Despite getting eight strikeouts from Liz Vrabel, the Falcon bats couldn’t manage to get many balls into the outfield yesterday as they dropped the second game of a double-header to the Miami RedHawks by a score of 1-0.
The win gave Miami a sweep of the two-game set after a 4-0 win in game one.
Courtney Salmon got the win for the RedHawks pitching six innings and only allowing five hits while recording a strikeout. She got the Bowling Green batters to ground out and pop-out to her infielders for most of the game.
Once again, the Falcons struggled at the plate, getting a lot of first-pitch outs on grounders and pop-ups.
Vrabel kept the game tied, pitching a complete-game for BG and allowing only two hits. At one point she had retired 17 straight from the middle of the first until the start of the seventh, but Miami still struck in the final inning.
With one out, Kristen Hays hit into a fielder’s choice with two on that allowed Jackie Poggendorf to score the winning run from third as the RedHawks only got a single hit in the inning.
A final inning which saw the Falcons get some bad breaks as after Poggendorf’s lead off hit to right, a questionable call at first on sacrifice bunt by Halle Popson allowed the RedHawks to have two on with no outs.
“We got a couple unlucky calls there in the seventh, but that happens and you can control what you can control,” said Vrabel of the inning.
Despite the fielder’s choice by Hays, Vrabel would recover after giving up a walk and take control again as she got Jessica Moore to line-out to short and end the threat stranding two RedHawks on base.
The effort left the door open for her teammates who tried to make a comeback in the bottom half of the inning.
Gina Rango and Allison Vallas recorded back-to-back singles to start the comeback before Kristen Anderson reached on a bunt that loaded the bases.
The run would end there though as Poggendorf, who like Salmon, had pitched a five-hit shutout in the first game came in for relief work following the three hits. She continued to dominate in relief retiring the side to record her first save on the season.
With the win RedHawks improved to 20-15 with a Mid-American Conference record of 8-2. BG dropped to 13-20 on the year (3-4 MAC) as Vrabel fell to 8-9 on the season despite allowing the one earned run.
“We are all staying positive right now,” she said. “The only way you can get out of a slump is to keep hitting and we can’t be frustrated with ourselves right now.”
A slump is something Vrabel hasn’t been in as she has now struck out 120 batters this season. This includes 36 in her last four appearances as her ERA is 2.49 on the season.
Her teammate Heimrich took the loss in the first game pitching four innings and allowing seven hits. She gave up four runs before Emily Gouge came in striking out four and retiring the side in the final three innings.
Head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw was unavailable for comment following the games.
The Falcons will return to action Saturday at Ball State before returning home Sunday to play IPFW.
