A week after suffering a 10-1 loss in Bowling Green, the Wright State Raiders elected to cancel Tuesday’s scheduled rematch with the Falcons, citing an overloaded non-conference schedule. It may be an overstatement to claim that BG intimidated WSU into the cancellation, but a young team has to look for the silver lining in any situation.
While they may have earned the respect of schools like Wright State in recent weeks, the Falcons have been scuffling against Mid-American Conference competition, most recently dropping three of four games to division rival Northern Illinois last weekend. Two of those losses were one-run decisions, but moral victories are not worth very much in a highly competitive conference like the MAC.
In order to move up in the MAC West Division standings, BG (12-16, 5-7 in the conference) will need to play good baseball this weekend, as the Thundering Herd of Marshall come to town for a four-game series at Warren Steller Field.
Marshall (14-25-1, 5-11 in the MAC) has been struggling in its own right, having lost three of four games to Kent State last weekend and a non-conference game to Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday.
With the Herd sitting in fifth place in the East Division and BG currently sixth in the West, both teams are in desperate need of conference victories. Thus, it is safe to expect a playoff-like atmosphere throughout the weekend, as both coaches will be pulling out all the stops.
For game one on Friday, BG coach Danny Schmitz will send ace Kyle Knoblauch (2-3, 2.65 ERA) to the hill, while MU will counter with Grant Harper (2-7, 6.44). Other probable match-ups for the series include the Falcons’ lefty Keith Laughlin (4-1, 4.41) against MU’s Scott Henning (1-2, 5.87), BG’s Tyler Saneholtz (3-3, 3.94) versus MU’s Fritz Conrad (1-3, 7.63) and BG’s Tom Oestrike (1-1, 4.05) against Marshall ace Steve Ziroli (3-1, 3.89).
Clearly, the Falcons boast the more consistent pitching staff, but the Herd have plenty of sluggers who can give good pitchers sore necks. Corie O’Bryan (.362, 6 HR), Matt LaFleur (.292, 7), Francois Larimore (.291, 12) and Craig Dziedziejko (7 HR) have driven in a combined 115 runs this season.
Meanwhile, the Falcons have lifted their team batting average to .298 for the season, with freshman Nolan Reimold (.350) finding his swing and veterans Kelly Hunt (.432, 5 HR, 41 RBI) and David Barkholz (.327, 6 HR) still hammering the ball.
BG has won its last six meetings with Marshall dating back to the 2001 season. The Falcons lead the all-time series 43-10. Today’s game at Steller Field has a 3 p.m. start time, while Saturday’s doubleheader and Sunday’s series finale are each set to begin at 1 p.m.
