The Falcons’ Mid-American Conference Tournament last week was short lived, as they lost their first two games of the double-elimination tournament and ending the season at a modest 20-31.
Both games had the potential for ninth inning heroics, but two double plays took the wind out of the sails of the momentous Falcons.
With bases loaded and one out recorded, Falcon right fielder Ryan Schlater stepped to the plate representing the tying run in a 6-2 game against MAC powerhouse Kent State. After two pitches, Schlater rolled into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play sending the Falcons to the loser’s bracket to face Northern Illinois.
The Falcons loaded the bases on two walks and a single through the box by first baseman Clay Duncan.
Kent State went on to win its third straight MAC Tournament Championship, a feat never been accomplished in MAC history.
The latter contest concluded in similar fashion.
The Falcons put two runners on base with no outs in the bottom of the ninth. Second baseman Matt Pitzulo singled through the right side and designated hitter Jeremy Shay moved him over in drawing a walk.
Duncan worked the count to 2-2 before grounding into a 4-6-3 double play. Schlater then flew out to right field, resulting in a 4-2 BG loss.
“That was kind of the story of our season, we had a hard time hitting in the clutch,” said manager Danny Schmitz.
But credit goes to the Falcons for not lying down in either game. They were able to put a total of five runners on base in the ninth innings of the two games.
“No matter how much we’re up or down, we never want to stop putting runs up,” Duncan said. “It just shows people that even though we’re down, we’re never going to stop battling until it’s over.”
The Falcons’ offense produced only 12 hits in the two games: Pitzulo and Duncan accounted for half of those, going a combined 6-15 at the plate with two RBIs.
“My whole approach was to stay inside the ball and drive it to the opposite field, and I had a little success with that,” Duncan said. “Other people did too. We just couldn’t rally and get hits back to back.”
Relief pitching was, again, a bright spot for the Falcons during the tournament.
Ross Gerdeman entered for Matt Malewitz in the top of the fifth against Kent State and would close the game for the Falcons. Gerdeman went four innings, giving up six hits and two runs.
“He [Gerdeman] did a fantastic job for us,” Schmitz said.
Mike Frank came in for Charles Wooten in the bottom of the 6th during game two and he, too, would go on to close the game for the Falcons. In four innings Frank gave up no runs, two hits and struck out four.
The Falcons will look back at two innings as the sources for the losses: The first against Kent State when they gave up four runs, and the third of the Northern Illinois game when they surrendered three. Aside from the two innings, the games were equal.
The loss against Northern Illinois ended the college careers of five seniors: Clay Duncan, Ryan Schlater, Frank Berry, Charles Wooten and Dan Parsons.
“It has been an exciting four years for me. Hopefully the younger classes can experience some of the same success and go even further,” Duncan said.
The seniors were a part of back-to-back MAC Championships (2008 and 2009), three straight divisional titles (2008, 2009, 2010) and four straight MAC Tournament appearances.
“That was a very good senior class and they did some special things here,” said Schmitz. “We wish them nothing but the best.”