The Falcons baseball team defeated the Kent State Golden Flashes 9-3 in a one game match-up on Tuesday afternoon, rebounding from a series loss last weekend against Toledo.
“(Kent State’s) the best in the conference; they’re the ones who were voted to win everything,” Falcon head coach Danny Schmitz said. “They’re an outstanding team, but this was huge because after that tough loss on Sunday we wanted to come out and play well today.”
The game started with a bang as freshman outfielder Jake Wilson hit his first collegiate home run in the first inning; a solo shot that gave the Falcons an early 1-0 advantage.
“I saw the slider that came in and was able to get my best swing on it,” Wilson said. “The ball kept carrying; the wind helped me out quite a bit. There’s nothing much to it, just keep making good contact.”
The team jumped out to a bigger lead in the second inning, beginning with sophomore infielder Riley Minorik hitting a two RBI single, followed by an RBI sacrifice fly by sophomore infielder Cam Daugherty. Junior infielder Randy Righter topped off the scoring with a two run homer to put the Falcons ahead 6-0.
“Hitting is contagious,” Schmitz said. “The guys were really battling; even when we made some outs we made hard outs, but you’ve also got to give our pitching credit. You’ve got Chandler Stillings going against Kent State as a freshman; he gave us four and two-thirds innings, he did a great job… we talked about the three phases, and I thought we had all three phases going today.”
In the fourth, Kent State was able to get one run back on an RBI single, however, the Falcons countered in the bottom of the inning with a two RBI double by senior designated hitter Greg Basalyga to make it an 8-1 game.
The fifth inning saw Kent State grab another run on an RBI double, which the Falcons again responded to in the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Basalyga. Kent State scored on an RBI single in the seventh, but that would be all the scoring from both teams as the Falcons took the 9-3 victory.
“I thought the guys had a great approach today,” Schmitz said. “Up and down the lineup, it was really really good. That’s what we needed against Toledo because that was phenomenal.”
The team will next play on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons on the road against the Ball State Cardinals.
