After playing its first 15 games on the road the BGSU baseball team finally got a chance to play in front of a friendly crowd when they hosted the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies yesterday. They didn’t disappoint, winning 8-5 in a game that was more one-sided than the final score suggests. The win got the Falcons back to .500 at 8-8.
“[Playing at home] felt really good,” said second baseman Eric Lawson. “Being on the road is tougher, at home it’s nice to get in front of the fans.”
The Falcons racked up 14 hits in support of a rotating door of pitchers. Coach Danny Schmitz used eight different pitchers in eight innings. Brian Hangbers and Kurt Wells each earned the first win and save of their Falcon careers, respectively.
But for every good thing they did offensively, the Falcons seemed determined to balance it out on defense.
“Walks are way too high,” Schmitz said. “We walked 10 guys and you can’t do that.”
The Falcons looked like they were in trouble in the first when walks loaded the bases with two outs. Oakland could not capitalize, though, stranding three after a pop foul gave the Falcons the final out.
Oakland gave BG a free base runner of their own in the bottom of the inning when Lawson was hit by a pitch. Unlike the Golden Grizzlies, the Falcons took advantage of the gift when third baseman Tyler Wasserman drove Lawson home to plate the Falcons’ only run of the first.
The Falcons widened their lead in the next inning, scoring three runs on singles from catcher Greg Feldkamp and shortstop Ryan Shay, and a sacrifice fly from Wells, who started the game in the outfield.
Oakland got one back in the third, cutting the lead to 4-1.
Wells added another RBI in the fourth on a fielder’s choice that scored Shay. Jeff Telmanik added two more in the fifth on a shallow fly to center that dropped in for a single.
Just when the game seemed out of reach for the Golden Grizzlies, the Falcons let them back in it. A single and two walks in the top of the sixth again had the Falcons facing bases loaded with two outs. This time a dropped fly by third baseman Marty Baird allowed two runs to score and a single up the middle scored two more before they could finally end the inning on a ground out. The score after the sixth was 7-5.
“I think concentration is the big thing,” Schmitz said. “We played a solid game but had one bad inning.”
First baseman Josh Dietz added one more RBI in the seventh to round out the Falcon scoring.
Wells came in to pitch the ninth despite his zero collegiate saves in an attempt by Schmitz to find a reliable closer for his staff.
“We know that he’s gonna compete for you and throw strikes and that’s what you need out of a closer,” he said.
The Falcons start league play this weekend when they travel to Eastern Michigan University.
