Stade Stuns Kent State With 11 Strikeouts In Relief As BGSU Bounces Back To Even Series

Saturday, March 7

Kent, Ohio

5 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

3-9, 1-1

Kent State

10-4, 1-1

Bowling Green

Kent St.

Photo by: Georgia Tech Athletics

Stade Stuns Kent State With 11 Strikeouts In Relief As BGSU Bounces Back To Even Series

March 07, 2026 | Baseball

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Bowling Green’s 7-2 Victory Forces Sunday Rubber Match

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

KENT, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University baseball team rebounded from Friday's outcome to capture a Saturday victory (March 7) with a 7-2 final over the Kent State Golden Flashes. Nate Kress earned the starting nod on the mound and produced five strong innings for the Falcons with five strikeouts before handing the ball over to Ethan Stade. Stade took over from there, allowing just one hit in the final four innings while striking out 11 of the 12 outs recorded during his time on the rubber. As for the offense, the BGSU bats tallied seven runs for the second time this year for the 7-2 final. The win forces a rubber match between Bowling Green and Kent State on Sunday (March 8), currently set for a 1 p.m. first pitch.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Similar to Friday's game, both teams nearly started with one-two-three frames in the first. The first hit of the day came via a two-out single in the first by Kent State. In the bottom of the second, the Golden Flashes recorded the first run of the game.
Bowling Green's first hit of the day came in the top of the third with a leadoff single from Griffin Scheiderer. Scheiderer took second on a wild pitch before scoring on a Zack Horky single into center, tying it 1-1.
On the throw home for Scheiderer's run, Horky took second and then stole third during the next at-bat. Later in the inning, Sam Seidel put a ball in play to first with Horky beating the throw home and Seidel making his way safely to first for a 2-1 lead.
Vinny Salvione stepped in and kept it going for the Falcons with a triple off the right center wall, bringing home Seidel from first. Anthony Mitta capped off the rally with a sacrifice fly to the left field warning track that scored Salvione for a 4-1 advantage.
Kent State tallied one in the bottom of the third to narrow the score to 4-2 through three innings.
In the sixth inning, Mitta began with a single followed by another single, this time from Brady Birchmeier, to put runners at the corners after just two pitches in the sixth. TJ Takats kept the single parade going, looping one into left to score Mitta for a 5-2 score.
The Falcons worked to load the bases in the inning after an Andrew DiLodovico fielder's choice and a hit-by-pitch for Scheiderer. Horky delivered a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Takats to push the lead to 6-2.
In the eighth, Takats singled to start the inning before moving up to second on a sacrifice bunt from DiLodovico. A passed ball pushed Takats to third before another passed ball brought him home for a 7-2 score.

STAT LEADERS

Nate Kress: W (2-0), 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R/ER, 5 K
Ethan Stade: SV (1), 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R/ER, 11 K
TJ Takats: 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI
Vinny Salvione: 1-for-5, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 R
Anthony Mitta: 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 R
Zack Horky: 1-for-3, 2 RBI, 1 R, 1 SB
Griffin Scheiderer: 1-for-3, 1 R

FALCON STAT FACTS

As a team, the BGSU pitching staff combined for 16 strikeouts, the most by the Falcons since recording 18 against Belmont on March 2, 2019.
Coming on in four innings of relief, Ethan Stade struck out 11 Golden Flashes, the most strikeouts by a Falcon since DJ Newman had 11 against Memphis on Feb. 23, 2024. The four-inning outing logged Stade his first BGSU save, allowing only one hit over the four frames.
Making his first start of the season and second of his BGSU career, Nate Kress put together a strong start, going five innings in an outing for the third time this season. Kress struck out a career-high five batters in the start and picked up the win, recording the win in two of BGSU's three victories so far this season.
Pauly Mancino drew a pair of walks to push his team-leading on-base streak to 11 games, but his team-leading hitting streak came to a close at six games.
Brady Birchmeier tallied a hit for the Falcons in the sixth inning, extending his hitting streak to six games, now the longest on the team.
Vinny Salvione's triple marked his first of the season and extended his hitting streak to five games. Salvione also has a five-game RBI streak while scoring in four of the five games as well.
Anthony Mitta tallied a sixth inning base knock to continue his on-base streak, now reaching nine games, second on the team.
TJ Takats was the lone Falcon with multiple base hits in the game, his second two-hit game of the year. Takats also scored twice, his first multi-run game of the year.
Zack Horky plated two Falcons for his second multi-RBI game of the season.

UP NEXT
The Falcons and Golden Flashes will conclude the weekend series with a rubber match on Sunday (March 8) at 1 p.m. Any schedule changes will be announced on BGSUFalcons.com as well as Twitter/X (@BGSU_Baseball).

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