series, 2-1, that would put both Miami and Buffalo at 7-11. If the Falcons were to win their series at Ohio, Bowling Green would have a minimum of eight wins, which would be more than both Miami and Buffalo.

Toledo (7-8) at Ball State (9-9): Both teams own the head-to-head tiebreaker over BGSU, but with Ball State having two more wins than Toledo, and BGSU having just one less win than the Rockets, a Ball State sweep would be most ideal for the Falcons. With any sort of BGSU series win, coupled with any sort of Ball State series win, and the Falcons would at least have the same amount of MAC wins as Toledo.

Northern Illinois (8-7) at Central Michigan (11-4): The Falcons own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Huskies. If CMU sweeps the Huskies, and Bowling Green takes at least two from Ohio, BGSU and NIU would each have eight conference wins.

SCHMITZ MOVES INTO SECOND ON MAC'S ALL-TIME WINS LIST
With Bowling Green's 3-1 win over Miami on April 30, head coach Danny Schmitz picked up his 670th win at BGSU, moving him into second all-time by himself in wins as a MAC head coach. Joe Carbone earned 689 wins as Ohio's head coach from 1989-2012, while Fred Decker (WMU; 1976-2004) is the all-time leader in wins as a MAC head coach with 791. Schmitz's 359 MAC wins ranks third all-time, behind Carbone's 368 wins and Decker's 401 MAC victories.

STUDY UP!
For the first time since the beginning of conference play, Bowling Green did not play a midweek game this week. Final exams took place at BGSU this week, and the Falcons, under head coach Danny Schmitz, never play a midweek game during exam week. The program also adjusts its practice schedule, ensuring that there are no conflicts, and that everyone on the team can take their exams at their scheduled times.

ANTLE'S AMAZING WEEK
Sophomore right-hander Chase Antle picked up the win in BG's 3-1 decision over Miami on April 30. Antle was extremely dominant over 5.0 innings. He allowed four hits and one run, and struck out a career-high eight batters. His previous career high for strikeouts in a game was five. The righty recorded two strikeouts in the first, third and fourth. Over his last four outings, which includes two starts and a total of 10.0 innings, Antle has recorded 15 strikeouts, while allowing just three walks, seven hits and one run. He started off last week with 3.0 innings of shutout ball at Kent State on April 25. He fanned four, did not issue a walk, and surrendered just two hits.

LANDI CHASING HISTORY
Senior closer Tony Landi earned the 15th save of his career at Northern Illinois on April 1. Landi, who was pitching about 45 minutes away from his hometown of Geneva, Illinois, had approximately 30 friends and family in attendance. With the save, the senior tied legendary righty Nick Bruns (2010-13) for second all-time on the program's career saves list. Landi now needs just three more saves to break the school record. Neil Schmitz racked up 17-career saves over his playing career from 2001-04. Last season, Landi tied the single-season record with eight saves, while making a total of 29 appearances. His 29 outings rank second-most all-time for a single season.

ROOKIE SENSATIONS
Freshmen Jake Wilson and Nathan Lohmeier are having standout rookie campaigns. Wilson, who has started 38 games in center field, is tied for the team lead with 22 RBI. He also leads the club with six steals, and is batting .268 with 12 runs scored. The left-handed hitting rookie is tied for the club lead in multiple-RBI games with four. Lohmeier, a southpaw relief pitcher with 15 appearances, owns a team-low 3.04 ERA. In 26.2 innings, he's registered 30 strikeouts to just 11 walks, while allowing nine earned runs. Lohmeier is 1-0 on the season, and opponents are hitting .258 off him on the season.

BGSU'S OFFENSIVE BIG THREE
This season, the Falcons have been led offensively by a trio of upperclassmen. Junior Justin Mott (.310), senior Greg Basalyga (.290) and junior Randy Righter (.289) are having breakout seasons for Bowling Green at the plate. Mott has 18 hits over his last 14 games, and in BG's most-recent game versus Miami (April 30), he recorded a career-high three hits. Righter, who leads the team in hits (43), runs (21) and total bases (62), has at least one hit in 18 of BGSU's last 19 games. Basalyga leads the team in home runs (5), slugging percentage (.492), and is tied for the team lead with 22 RBI. Righter and Basalyga are tied for the team lead in doubles with 10.

DINGERS
Last season, Bowling Green hit 13 home runs. With 11 regular-season games to go, the Falcons have already smacked 17 home runs as a team. Senior Greg Basalyga leads the Orange and Brown with five, while redshirt-sophomore Jeff Scott is one behind with four. Junior Randy Righter has three bombs, and sophomore Cam Daugherty has two. Freshman Jake Wilson, and sophomores Blake Jenkins and R.J. Williams each have one.

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