While some people might not think of baseball as a very high energy sport, yesterday Dayton University (15-14) proved to BG (12-12) why excitement is necessary on the diamond.
The Flyers downed the Falcons 7-2 at Steller Field in what could have been a very winnable game for the home team.
Instead, BG surrendered four total errors, two in the first inning alone, and never found the intensity needed to get back in the game.
‘I have no idea why we came out flat today,’ said a visibly frustrated BG coach Danny Schmitz. ‘We talked on Monday just to reassure the guys that we are always playing the game aggressive and with confidence.’
Clearly that discussion had little effect after the Falcons lost two of three to Central Michigan over the weekend and then went on to surrender an out-of-conference defeat to Dayton.
‘We need to find out who are leaders are going to be. Anybody can lead when things are going well, but right now we’re not getting the leadership we need when things are not going well,’ Schmitz said.
The team that Dayton coach Tony Vittorio is used to seeing when he visits BG certainly was not present yesterday.
‘The energy of his team is something that I usually commend coach Schmitz for,’ Vittorio said. ‘We teach the same thing, there’s no doubt about it. Our styles are a lot alike.’
Maybe so, but Vittorio’s players seemed to actually listen to him when they came out and scored a run in each of the first three innings off of BG starter Brian Hangbers. Brennan Smith came on in relief of Hangbers and threw three relatively quality innings.
Relatively is the key word here because he only gave up two earned runs, but received one measly run from his own offense.
That came on a sacrifice fly by Logan Meisler in the fifth inning.
By that time the score was 6-0 in Dayton’s favor, good enough to earn starter Sean Finn his second win of the season.
‘It was a big challenge for Sean after his problems this past weekend in our own conference game,’ Vittorio said. ‘We threw him back out there and he gave us a great start. The rest of the guys carried us from there.’
Those guys Vittorio was referring to were his bullpen, who held BG to one run in the final four innings.
Chris Gacom was able to score on a Marty Baird single in the eighth inning, but the Falcons’ hopes for victory were dashed by that point.
‘Not good, not good at all,’ Schmitz said. ‘It started right away in the first inning and we didn’t do anything today. Give Dayton credit – they really outplayed us in all three phases; pitching, defense, and timely hitting.’
One bright spot for BG towards the end of the game was the performance of Phil Hettlinger, a sophomore pitcher who towers over seven feet tall when his 6-foot-4-inch frame steps on the mound.
The Hilliard, Ohio native hadn’t seen action since the team’s trip to Western Kentucky a few weeks back, but he came on yesterday with solid command in the final two innings.
‘I thought he was very aggressive and did a nice job. He was our best pitcher today,’ Schmitz said.
Hettlinger did surrender Dayton’s final run in the ninth inning, but by that point the game was out of reach anyway.
‘I was ready to go mentally, even though I hadn’t pitched for a couple weeks,’ Hettlinger said. ‘I just left a couple of balls hanging for them to hit in the last inning, but if I keep the ball down better that won’t happen.’
Whatever his mild personal success, Hettlinger was still as deflated as the rest of the team after the loss.
However, he was able to offer a seemingly simplistic solution to the problems of the past week in which his team has lost five of six games.
‘Our defense needs to cut out all the errors,’ Hettlinger said flatly.
‘It’s about the little things we’re not doing right now. That’s about it.’
The Falcons will hope to execute better tomorrow when they travel to Xavier University for another non-conference game at 3 p.m.
