After giving up a two-run homerun in the top of the seventh inning, the Bowling Green baseball team appeared to be on their way to their second loss of the day–until Nolan Reimold stepped up to the plate.
Reimold belted a solo walk-off homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Falcons (26-12) a 5-4 win over IPFW (20-20) in the doubleheader nightcap at Steller field yesterday. It was the 14th homerun of the season for Reimold, who leads the Mid-American Conference in homeruns.
“I was looking for a first pitch changeup,” Reimold said. “I got it, stayed on it and drove it over the fence.”
Reimold’s game-winning homerun came shortly after BG relief pitcher Matt Hundley gave up a two-run homerun to IPFW’s Dustin Fremion that trickled over the left-field fence. Falcons head coach Danny Schmitz said it was nice to be able hold off the Mastodons comeback after they failed to do so in their 15-14 loss against them on April 19.
“Last time we couldn’t hold a seven run lead late in the game,” Schmitz said. “It was nice to be able to come back and win this one.”
The Falcons were tied at two heading into the bottom of the fifth inning but got a pair of key hits from seniors Josh Stewart and Andy Hudak who helped ignite the Falcons offense. Stewart led off the inning with a triple and Andy Hudak drove him in with an RBI single.
“Andy was having a rough day so it was nice to see him come up with a big base hit and get us started and (Stewart’s) triple to right center was huge too,” Schmitz said. “We were struggling to score runs so any runs were big.”
The Falcons got a solid outing from starting pitcher Kyle Knoblauch who gave up two runs on six hits in five innings of work.
Earlier in the day, the Falcons offense was shut down by IPFW’ David Zachary who pitched a complete game allowing just one hit as the Falcons lost 2-1. Stewart got the only hit of the game for the Falcons in the bottom of the fifth, a single to right field. BG scored their only run on a throwing error by Zachary, which allowed Reimold to score all the way from first base.
Schmitz said Zachary was wild with his pitches at times but made big pitches when they mattered the most.
“At one point it looked like (Zachary) couldn’t find the strike zone and all of a sudden made some quality pitches,” Schmitz said. “He had a 9.25 earned run average coming in so he did a good job; I give him a lot of credit.”
Schmitz won his 400th career game in the Falcons’ 6-1 victory over the Mastodons on Friday. He became the first coach in any sport at Bowling Green to reach that plateau.
“I just tip my hat off to the great players we’ve had come through the program as well as the assistant coaches,” he said. “They’ve done a great job and I give them all the credit.”
The Falcons will get a break for finals week before they travel to Oxford in a three-game series with Miami (OH). The series begins Friday at 3 p.m.
