Today the Bowling Green baseball team faces one of their toughest opponents of the season.
The problem is they haven’#39;t beaten them in 19 years.
The challenge will be in South Bend, Ind. as the Falcons (20-8) take on Notre Dame (16-14). Just over a month ago, the Fighting Irish were ranked as high as No. 19 in the country. While they have fallen out of the rankings they are still a tough team to beat and are currently riding a two game winning streak, both wins coming against a talented Boston College squad.
‘#34;Notre Dame is always one of the top teams in the country so it’#39;s always a great challenge going over there to South Bend,’#34; Falcons head coach Danny Schmitz said. ‘#34;It’#39;s something we look forward to.’#34;
BG has a record of 22-37-1 against the Irish but lost 11 straight in the series. The last time BG beat Notre Dame was with a 4-3 win April 23, 1986.
But many of the games played between these two teams have been close over the past few years. Since 2000, the Falcons have faced the Irish four times and lost three of those games by a combined five runs.
‘#34;We’#39;ve had some very good battles in the past number of years–some very exciting and close games,’#34; Schmitz said. ‘#34;Unfortunately it always seems like we’#39;ve fallen a little bit short.’#34;
Lefty Adam Gumph (3-1) will get the start for the Falcons. He suffered his first loss of the season last Wednesday in the Falcons 13-8 loss at Wright State, giving up six runs in 1.1 innings of work. If the Falcons are to beat the Fighting Irish they must have a stronger outing from Gumph today.
On Sunday, BG got one of their best pitching performances of the season from Burke Badenhop, who pitched a complete game shutout in BG’#39;s 1-0 victory over Buffalo.
Yesterday, Badenhop was named the Mid-American Conference West Division Pitcher of the Week. It was Badenhop’#39;s first complete game shutout of his career and the win gave him a 6-1 record on the season, which already ties his career-high.
But with very little offensive production on Sunday, the Falcons barely came away with the victory.
‘#34;I think this past week the pitching kind of saved the team,’#34; Schmitz said. ‘#34;I didn’#39;t think we really swung the bats as well as we’#39;re capable of.’#34;
It might take more than a single run today for the Falcons to stand a chance against the Fighting Irish, who are led by slugging third baseman Matt Edwards. Edwards leads the team in batting average (.373), slugging percentage (.737), runs batted in (44), hits (44), runs scored (33), home runs (11) and doubles (10).
BG head coach Danny Schmitz said the entire team needs to step it up a notch at the plate, especially at this point in the season.
‘#34;We really need to start swinging the bats and get people hot up and down the lineup,’#34; Schmitz said. ‘#34;We need guys like Eric Lawson and Jeff Warnock to start getting on base so we can make things happen. They’#39;ve got to set the table so [Nolan] Reimold, [Andy] Hudak and [Josh] Stewart have the opportunity to drive them in.’#34;
Schmitz said with so many close games played between the two over the years, it would be nice to see his team finally get a victory over Notre Dame.
‘#34;Hopefully, we can steal one this time,’#34; he said.
The Falcons play in South Bend, Ind. against Notre Dame today at 5:05 p.m. at Frank Eck Stadium.
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