Two big innings catapulted the BG baseball team to its fifth win in its last six contests.
The Falcons plated seven in the second and four in the sixth to defeat Toledo 15-11 yesterday in a non-conference match-up at Scott Park.
With the winds exceeding 25 miles per hour, the Falcon bats hit five home runs, including two in each of the second and sixth innings. BG (17-13) has now hit 22 home runs in its last six games.
Leading the long-ball barrage was Derek Spencer, who hit his first of two homers on the day in the Falcons big second inning that saw 13 batters in the box and seven runs on six hits.
After being down 1-0 going into the second, Spencer got the offense started for BG when he hit a home run to start the inning. Brian Hangbers followed by hitting his seventh homer of the year two batters later.
The Rockets (9-21) followed with four in the bottom of the second and three in the fifth to take an 8-7 lead, but the Falcons followed with another big inning.
Ryan Shay homered (3) to start the inning, and after a walk to Marty Baird and Spencer, pinch hitter Dennis Vaughn hit his third home run of the year to push the Falcons’ lead to 11-8.
UT tied it back up in the seventh, but BG scored two in the eighth and two more in the ninth from Spencer’s second homer of the day and fifth in his last five games.
“It looks like Derek Spencer is getting very comfortable in that four-hole spot,” said BG coach Danny Schmitz about Spencer’s recent home-run spurt. “He’s really been swinging the bat well.”
While the Falcons’ offense was impressive, the Rockets’ pitching wasn’t, but that was to be expected.
With the second-worst pitching staff in the Mid-American Conference, the Rockets threw five pitchers at the Falcons with none of them going more than 2.1 innings.
Starter Kyle Rawlings went 1.2 innings, giving up seven runs (five earned) on six hits.
Nick Cantrell (5-3) picked up the win for the Falcons after giving up only two runs (one earned) in 3 2/3 innings of relief.
Knowing UT had a sub-par pitching staff, BG still wanted to keep the offense simple and do what it’s been doing.
“We told the hitters to use the same approach we’ve been using,” Schmitz said. “That’s just being disciplined and getting a pitch that we can handle.”
“You never want to take any at-bats for granted. You want to make each at-bat you have a quality at-bat. That’s still our goal and we’re going to keep working on it.”
The Falcons did exactly what they were told.
The team had 16 hits.
Spencer led the way, going 4-for-4 with four RBIs and two home runs. Vaughn and Hangbers each went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and one RBI, respectively.
Jared Hoying went 2-for-4 with four RBIs, including a pair of home runs for the Rockets.
The Falcons, first in the MAC East division, will look to continue their offensive prowess this weekend as they face Kent State in a three-game tilt. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.