The Falcons baseball team lost two out of three games in their first conference series of the season against Eastern Michigan Eagles, falling 7-6 on Friday night and again 3-0 on Saturday afternoon, before winning 6-2 on Saturday night.
The series also marked the first time that the Falcons had won a game in their opening Mid-American Conference series since 2012.
“I’m sure the players heard about it,” Falcons head coach Danny Schmitz said. “To drop the first two games of the series and then come back and win the third game and break the spell there, because that’s not a streak you want to be very proud of, that was huge.”
Friday’s game began positively for the Falcons, with sophomore outfielder Blake Jenkins coming home on a wild pitch in the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead. However, Eastern Michigan responded by drawing a bases loaded walk in the second to even the game back up. In the third, junior infielder Randy Righter hit a solo home run, but Eastern Michigan tied it back up again in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double. In the fifth, senior infielder Greg Basalyga gave the Falcons a 3-2 lead with an RBI single. The Falcons offense then came up big in the seventh with a two RBI single from sophomore infielder Ty Suntken and an RBI single by freshman outfielder Jake Wilson. However, Eastern Michigan scored four runs in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single, fielding error and an RBI double to make it a tie game at six apiece. Neither team scored until the bottom of the ninth, when Eastern Michigan pulled ahead with an RBI single to take the walk-off 7-6 victory.
“That’s a really difficult loss to take, but at the end of the day, we gave them too many outs and made too many mistakes,” Schmitz said. “Our offense was great tonight, and we didn’t give away any at-bats. Our pitching fought all game. We will find out the character and fight of this team throughout the rest of the weekend, because this is a tough one.”
With the scheduled Saturday and Sunday games moved to a doubleheader because of weather expected on Sunday, the first game of the doubleheader began with both teams going scoreless until Eastern Michigan scored on an RBI groundout in the fourth inning for a 1-0 advantage. Eastern Michigan then added to their lead in the sixth on an RBI sacrifice fly, then did the same in the eighth. The Falcons were unable to score any runs, as Eastern Michigan took the 3-0 victory to clinch the series victory.
“(Our approach) was completely the opposite of what we did on Friday,” Schmitz said. “On Friday I thought we had a great approach, we really did a nice job of staying on the baseball and everything, but for whatever reason we didn’t do the same thing and we really struggled. Again, we pitched well enough and played defense well enough, but our offense was nonexistent.”
The second game started strong for the Falcons with an RBI single by junior infielder Derek Drewes in the third inning, then took a 2-0 lead in the fifth on an RBI single from junior catcher Justin Mott. In the sixth, the Falcons got the inning started with a bases loaded walk from Suntken, followed by Wilson scoring two more runs on a fielding error. Sophomore infielder Riley Minorik completed the inning with an RBI groundout for a 6-0 lead after six. Eastern Michigan was able to scratch across two runs in the seventh on a two RBI single, but that would be all as the Falcons claimed their first MAC victory of the season 6-2.
“I think our approach was better the second game than it was the first game,” Schmitz said. “We ended up executing some bunts, advancing baserunners and we were able to scratch some runs across, which is huge because (pitcher) Zac Carey was outstanding as the starter in game two just as Tyler Anderson was outstanding in game one.”
Schmitz also coached against his son, Spencer, who is an assistant coach with Eastern Michigan.
“It’s always strange,” Schmitz said. “You feel kind of bad because you want him to do well and obviously he wants us (to) do well as a former Falcon himself. It’s always kind of bittersweet, but we did have a nice chat after the doubleheader today and I’m very proud of the job he’s doing there at Eastern Michigan.”
The team will next play at home on Tuesday afternoon against the Youngstown State Penguins.
